A Letter on the "-Do" Suffix in Korean Martial Arts

I recently received a letter from a reader of Totally Tae Kwon Do who wrote to me about my article “Martial Technique, Martial Art and Martial Way” – Issue #24, based on an earlier post from this blog called, Moosool, Mooye and Moodo. I asked the author permission to republish his letter with my reply in an upcoming issue of Totally Tae Kwon Do, so I am sure he won't mind me posting it here as well.

Dear Mr Lewis

I read with interest your article on Musul, Muye and Mudo.

One thing I thought that may have been of benefit to the reader was to inform them that the term “Do” used in conjunction with “Mu” in naming martial arts in Korea is a modern construct which only applies to those martial arts formed after the Japanese occupation. It is a simple way of determining if the martial art is a modern construct or not (although many are now using the more historically correct “Sul” and “Ye” terms in an attempt to recreate a link with the past). If we look at the pre-occupation arts of Subak, Sibpalki, Taekkyun and Ssireum (the latter two being more folk arts), there is no implementation of “Do” in the naming. It only appears later on with arts such as Kong Soo Do, Tang Soo Do, Tae Soo Do, Tae Kwon Do, Hapkido, Hwarang Do, Gumdo, Haedong Gumdo, etc., which were all formed after the occupation.

Thank you for writing the article. It is nice to read some more philosophical articles.

Kind regards,

Damian Adams



Dear Damian,

Thank you for your letter. I am glad that you liked the essay; it is always nice to get some feed back.

Your observation regarding the “-Do” suffix as a modern phenomenon and label to identify the recency of the Korean martial art is indeed correct and I agree with you. I did not mention it because I thought it may deter from my main argument, which is that there is progression in the martial art journey starting with the learning of techniques (“moosool”), to an assimilation of those techniques to a level where one can apply them creatively (“mooye”), to a level where your martial art journey becomes part of your life; your Way (“moodo”).

To return to your point, I find it interesting how General Choi described Taekwon-Do as the “Korean art of self-defence.” The actual Korean is hoshin-mooye / 호신무예; literally, self-defence martial art. While he proposed the name Taekwon-Do, which is in line with your observation that Korean martial arts that developed after the Japanese tend to have the “-Do” suffix, he defined Taekwon-Do as “mooye,” which is in line, as you pointed out, with the historic custom of using “-Sul” or “-Ye” as the suffix.

Best wishes,

Sanko