Different styles of Taekwondo adopt different philosophical underpinnings. Many of these underpinnings however refer back to the Five Commandments of the Hwarang as a historical referent. For example, the Five Tenets of Taekwondo may be expressed as:
These tenets are further articulated in a Taekwondo oath:
Chung Do Kwan philosophy is that Taekwondo is a method of self-defense, self-improvement and a way of life.
According to Hae Man Park, Vice-President of Chung Do Kwan (retired), today Chung Do Kwan is a social friendship club that endorses 100% the curriculum of the Kukkiwon system. Park states that ”Kukkiwon Taekwondo is Chung Do Kwan Taekwondo and has been developed from the old systems of Chung Do Kwan and the other eight kwans.”
World Taekwondo (WT) also refers to the commandments of the Hwarang in the articulation of its Taekwondo philosophy. It centres on the development of a peaceful society as one of the overarching goals for the practice of Taekwondo. WT’s stated philosophy is that this goal can be furthered by adoption of the Hwarang spirit, by behaving rationally (“education in accordance with the reason of heaven”) and by recognition of the philosophies embodied in the taegeuk (the yin and the yang, i.e. “the unity of opposites”) and the sam taegeuk (understanding change in the world as the interactions of the heavens, the Earth and man). The philosophical position articulated by the Kukkiwon is likewise based on the Hwarang tradition.
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