조선말 외국인의 기록을 통해본 택견

Abstract

This study has reviewed records of Taekkyeon maintained by foreigners in the late Joseon period and has made the following conclusion. As you can see from the book Gyobon Yeokdae Sijo Jeonseo written in 1648 (the 26th reign of King Injo), a Korean-French Dictionary, and Games of the Orient, Taekkyeon was a child's play. But in a Korean-English Dictionary edited by James S. Gale, Taekkyeon wasn’t described as a playgame. In the Joseon period, games, labor, and martial arts played and done by children and adults overlapped each other; labor and martial arts done by adults were often considered as games to children. For ordinary people, quarrels often ended up with no more than grappling, like holding each other’s topknots, and even a serious brawl ended when someone got a nosebleed and a bloodstain is left on white clothes. But to professional martial artists, martial arts were bloody fights for stakes. Records about such fights were maintained by the foreigners who visited Joseon or had interest in Joseon, an unknown world full of curiosity, and passed down to us. This author regards the fights mentioned above as Taekkyeon because most of the foreigners who kept the records stayed in Seoul and the martial arts played by children were basically the same as the martial arts performed by adults. Martial arts performed by professionals were joint events between villages on Jeongwol Daeboreum, the day of the first full moon of the lunar year, or so and often were skirmishes before Seokjeon, a mock fight with stone missiles. A friendly Taekkyeon match between villages didn’t allow lethal attacks using hands or knees. But unlike today’s Gyeollyeon Taekkyeon which restricts using hands or knees in a match, such lethal attacks weren’t prohibited in a skirmish match before Seokjeon and therefore the match would surely be bloody.