Dan-Gun

Dan-Gun is the Eight Gup, or yellow belt, form of the International Tae Kwon Do Federation branch of Tae Kwon Do. Shaped like a capital-I, the form has 21 movements, and is the second form students learn. The form features basic low-section, twin-forearm, and two-hand cutting, and rising blocks; high-section punches; finger-spears; and knife-hand strikes.

Dan-Gun is named after the mythic figure who founded Korea in 2333 BCE. According to legend, the god Hwanin sent his son Hwang-Ung to found a new country. Hwang-Ung settled in T'aeBaeksan, the highest point on the North Korean peninsula. A bear and a tiger approached Hwang-Ung and appealed to him to make them human. After informing them it would be an arduous task, Hwang-Ung had the animals stay in a cave with only twenty cloves of garlic and some artemisia.

After only twenty days, the tiger became hungry and impatient and left the cave. When the hundred days came nearly to an end, the bear began to lose its fur and its claws. When the hundred days was done, the bear finished its transformation into a human woman, and was named Ung-Yo.

Hwang-Ung married Ung-Yo, and their son was named Dan-Gun. Dan-Gun founded the first Korean Dynasty, and to this day is still worshipped as the originator of Korea.