Div.5 Chapter 36

Making a Small Movement Large through Do

“What are Kang and Yu?”

“These are two aspects of Taekwondo technique. Grasping Kang and Yu one can understand every technique.”

For such an attack you should be able to have a mind and body of even strength, which will bring you a reconciled power. Once you move, you should be able to move all parts together in the most proper manner. After all, when all movements are concentrated in a motion this produces a correct motion in Taekwondo. An attack striking an opponent appears as both periphery and essence of this movement of everything. It is powerful and fierce.

To take one example, when you strike an opponent with your fist it should not be merely your fist that moves. Your foot should kick the ground propelling your body forward, your body should lend support to your shoulder, which in turn should power the arm, and the arm should drive the fist with an explosion of force into his body. The same applies to kicking. Your supporting foot should push the ground away as you lift the kicking foot and your body should move forward while the supporting foot should maintain the balance as you fall suddenly falling forward with your waist. The waist should then swing the lab and the lab swing the calf to pierce his center with the tip of the foot.

Every movement of this entire process moves together with all the others so that even if the motion is performed within limited space its force can be as powerful as if you had come rushing from a distance. So in accord is the motion with the change of everything that though you are light you can produce the power of a heavy mountain. Since its movement includes spinning and returning its power can be as sharp and hard as a sword’s edge though its movement is slow and seemingly soft.

No matter the motion, it arises from a change in HeoSil, which relies in turn on differences of Yin and Yang, Kang and Yu. You can reconcile the differences of Yin and Yang with those of Kang and Yu in a harmonized motion replacing them with the small change of HeoSil, and thus become capable of movements like those described above. This is to replace the large changes of HeoSil in a movement of long distance with large variations of strain and relaxation in the bones and muscles, so that you can make up for the smallness and lightness of your body with the bigness and heaviness of the earth on which you stand, and fill slowness and softness with the speed of a straight line and the hardness of spinning. The best way of mastering this motion is to calmly control one’s breath with an orderly mind. This is termed making a small movement large through Do. How can such an attack be detected and defended against by an opponent?