GUP MANUAL - Belton Martial Arts Academy Home

The Tang Soo Do Mi Guk Kwan Emblem
Traditional and Cultural Background
The Dojang Flags:
On the wall of our Dojang’s (studio) you will see three flags. The flag on the left is the
American Flag. On the right is the flag of South Korea, which represents the
heritage of our martial art, and in the center flies the Mi Guk Kwan flag, Kwan Gi,
which symbolizes the goals and ideals central to our training.
The Mi Guk Kwan Flag (Kwan Gi)
and Patch
The Mi Guk Kwan Flag (Kwan Gi) represents the
organization or style of the martial art, Tang Soo Do. It
has Both physical and philosophical significance in
our training.
The Outside Circle
Symbolizes the cycles of nature.
The cycle nature of all life is borne out in numerous
examples. The cycles of birth to death, of the seasons,
planting to harvest, growth, stagnation and decline, order to
chaos, are but a few examples of this. It also represents the
earth itself and reminds us of our obligation to respect and
protect the planet and environment in which we live.
Um / Yung
Denotes the duality of nature and the law of opposites. Any item in nature exists in
some sort of balance with its opposite. You cannot have
love without hate. One cannot understand peace without
the incidence of war. In fact one gives birth to its opposite
and vice versa. The curved line indicates that in nature
there are no absolutes. The lines that separate a concept or
quality are not sharply delineated, they instead are
represented more correctly as a gradual change, sort of
blending, a change by degree.
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