Taekkyon France

The chollik (철릭 / cheollik / ch’ŏllik)

A chollik from the Joseon dynasty

The chollik is an outer garment that was worn from the end of the Koryo dynasty (고려 / Goryeo / Koryŏ) (918-1392) by the king and the court and afterwards by the officials, the military and the common people. It is recognizable by its white straightened collar and pleated panel. Depending on what use the chollik was made for, it was built with various materials, came in various colors, could have removable sleeves and had a pleat panel that could fall down up to the thighs.

The Taekkyon chollik was designed on the model of the ancient cholliks in 2001 by specialist of traditional clothes Professeur SO Hwang-ok and her research team from the Chung-Ang University in Seoul. The panel of this chollik were limited in length to make the legs easier to move while practicing Taekkyon. It is worn with traditional beveled belt, baggy white pants (바지 / baji / paji), white socks (버선 / beoseon / pŏsŏn) and if necessary hemp-cord sandals (미투리 / mituri / mit’uri). This outfit is called the Taekkyonbok (bok / 복 means garment, clothes in Korean).

A traditional representation of the ranks

The royal guard in Seoul.

Photo with Grand Master Lee Yong-Bok

Instead of a belt color system inspired from the Japanese system, Taekkyon uses the traditional system of garment color to distinguish the rank or function as it was used by the military during the Chosun (조선 / joseon / chosŏn) dynasty. Thus, for all ranks before the 1st dan, the trainee wears the same garment: a white chollik in thick resistant cotton held by a black belt: white has been the characteristic clothing color of the Korean people for a long time. Then, for the 1st and 2nd dan included, the chollik is black with white sleeves and the belt bright orange. Afterwards come the cholliks worn by the masters and teachers of Taekkyon. The dark green indicates 3rd and 4th dan, the navy blue the 5th and 6th, the dark fuchsia the 7th and 8th dan and the black the 9th dan. All masters wear a golden belt except the 9th dan for whom it is silvery. These cholliks are made in a lighter material and embroidered with traditional patterns. The right sleeves is removed in reference to the Korean warriors who could remove (on certain cholliks) a sleeve when shooting with a bow.

In competition

The competition cholliks

The samtaeguk

The Taekkyon players wear a reversible chollik red on one side, blue on the other while the referee is in yellow. These colors can be found in the Korean traditional symbol samtaeguk (三太極 / 삼태극 / samtaegeuk / samt’aegŭk) which represents at the same time the yin and the yang (eum and yang in Korean) with the Yang energy in red relating to the sky (陽 / 양 / yang) and the Eum energy in blue relating to the earth (陰 / 음 / eum / ŭm) but also the yellow representing the human in whom these two energies circulate and balance each other. Thus, the human is the witness of this game of exchange and balance between the sky and the earth. This relation is also refered to as « chonjiin » (天地人 / 천지인 / cheonjiin / ch’ŏnjiin) which sinographs mean sky, earth and human.