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I keep coming across references to the turtle when looking at Tae Kwon Do and Korean histories.

The was the Turtle ships... the ITF plaque is supposed to resemble a turtle's shell...

Apparently its somethng to do with the Buddhist belief in the four celestial beings: Green Dragon, White Tiger, Red Phoenix and Black Turtle

Can anyone explain the importance of the turtle or point me somewhere that can 'cause I'm interested now.... or are these just coincidences.

thanks,

"Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it." ~ Confucius

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I've seen the turtle used a lot in daoist references as well. Its been a while since I've studied that philosophy in depth but I think it has something to do with the thought that a daoist "goes with the flow" like water flowing off a turtles back. Since many martial arts carry this same philosophy I can see why it would come up frequently.

Tang Soo!

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I keep coming across references to the turtle when looking at Tae Kwon Do and Korean histories.

The was the Turtle ships... the ITF plaque is supposed to resemble a turtle's shell...

Apparently its somethng to do with the Buddhist belief in the four celestial beings: Green Dragon, White Tiger, Red Phoenix and Black Turtle

Can anyone explain the importance of the turtle or point me somewhere that can 'cause I'm interested now.... or are these just coincidences.

thanks,

nope, i practice tang soo do which as im sure you know is a korean art.

we(as in korean artists) believe in symbolistic representation where the main belt levels mean something, and the belt levels have symbols attatched to them. now that didnt make all that much sense but this will.

There are four main rank categories there is white, green, red, and black, now its not just those ranks themselves but those in between, so for white it applies to white belts, yellow belts and orange belts and all stripes in between until you get to the next category which is green. and they all have an animal, meaning, season, and element...and they are as follows....

RANK ANIMAL SEASON ELEMENT MEANING

White Tiger Winter Metal New, Potential

 

Green Dragon Spring Wood Starting to grow

 

Red Bird Summer Fire Hot, Energetic, Agile

 

Black Turtle Autumn Water Maturity, Wisdom

now the cool thing about this all this also represents a flowering plant as you can see as it progresses. now all these clearly lead up to black belt where the turtle is and the turtle represents wisdomd. it is old and slow, but knows a great deal.

hope this helped.

in tang soo,

k.chuilli

K.Chuilli

2nd Dan, Instructor

Kyo Sah Nim

Moo Duk Kwan Tang Soo Do

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I keep coming across references to the turtle when looking at Tae Kwon Do and Korean histories.

The was the Turtle ships... the ITF plaque is supposed to resemble a turtle's shell...

Apparently its somethng to do with the Buddhist belief in the four celestial beings: Green Dragon, White Tiger, Red Phoenix and Black Turtle

Can anyone explain the importance of the turtle or point me somewhere that can 'cause I'm interested now.... or are these just coincidences.

thanks,

nope, i practice tang soo do which as im sure you know is a korean art.

we(as in korean artists) believe in symbolistic representation where the main belt levels mean something, and the belt levels have symbols attatched to them. now that didnt make all that much sense but this will.

There are four main rank categories there is white, green, red, and black, now its not just those ranks themselves but those in between, so for white it applies to white belts, yellow belts and orange belts and all stripes in between until you get to the next category which is green. and they all have an animal, meaning, season, and element...and they are as follows....

RANK ANIMAL SEASON ELEMENT MEANING

White Tiger Winter Metal New, Potential

 

Green Dragon Spring Wood Starting to grow

 

Red Bird Summer Fire Hot, Energetic, Agile

 

Black Turtle Autumn Water Maturity, Wisdom

now the cool thing about this all this also represents a flowering plant as you can see as it progresses. now all these clearly lead up to black belt where the turtle is and the turtle represents wisdomd. it is old and slow, but knows a great deal.

hope this helped.

in tang soo,

k.chuilli

Wow thanks. That explains it in context for me.

"Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it." ~ Confucius

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I have seen some information on it before as well. I will see what I can dig up, too.

I would appreciate that, thanks :)

"Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it." ~ Confucius

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I have seen some information on it before as well. I will see what I can dig up, too.

I would appreciate that, thanks :)

Well, I only found a few brief references to it. I will have to look a little bit deeper, if I want to find anything.

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I have seen some information on it before as well. I will see what I can dig up, too.

I would appreciate that, thanks :)

Well, I only found a few brief references to it. I will have to look a little bit deeper, if I want to find anything.

Anything you find would be good but don't go to too much trouble over it. I'm only interested because I don't really know anyting about the turtle and was just wondering...

"Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it." ~ Confucius

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