Pattern Histories and Definitions

The Reason for 24 Patterns:

The life of a human being, perhaps 100 years, can be considered as a day when compared with eternity. Therefore, we mortals are no more than simple travelers who pass by the eternal years of an eon in a day. It is evident that no one can live more than a limited amount of time. Nevertheless, most people foolishly enslave themselves to materialism as if they could live for thousands of years. And some people strive to bequeath a good spiritual legacy for coming generations, in this way, gaining immortality. Obviously, the spirit is perpetual while material is not; therefore, what we can do to leave behind something for the welfare of mankind is, perhaps, the most important thing in our lives. Here I leave Taekwon-do for mankind as a trace of man of the late 20th century. The 24 patterns represent 24 hours, one day, or all my life. The name of the pattern, the number of movements, and the diagrammatic symbol of each pattern symbolizes either heroic figures in Korean history or instances relating to historical events.

Note: Until we complete the conversion of Maum Sin Yong's pattern descriptions we have borrowed these from the ITF web site. Normally we would simply link to their site however due to the present instability of the ITF we decided to copy the documents to MSY-TKD site to make sure they are available.
The pattern descriptions are copyrighted material from www.itf-taekwondo.com.

*Around 1985 Ko-Dang was replaced by Juche in the ITF. Maum Sin Yong recognizes both as required forms for a 2nd Dan preparing for 3rd Dan.