history of kuk sool won:
1:3 The Three Kingdoms Period: 57 BCE - 668 CE

A significant time for the kingdom of SILLA came during the reign of CHIN HUNG (540-576), 24th king of SILLA, as it marked the beginning of the eventual domination by SILLA of PAEKCHE and KOGURYO, which was to last almost three centuries. After King CHIN HUNG had ascended the throne, he became strongly influenced by Buddhism and had many temples and monuments built throughout SILLA. He was also fond of physical elegance and beauty and established an organisation called WON HWA** (‘original flower’), which consisted of the most beautiful and articulate of SILLA maidens, who were selected in beauty contests from all over the kingdom. Those who were successful were taught worthwhile virtues, so they could become suitable wives of high court officials and noblemen and eventually good and wise mothers. However, tragedy struck when in one such beauty contest there were two leading contenders: one was called NAM MO, the other CHUN JONG. Of the two beautiful maidens, many particularly admired NAM MO, causing CHUN JONG to become jealous, whereupon she devised a plot and murdered her rival. When the king eventually discovered what had taken place, he was furious and had CHUN JONG put to death and ordered the WON HWA to be abolished.

After a period of time, King CHIN HUNG replaced the WON HWA with the order of the HWA RANG (‘Flower of Youth’). Initially, this group of young men, consisting of royal sons, noblemen and other young men of good physical stature, character and background, were tutored in the fine arts such as literature, music and art, as well as political and social skills. However, it was later considered that, although the HWA RANG were more than adequately prepared to meet the challenges of life on a social level, on the physical level, their skills were not sufficient to survive personal attack, or to assist the nation in times of war. Therefore, it was further considered that to make them more balanced human beings they need to be