History of Korean flag

[Joo.K]

History of Korean flag

Today, let's talk about the Korean flag. There are lots of beautiful flags in the world. However, i love the Korean flag very much. It's not just because i'm Korean. there is history in the Korean flag.

King Gojong appointed Bak Yeoung-hyo as his ambassador to Japan in September 1882. While aboard ship heading for Japan, Bak drew a national flag with a taegeuk circle but included only four trigrams instead of eight, and started using the flag on the 25th of that month.

he did not have formal instructions published at that time on how to make the flag. In fact, it wasn't till June 29, 1942, that the provisional Korean government in exile enacted a law on the uniform method of making the national flag. The law was promulgated but as the government was in exile, it was not widely known to Koreans at home still under Japanese colonial rule.

yin-yang circle, divided equally into a blue portion below and a red portion above, represents the dual cosmic forces of yin (blue) and yang (red). It symbolizes universal harmony, in which the passive and the active, the feminine and the masculine, form the whole. The four trig rams of Geon, Gon, Gam, and Li, which surround the yin-yang circle, denote the process of yin and yang going through a series of changes and growth.

Geon, with three solid bars in the upper left-hand corner, denotes "heaven". Gon, with three evenly divided bars in the lower right-hand corner, denotes "earth". Gam, with one evenly divided bar on each side of one solid bar in the upper right-hand corner, denotes "water". And Li, with one solid bar on each side of one evenly divided bar in the lower left-hand corner, denotes "fire."

Collectively, the yin-yang circle and the four trig rams represent universal harmony and unity. Taegeukgi embodies the ideals of all Koreans, who have pursued creativity and prosperity under universal principles and truth.

I hope it was a meaningful time to read about Korean flag for all of you! :shy:

[botmaker]

Although I'm Korean, I never knew this!  :amazed:

Thank you so much for this useful information 

[AExAVF]

That's an interesting history about your flag.  To tell you the truth, I am a taekwondo practitioner, and I am very much interested in learning more about your cultural heritage and how it relates to the practice of TKD.  The term taegeuk refers to the yin-yang symbolism in your flag, and to TKD practitioners (I practice WTF taekwondo), it means a set of forms.

[Pinoy90]

Thank you for the history lesson on the Korean flag. I learned the history of the Philippines flag and the color of red and blue matters on which is on top since one can mean peace and the other way means war.

[OddVisions]

I'm glad I stopped to read this. I love how the Korean flag represents what it's people uphold rather than how many wars or states it has. It also seems to be one of the newer flags in existance too. I did not know that it wasn't made until the late 1800's.