Chonji literally means the sky and the earth or the world. Chon means ‘sky’ or ‘heaven’ and ji means ‘earth’.
The hangeul for Chonji is 천지.
Chonji represents the entirety of all there is – the sky and the earth – the universe. It also represents the beginning of the world or the beginning of human society, which is why it is the first form in Changheon-yu Taekwondo – it represents the beginning of one’s training.
천 chon is often translated as ‘heaven’. However the concept of ‘heaven’ in Korea and China is not the same how the concept is widely understood in western society, which is dominated by ideas from Christianity. When thinking about chon in Taekwondo, try to think about it in a more abstract sense, as in ‘the celestial sphere’ or ‘the cosmos’.
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