By GI Korea on May 29th, 2009 at 4:13 pm

Korea Finder 16-09

» by GI Korea in: Korea Finder

So who can best explain what the symbolism of the South Korean flag means?:

korea_flag

Here are this year’s Korea Finder Leadersboard:

Mark – 6
Leon Laporte – 4
RoK N Roll – 2
Brewcrew17 – 1
Obiwan – 1
Rommel – 1

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Sonagi
4:37 pm on May 29th, 2009 1
The white background symbolizes the purity of the Korean people. The red and blue yinyang in the center represents the oneness and balance of the positive and negative. The colors red and blue come from the traditional tricolored taegeuk. The trigrams around the center are from the Chinese book I Ching. Beginning from the top left and moving counterclockwise, the bars, based on the five Chinese elements of water, fire, earth, metal, and wood, symbolize justice, wisdom, vitality, and fertility, respectively.

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GI Korea
May 30th, 2009 at 6:30 am
Sonagi was the first to answer it correctly:

http://rokdrop.com/2009/05/30/explaining-the-symbolism-of-the-south-korean-flag/

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Pete
4:40 pm on May 29th, 2009 2
Flag adopted 25 January 1950
The Korean flag is called Taegukki. The origin comes from Um-Yang, in Chinese pronunciation Yin-Yang. Yin = dark and cold, while Yang = bright and hot. The moon is yin and the sun is yang; the earth is yin and the heaven is yang; a woman is yin and a man is yang; the night is yin and the day is yang; the winter is yin and the summer is yang. Yin and yang are opposite and struggle each other while they cooperate in harmony. The harmonious state of the movement of yin and yang is called Taeguki. The upper half circle, red, of Taeguk means yang and the lower half circle, blue, means yin. They stand for the state of harmony of yin and yang.
The symbols, called Kwae, in the four corners, mean the principle of movement and harmony.
The white color of background stands for the peace and the purity. The trigrams are heaven (upper-left) and at the other corner earth (lower right), water (upper-right) and at the other corner fire (lower left). Three unbroken bars (heaven) vs. three broken bars (earth).

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Retired GI
5:38 pm on May 29th, 2009 3
I would have to agree with Pete. As this is what I learned in 1988, during my FIRST assignment to 8th Army. My korean girlfriend of that time also made sure I remembered this. She was very proud

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Sonagi
May 29th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
Maybe your ex-girlfriend wrote this webpage from which Pete appears to have ~~plagiarized~~ borrowed some text. At least he was alert enough to Americanize the spelling of “colour.”

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Retired GI
May 30th, 2009 at 9:04 am
Damn girl—just get yourself all worked up, why don’t ya:)

I never heard “metal” referred to concerning the flag. Or “wood” for that matter.

But it is obviously not as important to me as it is to you. 1988 was many ex-girlfriends ago. So you win — YA-HOOO

Now I will go back to my next ex-girlfriend for more entertaining endeavors

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Sonagi
May 30th, 2009 at 9:18 am
Grown men pouting is an ugly spectacle.

Retired GI
May 30th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
I don’t recall stating I am “grown”. I’m just old.
If you want an ugly spectacle, you should see that
ex from 1988!

Sonagi
May 29th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
http://www.nationaltangsoodo.org/korean%20flag.htm

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Pete
May 30th, 2009 at 5:55 am
Did I do wrong? Is going to Google Earth to look up a landmark not OK?

GI – please let SONAGI win. I get the feeling winning is important to her/him.

With that said – back in 1988 school kids knew about their flag and what it stood for. I am willing to bet ten dollars that less than 10% of Koreans under the age of 40 could tell you about their flag. Just ask the next 10 students you meet and hold my winning until we meet.

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Sonagi
May 30th, 2009 at 6:13 am
Using the internet to find information is not wrong. Copy large chunks of text without quotation marks or a citation is plagiarism. What’s hilarious about your cut and paste job is that the original writer was not a native speaker of English, and you repeated some errors like “struggle each other” and “the harmonious state of the yin and yang is called taeguki.” No, the red and blue yinyang in the center is called “taeguk.” Add “ki,” the Chinese character for flag, and you get “taegukki,” Korea’s version of our Stars and Stripes.
Benicio74
8:15 pm on May 29th, 2009 4
Someone wrote that it looks like a “vibrating tennis ball”.
Ha!

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Leon LaPorte
9:06 pm on May 29th, 2009 5
I was trying to determine which parts represented graft, corruption, bribery and of course the famous Korean “me first spirit”. Boy howdy. Was I on the wrong track!

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ChickenHead
10:34 am on May 30th, 2009 6
The white represents the crystal purity of soju.

The circle represents the wholeness of t he Korea penensula with the “red” Koreans to the north.

The symbol in the top left represents the number of people present if you ask a pretty girl out on a date (counting her friend that will come along).

The symbol in the bottom left represents Korea’s Four Distinct Seasons.

The symbol on the top right represents the number of hours it takes to drive across Seoul.

The symbol on the bottom right represents the number of legs found on the critters floating in soju tent soup.

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Leon LaPorte
May 30th, 2009 at 11:05 pm
Ah, you must appreciate the special circumstances!

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