Learning to count is one of the first things one learns when learning a language, whether it is their first or tenth. It was no different when I began training Tang Soo Do; while I am fluent in Japanese, the Korean language is quite different enough that it took a few classes to get used to it. Being new to martial arts, I took the naming conventions for forms and ranks for granted. When it comes to forms such as Pyung Ahn (or Heian in Japanese karate) Cho Dan or Naihanchi Cho Dan, or just the rank of “Cho Dan”, I didn’t think too much about why it was “Cho” instead of “Il” or “Hana”. It wasn’t until I looked back and saw them in a different light that the light bulb in my head lit up.
“Cho”, or “Sho” in Japanese or “Chū” in Mandarin, is represented by the character 初. It means “first” or “beginning” and is made of the characters 衤 and 刀. 衤 is the radical variant of 衣, which means “cloth” or “robes”, and 刀 means “sword” or “to cut” (it is the character for “katana”). While this may seem like and odd pairing of characters, the “cloth” being referenced in ancient context had ceremonious or religious significance, and the “cutting” refers to the act of cutting the cloth to create the ceremonial garb. Thus, 初 meant the beginning or start of an important process of creating a sacred piece of cloth for a religious or ceremonial rite.
Back to the martial arts discussion, we only see the word “Cho” used to signify the beginning of a new stage, whether it is the start of a set of forms or the start of the black belt ranks. “Dan”, of which I go over the meaning in this article more in-depth, means “level”, so “Cho Dan” designates the “first level” for each section. The visualization is that the practitioner is but on their first step on a stairway that continues up with much more to learn the higher they go.
Another layer one can parse is that the practitioner is the “cloth”, while the instructor is the one performing the “cutting” to remove any excess material that weighs the student or is not needed for their training. Up through the color ranks the quality of their “cloth” is being improved through every belt test, until they are finally ready for their first “cut” of their black belt test. This is an ever-continuing process that is repeated with every dan test, with more pieces being removed and each cut becoming every more precise.
Metaphors aside, I hope the main thing you take away is that whenever you see the word “Cho”, it is a glimpse into the fact that there is much more to follow and that it is by no means the final stage or the end. It is a reminder to reflect on what you’ve accomplished thus far and to prepare to go back to square one to learn something new.
Ogawa, Nishida, Akatzuka et al. Shinjigen (新字源) 1967, 2018
Shiragawa, Shizuka Jitou (字統) 2017
