Editorial policy

Taekwondo history involves competing accounts, and several organizations have their own preferred versions. This policy explains how the site tries to stay fair and checkable.

Sources #

Each page lists its sources, and statements are tied to them with numbered citations.
Primary sources, such as an organization's official records, and independent scholarly sources are preferred. Encyclopedic summaries are used as starting points and are labelled as such.
A school's or organization's description of itself is attributed to that school or organization.

Review status #

Provisional: based mainly on encyclopedic and organizational sources and not yet through a full primary-source review. This is the starting status for every page.
Reviewed: the key facts have been confirmed against at least two independent reliable sources, with a primary source where one exists, and the review date is shown.

Disputed facts #

Where sources disagree on a date, spelling or attribution, the page presents each account, names its source and avoids choosing a winner without evidence. The site does not name a single "founder" of modern Taekwondo, because the sources do not agree on one.

Terms #

A kwan founder is the person who opened a kwan, the type of school from which Taekwondo developed. No one person is called the founder of Taekwondo.
The original five kwans are the Chung Do Kwan, Song Moo Kwan, Moo Duk Kwan, Ji Do Kwan and Chang Moo Kwan, which opened in the mid-1940s. Four later kwans, the Han Moo Kwan, Kang Duk Won, Jung Do Kwan and Oh Do Kwan, opened between 1953 and 1956, making nine in all.
A school founder is the person who opened a Taekwondo school or organization later, such as a school in today's directory. They are listed apart from kwan founders.

Neutrality and conflicts of interest #

Pages use neutral language and avoid promotional wording, including in school listings.
Editors with a personal connection to a school, lineage or organization follow the same sourcing rules for it as for any other.
Paid features, if they are added later, will never change a page's content or a school's ranking, and will be labelled.

Directory listings #

School entries are added by the editors from public, citable information. Reviews and member profiles are planned for later and will have their own moderation policy before they open.

Corrections #

If a fact is wrong, it will be corrected and the page's review date updated. A public way to send corrections is planned and will be added to this page.