Song Duk-ki (Hangul: 송덕기, Hanja: 宋德基) (19th January 1893 – 23rd July 1987) was a taekkyeon master who was critically responsible for preserving the art, and thus designated by the South Korean government as a national treasure. He started playing taekkyon around 1904. His teacher was Im Ho. On 26th March 1958 Song Duk-ki together with Kim Seong-hwan gave a taekkyeon demonstration for president Rhee Syng-man. This was for his birthday, when a national police martial art competition was carried out.
Song Duk-ki was very agile until old age. He continued teaching taekkyeon till over 90 years old. He also did guk gung (Korean archery) as well as soccer.
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Famous quotes containing the word song:
“Do you hear the wind? It’s not dying,
It’s singing, weaving a song about the president saluting the trust,
The past in each of us....”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)