In the 6th century, when King Chinhung and the chief ministers of Korea's Shilla kingdom were faced with the problem of recruiting the best qualified candidates for upper level civil service positions, they came up with the idea of establishing a kind of quasi-military training school, or corps, and inviting the sons of nobles to compete for entry into the elite group. The corps was given the name Hwarang To (whah-rahng toh) or, poetically, "Circle of the Knights of the Flower." The first member of the corps is said to have been a warrior named Sorwon.

The concept of the Hwarang (also referred to as the "flower princes") grew out of a Buddhist cult that featured god-like beings of superior virtue and talents. Young men selected to become members of this elite order of knights were destined to be warriors as well as civil administrators. According to King Chinhung, the young men were to be schooled in filial piety, brotherly love, loyalty, sincerity, and the other qualities most desirable in future ministers, governors and military leaders. The young knights were to be bound by a code called Hwarang Do, figuratively the "Way of the Warrior,"* which incorporated the famous Five Injunctions proclaimed in the early 600s by a noted Buddhism monk, Wongwang.

These injunctions were:

1) To serve the king with absolute loyalty.

2) To serve one's parents with filial piety.

3) To never retreat in battle.

4) To be faithful in friendships.

5) To refrain from wanton killing.

Records show that the training of the Hwarang candidates focused on the the "Five Constant Ways" (goodness, righteousness, decorum, wisdom and fidelity), and the "six arts" (etiquette, music, archery, horsemanship, calligraphy, and mathematics).

Hwarang warriors practiced Taegwon Do (tay-gwahn doh) or the "Way of the Sword," and the use of other weapons. They were also trained in singing, dancing and other entertainment skills, and were required to stage performances before the court.

Finally, the young knights were steeped in the Taoist ethics of simplicity, harmony, patience and contentment.

All of the training of Hwarang knights was designed to integrate their minds and bodies to the point that they could combine psychic and physical power to achieve perfection in their actions. In this concept, the ultimate goal was to be able to match their actions with their words. "Flower warriors" were also charged with the responsibility of keeping the spirit world on the side of the kingdom by performing ceremonial singing and dancing, praying, and participating in pilgrimages to sacred mountain and river sites.

New members for this elite corps of warrior-scholars were recruited only from the sons of the ruling class, further buttressing the hold that this class had on the government and on the affairs of the country in general.

In 576 King Chinhung decided that the ranks of the Hwarang should be opened to female candidates, and some 300 of the most beautiful and talented girls in the upper class were inducted into the corps and given the name Wonhwa (wohn-whah) or "female leaders." However, so much intrigue, jealousy, and illicit sexual activity soon arose that the co-ed policy was dropped. It is said, however, that thereafter the theme of feminine beauty was continued by requiring the young male members of the corps to wear make-up and fashionable clothing to enhance their charms, resulting in them becoming especially popular among certain male members of the court.

Historians say that later generations of the "Knights of the Flower Circle" played a leading role in Shilla's success in defeating the two rival kingdoms of the 7th century, Paekche and Koguryo, and unifying the peninsula for the first time in the history of the Korean people.

The importance of the Hwarang in Korean society grew with the passing generations, not always for the good. As members of the elite yangban class that monopolized government offices, the Hwarang generally belonged to one faction or another, and were regularly caught up in the political intrigues and in-fighting that historically characterized the upper class.

The Shilla dynasty lasted for approximately 200 years after it achieved supremacy on the peninsula, and in part it was a degeneration in the training and code of the Hwarang that brought its downfall. But after the winning side in the rebellion against Shilla had established its own regime, the Koryo dynasty (918-1392), it continued the tradition of the Hwarang, breathing new life into the training of their own corps of warriors.

For the first several generations of the new dynasty the flower knights once again played a key role in Koryo's survival and success, only to again succumb to factionalism and corruption and contribute to the downfall of the Koryo court. The history of the Hwarang was to be repeated again in the succeeding dynasty, the Choson, which was founded by a dissident general in 1392.

As time passed and peace endured for several generations, particularly after 1650, the military training of the knights waned and they became more scholars than warriors. By the mid-1800s, the martial traditions of the Hwarang had been virtually forgotten and they were little more than aristocrat dilettantes. Thus when Japan, Russia, the United States and the European colonial powers began to threaten Korea, its armed forces were too weak and ill-led to resist, resulting in Korea becoming a victim of Japan's aggressive colonial policies in 1910.

It was not until the end of World War II when Korea regained its sovereignty that its military forces were rebuilt in the martial spirit of the ancient knights.

*Korea's Hwarang or Knights of the Flower Circle pre-dated Japan's better known Samurai and their code of Bushido by more than 500 years.