[ Korean YY : Korean historY and mysterY ]
2 things you didn't know about : The Korean alphabet, Hangeul
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Hunminjungeum
: Image from Wikipedia (LINK)
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The birth of Hangeul is quite famous among the people who are studying Korean. Because the birth of Hangeul is 1. unique and since it is unique 2. Koreans love to talk about it. Some of you might hear this question at least once from your Korean friend - who was born and raised in Korea or know history of Korea - when you tell them you are studying Korean : "Do you know who made Hangeul?". If you already know, they will probably skip the explanation but if you don't, 90% will sparkle their eyes; ready to tell you about the 'parents' who gave birth to the baby letter, named 'Hangeul'. To be honest, I was one of them. Not just because my profession is a Korean teacher, but because I am, was and will be, 'Korean'.
Before starting the explanation about the 2 things you 'didn't know' about Hangeul, I will first summarize about what you already 'know' - I know that it will be boring to some of you, so if you do, please skip right away to the 1st section of the article, down below.
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King Sejong
: Image from Wikipedia (LINK) |
0) What most of you already 'know'.
Hangeul's birth is quite familiar and the most well-known part that you already 'know'. To make the long story short, its birth can be organized into three different facts : 1. Who 2. When 3. Why. To analyze these three facts, it will be like this.
1. Who : King Sejong
2. When : The year 1443
3. Why : To let the people to read and write easily
Until Joseon dynasty - the name of the country that was founded on Korean territory from 1382 to 1910 - there was no 'letter' among Koreans. The upper class and government officials used Hanja; it was their privilege to use the complicated and difficult letter. Most of other people, usually who worked for the upper class, didn't have a chance to learn the letters so they couldn't read and write any official documents.
King Sejong tried to change this. Therefore, he invented the letter 'Hangeul' - back then it was called as 'Hunminjungeum' and not 'Hangeul' - on the year 1443, to help them learn, read and write easily. Hangeul is one of the unique letters that the inventor is notified until now, not to mention it is a scientific letter with the organized rules.
Thus, this is not the 'end' of the story; it is just the start. There are quite more story about Hanguel rather than just 'How it is made'. So, here are three facts that you had never known about Hanguel, unless you are Korean or had a chance to take a history class in Korea.
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King Sejong Statue - In Jong-ro, the middle of Seoul
: Picture taken by Teacher Havina |
1) King Sejong didn't invent Hangeul, only because he 'loved' the people so much.
It is right. King Sejong is one of the most beloved king among Korean people even until now - which is why his statue is in the middle of Seoul and his face is on 10,000 won. It's because of his numerous works and invention for the people, to make their lives better - not just Hangeul, the language, but he had progressed and evolved a lot of fields during his era : language, science, politics, laws etc.
Hangeul also has the same purpose. He did make it to help people to live better lives. By using Hangeul, a lot of Hanja-written agricultrual books, ethic publications and Buddhist scriptures were able to be translated and supplied to the people. These books helped people to study and live better quality of lives. Yet, it was not the 'only' reason he had created the new letter. There is more story than just that.
Hangeul was made to proceed the administration procedures faster. Back then, most of the people didn't know the letter, so the speed of the processes were quite slow. When collecting the taxes - back then, government had attached the posters on the walls to let people know when and how much will be collected as the tax, handling the lawsuit and registering family etc, 'writing and reading' were always required. There were few people who know how to read and write, so most of the people needed to accompany the 'translator' or the 'helper' whenever they are handling the procedures that requires reading and writing. The slow speed of the process was inevitable.
This will surely be changed if people know how to read and write 'on their own'. They can deal with their own problems or obligations by themselves, which will definitely make the process a lot faster. And it did. Invention of Hangeul had helped to speed up the process of administration procedures and let people know what they are dealing with. It had became the 'medium' of communication between the upper class - more like the government - and the subjugated class. Not to mention, it made much easier and quicker for the government to collect the taxes from people without any useless time wasted during the process.
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Origin of Hangeul - Carved under the King Sejong's statue
: Photo taken by Teacher Havina |
2) Hangeul was never welcomed in the first place.
Like it was mentioned before, Hangeul is an easy, scientific letter that can be read and written easily by any person, from any kind of class and it was created by 'King' Sejong. This letter had all kinds of conditions to be welcomed by all of the people in Joseon Dynasty. However, it did not. When its existence of Hangeul was first notified to the public on 1443, the upper class, including many government officials and scholars, strongly disagreed to its use. How could this happen? Why would hierarchy want to disagree to such a good opportunity to enlighten their own people? There are two main reasons why they disagreed.
Hangeul was 'King Sejong and his people's' project. King Sejong was not the 'only' person who made Hangeul. The idea and 28 letters - at first, as Hunminjungeum, there were 28 letters and not 40 letters - of Hangeul were invented by King Sejong, though the rules, such as pronunciation or use of each letter, were not 'entirely' made by King Sejong. Invention of Hangeul was more like the 'royal family project'. King Sejong's son and daughters, prince and princesses during that era, had participated in this huge project. Only few of the scholars were in this project, who were mostly young and new; they stepped into the project only after the letter was fully created. Also, most of the jobs that these scholars did, are 'translating' the Hanja-based books into Hangeul, and not creating the letters nor its rules. Even for these processes, the translating, the princes, sons of King Sejong, were in charge as the leader.
This is the first factor why it was not welcomed by most of the government officials. It was not the letter that was 'co-produced' by the bureaucrats and the king. Invention of the letter was more like King Sejong's solo-action with his 'own people'. Therefore, after the invention of Hangeul was announced, there were tons of objections from the vassals. Their main reason was : Joseon should not use the different letter system from China, because Joseon was the subordinate country of China. Thus, it was only the 'outer reason' and moral obligation they insisted on to make their opinion seemed reasonable. However, the 'real reason' of their opposition was to prevent the royal authority to become even more stronger.
This becomes clearer if we look into the books that King Sejong ordered his people to translate. The first several books that they had translated was about the Confucianism and the story about how Joseon and royal family was first started. Confucianism was the religion of the Joseon Dynasty. Spreading its main ideology to people will unify and bond them to make a 'stronger' society. Not only that, letting people know the origin of the country and the royal family will justify the country's existence and can make them look up to the royal family and the King himself as well. This will result more power to the royalty and less to the vassals.
King Sejong must be either a 'sage' king who loved his people or a clever 'politician', or both - the opinion I would like to address, I personally think he was both. However, one thing is clear : due to this underlying political reason, there were lots of opposite opinions from the upper class about using Hangeul. The result? As you've already guessed, King Sejong was able to calm down the vassals - like I said, he was the clever politician as well as the sage king - and let Hangeul be used and spread among the people.
Hangeul was never fully welcomed to the upper class until Joseon Dynasty was vanished; it is called as 'women's letter' or 'Eonmun' among the upper class to lower the value of Hangeul. Thus, it was constantly and popularly used among the subjugated class, to inform others about the governments' misbehavior and to instigate others to take action or join in the demonstration or even the revolution.
Hangeul was eventually accepted by 'all' Koreans in 1913, with the name of 'Hangeul' and finally be welcomed as the 'official letter' of Korea.
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1. Want to know more about Hangeul, the Korean alphabet?
2. Want to know how Hangeul is formed?
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