16. The Rise and Fall of Hangul!

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16. The Rise and Fall of Hangul!

What Motivation and Purpose Was Hangeul Created for?

If you check the historical records about King Sejong

“King Sejong was born on May 15, 1397 AD (Taejo 6).

He was born as the third son of Taejong,

the third king of Joseon, and Min, Empress Wonkyung.

In 1408 (Taejong 8), he joined the Chungnyeong army,

In 1413, he was commissioned into the Chungnyeong Grand Army,

In June 1418, he was crowned crown prince.

In August of the same year, he succeeded his father Taejong as the fourth king of Joseon.

He was unruly and diligent in nature

He was fond of learning, and was proficient in many hobbies and talents.

He loved the people in his affairs,

and was deeply concerned about the people's difficult lives,

The king based his government on the people.”

The Sejong Dynasty was an era of Confucian politics and the most brilliant cultural achievements in the history of the nation since the Three Kingdoms period and before the Republic of Korea. This period was politically stable and established the overall foundation of politics, economy, society, and culture. The king established the foundation of the nation-state through a variety of projects, including the creation of Hunmin Jeongum, the development of agriculture and science and technology, the development of medicine and music, the organization of the legal system, the enactment of public laws, and the expansion of the national territory. Sejong was the king who personally led and pushed for the progress of many of these projects.

However, if we were to eval‎uate the most important of his achievements in modern times, it would be the establishment and organization of the Korean alphabet and the supplementation of its deficiencies. The reason is that 'Hangul' has become the basic engine for the rapid development and growth of our national culture in the modern era. Moreover, when modern devices and characters merge and meet, 'Hangul' is not only showing its excellence, but it will play an even greater role and contribution to the development and growth of Korea in the future. In that sense, King Sejong's creation of Hangeul is not only important but also valuable.

In the first half of Sejong's reign, many scholars were cultivated through the enforcement campaigns, and the scholars were mobilized to organize Confucian rituals and institutions, and the Confucian political foundation was strengthened through numerous compilation projects. In addition, the establishment of various cultural systems created a political atmosphere in which the country could grow stably. On this basis, it was possible to further raise the cultural level of the time through various and extensive compilation projects. However, it was not easy for King Sejong to attempt the task of creating Hangeul because the situation at the time of creating Hangeul and the task of creating Hangeul was a situation where politics, culture, and various things could be interlocked and confronted with each other. Therefore, the process of creating Hangeul was naturally promoted in secret rather than publicly, and this was also the reason why there are disagreements today about the process of discipleship and the people who participated in it.

So, what were the motivations and purposes of 'Hangeul', which was created about 600 years ago? First of all, there are a few things that are known about the motivation for the creation of Hangeul, and the stories are as follows.

First, it was due to a kidnapping. In the 6th year of King Sejong's reign, a father and son kidnapped a child and raised him, but when they found out, they killed the child.

Second, the Kimhwa incident. In the 10th year of King Sejong, a man named Kim Hwa, who lived in Jinju, murdered his father, and this was reported to King Sejong.

“How can a child injure his own father?”

The king was astonished at the ignorance of his people, and he ordered his subjects

“Even those who know sari

You must know the law to know the gravity of sin,

but you are foolish people.

How can they know the gravity of their offenses and correct themselves?

Though the people cannot be made to know the whole law.

but let the provisions of great sins be singled out and written down.

and translate them into Yiddish and distribute them to the people.

that they may know how to avoid crime?

For the customs of the world are such that some people do not treat their children as their children. Let a book of filial piety be compiled to enlighten these foolish people.

Let the House of Enlightenment preside over it.”

He ordered.

In this way, Sejong summarized important laws and regulations in various ways to instruct the people, and he wrote the difficult contents in Korean in a simple way in the Samgang Acts of Conduct, which were illustrated with pictures, so that the people could easily understand the contents just by looking at the pictures. However, no matter how easy a picture is to understand, it is no better than a written text in terms of accuracy. When this did not meet Sejong's expectations, he thought that there was no other way to enlighten the Umin by creating a new script suitable for our language. Therefore, he secretly created Hangeul, the script of our people.

Hangeul, which was created in this way, is not only the most brilliant of Sejong's cultural heritage, but also the most brilliant of our nation's cultural heritage. The reason why the era of King Sejong was able to become a shining era in the history of our nation was due to the political stability of his subjects and scholars, and the personality of King Sejong, who managed them well. His cultivation, broad and deep desire for academic achievement, deep insight and judgment into history and culture, and the recognition of a person who did not remain a subordinate of Chinese culture, but rather paid attention to his own subjectivity and unique originality, and the driving force and stubbornness of his convictions. This personal character of King Sejong was able to build a brilliant national culture by harmonizing with the politics, society, and culture of the time, as well as all the conditions of interpersonal relationships.

But even in doing these things, it was clear that we couldn't do it all in one day. Furthermore, no matter how urgent a task is, if the fundamental preparation for it or the overall situation is not mature, even if an important achievement is made, it will not be used, just as even in the modern world, even if the technology is so good that it is ahead of its time, if the current era does not understand it or cannot afford it, it will not be used. In order for something to be used effectively, there must first be a proper environment or background for it, and there must be an understanding and need for it, just as King Sejong prioritized the things that were needed first at the time and accomplished them one by one, recognizing his need for the things that came later through the things he accomplished earlier.

First of all, the first need of the time was the establishment of astronomical science and the need for instruments to measure it. There was an incident that first realized this need. King Sejong, who was a Confucianist at the time, had to make a sacrifice to the heavens during a total solar eclipse, but the problem was that it happened 15 minutes later than the scheduled time. This is because Korea's longitude is 15 to 20 degrees different from China's, so the Chinese calendar could not correctly measure the weather phenomena in Joseon at that time, even though it was a matter of course, but we had always done so by importing Chinese culture. That's why those errors came out.

Eventually, Sejong realized that Joseon was different from China, and he immediately made astronomy the country's first priority. As a result of his efforts, he completed the translation of the Chiljeongsan in 20 years, which is equivalent to developing the technology to launch a spacecraft today, but at that time, only China, Arabia, and Joseon had their own technology. And once he learned about astronomy, this technology naturally developed into the technology to make clocks.

Sejong's attempt to set the standard for Joseon was not limited to science alone. Sejong's next focus was on music, as he sought to uphold the moral character of his people. He organized the scores and movements of the music that had been used until then, and established the foundation of Korean music. This was in accordance with the Confucian ideology that music is the foundation of governance, and it was the ruler's job to know the sound, know the notes, know the politics by looking at the music, and set the direction and lead the people by listening to the people. Through this process, it took a long period of time to establish the Confucian ritual system that was required as a Confucian state, which had been expressed since the founding of the country, and the interpersonal relationship was a difficult task.

However, Sejong solved these tasks one by one, and furthermore, the need to organize and systematize the old literature naturally arose. Therefore, in order to carry out these tasks smoothly, Sejong first of all needed to cultivate talented people who could handle them and promote the culture of literature, and in 1420 (the second year of Sejong), Sejong had already entered the Joseon Dynasty, and even though the Jiphyeonjeon Hall, which had been installed at the time of Jeongjong, was later renamed Bomungak, the Jiphyeonjeon Hall, which had existed only in form and was not famous in the meantime, was reorganized and reinstalled in the palace to organize old documents and establish various systems.

Based on these circumstances and backgrounds, Sejong next felt the need to create a writing system, and only then was he able to put his hands on the task of creating a writing system in detail. He grasped the principles of astronomical and cosmological practices and presented the standards of science and music that harmonized with Joseon nature, and based on this, the remaining task was to make the music and science that had been organized so far into a writing system that connected humans, making space science and sound a tool to connect with the people, so that the universe and humans could live together, and the people and the monarch could communicate and meet as one. Feeling the absolute necessity and urgency to create such a script, Sejong devoted the rest of his life to perfecting it.

It is no exaggeration to say that the basic roots of our national culture are the Yin-Yang Five Elements. There was not a single aspect of Korean culture that was not related to the five elements, including food, housing, clothing, medicine, and music, not to mention speech and writing. Therefore, Hangul was also created based on the principles of the three talents of heaven and earth and the five elements of yin and yang. The basic form of Hangeul is divided into four characters: Cheon (天), Ji (地), In (人), and Circle (圓○), Room (方□), and Angle (角△). The sky and the sun are represented by (-), the earth by (-), and In (人) is represented by ( | ) to create vowels based on them. The sky is a round dot (-) because it is round, the earth is flat (一), and man is represented by ( | ) because it is man who stands between heaven and earth.

Next, the circle (○), room (□), and angle (△) were used to make consonants. The structure of circle (圓○), room (方□), and angle (角△) represents a human being. The circle is the human head, the room is the human torso, and the angle symbolizes the movement of the hands and feet, which is why it is also called the heavenly and earthly man. In addition, the angle represents the sprouting of all things, the room represents the spreading of leaves, and the circle represents fruitfulness. Everything in the universe exists according to the principle of the five elements, and the sound system of Korean was created according to this principle. Therefore, Hangul is the only language that can express all the sounds of the world.

Using this principle, first of all, the five basic consonants of Gnámásh are called the five sounds, and if you apply them to the direction of the five elements, it becomes an interesting image of a human figure as follows.

                                                                                       ㅇ

ㄴㅁㄱ

                                                                                       ㅅ

The five basic consonants ㄱㄴㅁㅅㅇ, which are the sounds of the sons of Cheonjiin(天地人), are like this: a person standing on two legs, one hand pointing to the sky and the other pointing to the ground, with the right hand up and the left hand down, not only expressing strength and weakness, but also pointing to the sky and the ground as befitting the sons of Cheonjiin(天地人), which is quite mysterious. In addition, 'ㅇ' represents a head like the sky, and 'ㅅ', which means the ground, resembles a mountain like the ground. In addition, the east, west, south, and north are surrounded by ㄱㄴㅅㅇ, and the center is expressed as 'ㅁ', which has the meaning of the four directions. The five basic consonants of Hangul, which are the perfect five-way thought, appear as an organic union. In addition, the consonants of Hangul are divided into five types of the Five Elements. In addition, we can see that there is a basic sound, and that a series of sounds are created by deriving from each basic sound. For example, if you remove ㅡ from the basic sound ㄷ, it becomes ㄴ. Also, if you add ㅡ to ㄷ, it becomes ㅌ, and if you add ㄱ to ㄷ, it becomes ㄹ. Also, if you combine ㄷ with ㄷ, it becomes ㄸ.

The above are some of the principles of creating Hangul, and if you express the whole thing in a concise manner, it can be explained as the principle of minimum, the principle of creation, the principle of astronomy, the principle of mathematics, the principle of music, and the principle of communication. The letters are created by creating them with the minimum number of graphemes, and the relationship between the sky and the earth and people and the five elements of yin and yang is followed by the principle of astronomy, and the letters are increased by the principle of mathematics and geometry, and they are created by the principle of music, and when reading, rhythm and pitch are added, making it more enjoyable to read, and thus, making communication better.

The motive for creating Hangul is revealed in the name of the original name of Hangul, ‘Hunminjeongeum(訓民正音)’ itself, but it is well expressed in the preface of the Hunminjeongeum text written by King Sejong himself, and if you paraphrase the preface, it is as follows.

“Our language is different from Chinese,

and it is not mutually intelligible with Chinese characters,

so the common people want to write,

but there are many words that cannot be expressed in Chinese characters,

so I took pity on them and created 28 new characters,

so that everyone can learn them easily

and use them comfortably.”

If we organize this in more detail, it is written as follows: “First, it eliminates the various contradictions and irrationalities that arise from the fact that the Chinese characters used do not match the Korean language. Second, it equally benefits all people to use the characters. Third, it helps to translate advanced culture into our characters so that they can be easily accepted.

Sejong, who was the Grand Prince of Chungnyeong, had two older brothers, Grand Prince Yangnyeong and Grand Prince Hyoryeong. So, Chungnyeong may not have thought that he would become king, but he always liked books, studying, and reading. However, upon closer examination, I realized that the pronunciation of all letters written in Chinese characters is often different for each person, which often leads to confusion when reading Chinese characters or talking to Chinese people. Of course, the Yunseo helped somewhat, but I realized that this had limitations in pronouncing the Chinese characters.

So Sejong felt the need for a letter that could accurately record the pronunciation of our language. In the beginning, Sejong was not the crown prince, so he could move around relatively freely, and as a prince, he could freely access the national library, so he learned through various records that there was a Korean language that had been used for a long time. After learning this, Sejong returned to the palace and secretly asked his eunuch to look for books about it. After a while, the eunuch brought the book that contained Garimto, written by Yi Am, a famous scholar in the late Goryeo Dynasty.

Through this book, Sejong learned about Garimto in detail, and also took an interest in how the vernacular that had been passed down through this Garimto was used in the public, and secretly and naturally looked into it. As a result, he learned that this vernacular had an incomplete system due to the confusion of consonants and vowels, and thus had the same limitations in accurately writing our language. However, if he studied this vernacular well, organized it, and established a system, he thought that he would be able to perfectly write the pronunciation of our language.

Sejong, who had this idea, later unexpectedly ascended to the throne and had the opportunity to realize it. However, after ascending to the throne, Sejong first focused more on developing astronomy and organizing music, which were more urgent tasks. This is because Sejong himself ascended to the throne because he had acquired the qualities of a king through basic studies from a young age. Through this fact, he knew well that if nothing is supported by the basics, no matter what is created later, it will eventually collapse. Thus, Sejong first needed to organize music, which was the most urgent matter for the country at the time, and to organize the advanced civilization and culture, along with astronomical science that could overcome the authority of the country and competition with neighboring countries, and then he needed a writing system that would allow the people to easily learn the advanced civilization and culture. In other words, he knew well that when civilization and culture developed, the people would naturally need easy writing systems to accept and learn the culture and civilization, and the people would respond to such writing systems. Sejong’s thoughts were effective. First, through the astronomical science he established, he gained a sense of pride that was not inferior to that of neighboring countries, and this was used in his daily life. He organized music so that the material and political abundance and stability that he had thus come could be enriched even more through music. And finally, he wanted to make the use of science and the enjoyment of music possible through writing systems. Therefore, he did not hesitate to give up his royal authority, and only after securing the time necessary to create writing systems did he begin research to reorganize the writing systems of the previous era and establish a new system. So what is the eonmun that Sejong referred to? This is because Choi Man-ri and others submitted a petition opposing the promulgation of Hunminjeongeum. In this petition, 19 words called “unmun” (諺文) already appeared. Since Hunminjeongeum had already been promulgated at the time, he should have used the word “hunminjeongeum” instead of the word “unmun.” However, the fact that he used the term “unmun” shows that the word “unmun” itself existed before the promulgation of Hunminjeongeum. It was used among the people, albeit in a limited way, even before the promulgation of Hunminjeongeum. This fact can be confirmed in the following petitions and records.

“You say that Unmun is not a new letter

because it is based on old letters,

but although the shape of the letters

is imitated from the old,

the use of sounds and the combination

of letters are different from the old,

so there is no basis for it.”

“They say that they borrowed the vernacular

that existed since the previous court,

In this age of civilization,

We should rather focus on distinguishing letters

and reaching the Way,

But why do you want to follow the past?”

After the king read the entire petition, he said to Choi Man-ri and his opponents,

“You say that the use of sounds and the combination of letters are different from the past,

But isn’t the sound of Seolchong’s Idu different?”

“The current vernacular combines all (old) letters

and uses them together,

And only the interpretation of the sounds has been changed, so it is not a form of (Chinese) letters.”

“They say that they borrowed the vernacular that existed since the previous court… … ”

“Moreover, vernacular has absolutely nothing to do with letters (Chinese characters),

It is just a word used exclusively by the country people.”

“Voluntary characters (俗用 文字)

According to Shin Kyung-jun’s

Hunminjeongeum Unhae (訓民正音 韻解),

There have been vuluntary characters in the East since ancient times,

but their number was not fixed,

and their form did not have any rules.”

You can see that there are records that say this. The vernacular referred to in these records is the Garimto characters that have been passed down for a long time without fail. However, it was not as easy as it seemed to create a system through this Garimto characters, organize it into new characters, and breathe life into it to make it a new character.

Sejong decided to first discuss with his subjects to confirm‎ their thoughts, and after talking to several subjects, he indirectly asked them about the possibility of creating a new alphabet without them knowing, and concluded that publicly creating a new alphabet would be met with tremendous opposition, and if that happened, his attempt to create the alphabet itself would be impossible, or time would be delayed and wasted due to a war of nerves with his subjects. So King Sejong decided to create a new alphabet secretly without his subjects knowing. To do so, he foolishly transferred a large portion of his royal authority to his subjects and princes. Since his subjects did not know Sejong’s intentions, they could not know the king’s intentions, and there were many different opinions. On the other hand, Sejong personally organized and established the system by personally confirm‎ing the pronunciation and phonetic value of each sound with his princes and princesses, and even mobilizing Jeonui.