The Great King Sejong and Hangul

The Great Sejong and King Hangul

Long, long ago, in the fifteenth century, there was a very bored king. None of his subjects knew why he was bored. Even the king did not know why he was bored. He was the fourth king of Choson Dynasty, King Sejong. “ Why am I so bored?” King Sejong wondered. He thought about it day and night. It bothered him so much that he could not eat or sleep. Just when he was ready to give up, it dawned on him. There were no new ideas circulating in his kingdom.

Sejong had read every book in Korea, and none of them were fresh or original to him anymore . Every play, every song, and every poem sounded the same to him. None of them seemed to truly portray the lives of the spirited merchants, or the hardworking farmers, or the honest peasants that lived in his kingdom . Sejong, being a clever king, knew why no stories accurately depicted his kingdom. Only a small group of aristocrats could read and write.

How could an aristocrat know what it was like to be a merchant or a farmer or a peasant? Not only that, how could a merchant, farmer, or peasant know about the kingdom he lived in when he could not read or write? Furthermore, Sejong was dissatisfied with the current writing system. At that time, Korean was written using only Chinese characters. While Chinese characters were beautiful to look at, they were very complex and difficult to learn.

They also did not accurately capture the sounds of the Korean language. “ We need a writing system of our own, ” Sejong thought. 。 He summoned a team of his most talented scholars. “ Develop a beautiful but easy to use writing system for the people, ” Sejong ordered the scholars. Coming up with a new writing system was no easy task, especially when commissioned by a very picky king .

“ Too difficult! ” Sejong would say when the scholars presented him with a new writing system, or “ Too simple! ” or “ Too elaborate! ” But Sejong was being fickle for good reason. The new writing system had to be easy to learn so that everyone could use it, even young children. The new writing system needed to capture the Korean language the way it was spoken by the people, otherwise it would not be a truly Korean writing system. Lastly, the new writing system needed to be elegant and pleasing, for writing is a form of art.