Hunminjeongeum

            Hunminjeongeum is a document that describes native script for the Korean language, which was invented by King Sejong. Hunminjeongeum means “the proper sounds to instruct the people,” It was designated as a national treasure number 70, and in 1997, it was also listed in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register. Before he invented Korean language, Korea used Chinese to write and read. However, not all people were able to use Chinese. People in upper class were only able to use Chinese because it was hard for people to learn them. So many people were not able to read or write. Therefore, people did not have any information about their government and laws. Also, because people could not understand anything, people in the upper class took advantages over them and made laws that were beneficial for themselves. When King Sejong found out about this situation, he had decided to make new native language that is easy to read and write. After three years of invention, in 1442, King Sejong finally invented Hangeul, also known as Korean. Then, he published Hunminjeongeum, so that any one can learn Korean to read and write. Although there were five parts of Hunminjeongeum, but four of them were lost over the time, and only one of them is preserved.

            The two main ideas of Hunminjeongeum is to easily teach people to learn Hangeul and to help people to be more informed about their country. King Sejong is one of the greatest kings in Joseon Dynasty. He had invented several inventions, including Hangeul, sundial, water clock, and rain gauge. He was very thoughtful and cared a lot about his people. By inventing Hangeul, people who did not know how to read or write Chinese were able to learn new language. Also, when many people were able to use this language, people who were not in upper class were also able to participate in government and make laws that all citizens could have benefits. During Joseon Dynasty, many people did not know how to read or write Chinese because it was very complicated and there were no places for most people to learn them, other than upper class. So King Sejong decided to make a new set of alphabets that is easy to read and write. In Hunminjeongeum, it has 28 alphabets of Hangeul and detailed instruction of the ways to form letters.

            I found Hunminjeongeum beautiful for various reasons. First of all, without his invention of Hangeul, Korea would still use Chinese to communicate until now. However, after he had made new language, Korea finally had its unique language. Moreover, when I have learned his motivation of inventing Hangeul, I was able to feel how much he cared about his country and wanted to make better country. In order to make it simple, he made each alphabet to write how they sound. Also, while he was making new language, he had health issues. His eyesight suddenly became worse, and he was ill so he could not walk without cane in the dark. Even though he knew his health was getting worse, he did not stop the invention of Hangeul. This demonstrates how much he wanted to improve people’s lives. Furthermore, although during the same time period, other countries in the world tried to invent unique language, there are no other success stories. When many linguists have read about principles and usage of this language in Hunminjeongeum, they said Hangeul is one of the languages in the world that can be most easily learned. Therefore, I think Hunminjeongeum is very beautiful because it enabled Korea to have our own unique language.