King Sejong and the Creation of Hunminjeongeum

In 1418, a young prince became the fourth king of Joseon. His name was Sejong. Koreans today call him 세종대왕, which means 'Sejong the Great'. Very few kings in Korean history are given the title 대왕, 'great king'.

Sejong loved books from a young age. Stories say he read so much that he sometimes became ill. As king, he ruled for about thirty years, until 1450. During that time he supported farming, medicine, music, science and the study of history. Under his rule, scientists made new tools, such as instruments to measure rain and to tell time.

But of all the things he did, one is remembered above all others: he gave Koreans their own letters.

In 1443, near the end of the year in the traditional lunar calendar, King Sejong announced that he had created a new set of letters. There were 28 letters in total. With them, a person could write every sound of the Korean language.

The letters were very different from Chinese characters. They did not stand for meanings. They stood for sounds. And there were only a few of them. A clever person could learn them in a morning, and even a slow learner could learn them in about ten days. That is how one of the scholars later described it, and it is still true today.

The Korean word for creating a new writing system is 창제. So 1443 is the year of the 창제 of Hangul.

Not all officials welcomed the new letters. In 1444, a senior scholar named Choe Malli (최만리) and several others sent the king a written protest. They worried that using new letters would separate Korea from the culture of Chinese learning. They also feared that people would stop studying 한문 seriously.

King Sejong listened, and he argued back. He did not give up his letters. Instead, he continued the work: testing the letters, writing books with them and preparing a careful explanation for the public.

In 1446, the new letters were officially announced to the people. This is called 반포. According to the records, it happened in the ninth month of the lunar calendar. At the same time, a book was published to explain the letters. The book had the same name as the letters: 훈민정음.

Today, Koreans celebrate this event every year on October 9, which is 한글날, Hangul Day. The date was chosen by converting the old lunar date into the modern calendar.