Hangeul Has Its Day

Unlike Korea, few nations have a holiday celebrating their alphabet. In commemoration of this day and the Korean alphabet, we bring you a compilation of excerpts from several related articles appearing in the Gwangju News over the years. The contributions below are from “Hangeul Day” by Heather Douglas (October 2012) and “The Thorny Paths Hangeul, the Korean Alphabet, Traversed” by Dr. Shin Sang-soon (August 2004).  — Ed.

Hangeul Day

October 9 is once again the time to honor one of Korea’s most famous inventions, the Korean alphabet Hangeul (한글). Hangeul Day is the annual recognition and celebration of the written Korean script, which consists of 24 characters: 14 consonants and 10 vowels. Hangeul Day was originally decreed a holiday in 1945, giving government workers the day off. Due to the intense pressure for longer work time, the legal status was changed from holiday to “commemoration day.” However, the Hangeul Society has fought for Hangeul Day to regain its former status as an official holiday.

Hangeul was created under King Sejong, the fourth king of the Joseon Dynasty, in the mid-15th century. During the period of Hangeul’s creation, only a small, elite segment of society had the resources to learn the classical Chinese language in its written form, which was Chinese characters, or hanja (한자) in Korea. King Sejong is often esteemed as the greatest king in Korean history because of his everlasting contribution to Korean society. Under Sejong’s rule, Hangeul was created to make the written language accessible to the illiterate masses. In fact, fast-forwarding to many years later, Korea would become one of the most literate countries in the world.

Outside of Korea, Hangeul is recognized around the world. This is a huge source of pride to the Korean people. In 1944, Hangeul was described by Discovery magazine as the most logical writing system in the world. Hangeul has even spread outside the boundaries of Korea. More recently, in 2009, Hangeul was introduced in the town of Bau-Bau on the southeast coast of Indonesia. It was reported by Korean media that many children of a minority Indonesian tribe were being taught Hangeul to transcribe their native language, Cia-Cia. Proud advocates of the program have continued to sing Hangeul’s praises and point to the contribution that this easy-to-learn, scientific writing system can make, not only to the Cia-Cia tribe, but to the world.

Hangeul Day is often marked by speeches, ceremonies, and songs – especially “Arirang,” a Korean folk song that is often dubbed the unofficial anthem of Korea. It is a chance to witness the pride that comes from a unique invention that has stood the test of time – the Hangeul alphabet.

Thorny Paths

For a country where the official written language and writing script had been Chinese rather than its indigenous language for centuries, the invention of a new, simpler, scientific, and easy-to-learn phonetic script should have been a blessing celebrated nationwide, irrespective of class or social rank. However, a group of Joseon-era scholars headed by Choe Manli petitioned King Sejong in 1442 objecting to the creation of the new writing system.

The grand work of creating an authentic national script, nevertheless, continued and was completed in 1443, but it had to wait three years for its promulgation. There were pro-and-con arguments among the officials regarding the new national script, but fortunately, King Sejong’s sagacious leadership prevailed, and the 28-letter (now 24) Hangeul alphabet was finally promulgated in 1446.

Hangeul’s original name was Hunmin-jeongeum (훈민정음), literally “the correct sounds to educate the people.” But the elite, who had been used to using Chinese characters, preferred to call it Eonmun (언문), “vulgar script,” or Amgeul (암글), “female script,” meaning “a script suited for women.” Amgeul was a derogatory term for both the script and women. This was at a time when Joseon was strictly following Confucian ethics, which included male predominance over women according to Confucian ethics. The ruling class, which was used to Chinese characters, naturally declined to acquire the new script. They were rather afraid of the enlightenment of the masses through literacy by way of Hangeul.

How King Sejong was engrossed in the creation of Hangeul can be seen by the fact that he had his two sons participate in the task, particularly in the task of collaborating with the royal academy of scholars commissioned by the king. In 1445, King Sejong had his scholars translate Yongbi Eocheon-ga into Hangeul. This was a collection of songs praising the founding of the Joseon Dynasty and the greatness of the royal court. In 1447, he had his second son translate Seokbo-sanjeol, the life story of Buddha, into Hangeul. Thus, we are aware of Sejong’s sincere efforts to make Hangeul an authentic national script.

After Sejong’s death in 1450 and up until 1455, the court was drawn into a maelstrom of political intrigue surrounding the throne. This generated factional strife among the scholars who had collaborated in creating Hangeul. In such socio-political turbulence and in a society imbued with the use of Chinese characters, establishing Hangeul as an authentic national script was a difficult thing to do.

Epilogue: The Unwritten Script

Although Hangeul was created almost six centuries ago and although it was intended to make the masses literate and informed, it was not until the turn of the 20th century that Hangeul began to be widely used. In its infancy, Hangeul was used for a few government documents, and it was used to write the lyrics of a few Korean songs, but these works were all by the elite and for the elite. Realizing that the only way to continue to have an iron grip on power was to keep the masses uneducated, and that the only way to keep the masses uneducated was to suppress the learning of Hangeul, the Korean yangban (양반, literati) perpetuated the use of the difficult-to-learn Chinese-character script. But with the reformist movement of the 1890s and the appearance of the first Hangeul-only newspaper, Tongnip Sinmun (통립신문, The Independent), the Korean alphabet began its spread across the nation to contribute to giving South Korea one of the world’s highest literacy rates and to making Hangeul one of the world’s most celebrated of writing scripts.

Arranged by Dr. David Shaffer