Hangeul was invented in the middle of the 15th century for the sake of writing the Korean language, and is still being used today. The history of Hangeul so far could be summarized in one simple phrase, that is, the process of fortifying its place as the national alphabet of Koreans.


Every time we look back upon the history of the writing system of our nation, we cannot avoid having some unpleasant feelings. It is because the period of using Chinese characters was, unfortunately, too long. However, it is the basic nature of these characters, rather than the long time (two thousand years)for which they were used that poses a bigger problem. That problem is mainly due to the fact that Chinese characters, originally used for writing the Chinese language, were difficult to use for the Korean language, and are completely different from it in their structure. It follows that Korean people using Chinese characters came to create a subtle discrepancy between the written and the spoken language, called unmunichi (言文二致: This Chinese phrase means a linguistic situation in which the spoken language is expressed one way and the written language is expressed another way.) 1)This phrase 言文二致 appeared in the final report submitted to the chief officer of The Ministry of Learning by Institute for National Language (國文硏究所) on December 28th, in the year 1909. Please refer to the edition owned by Lee Ki-Moon: “言文이 二致고” on page 6, “言文이 二致됨으로” on page 310. Here appeared an example of another usage of 言文二致 that old written language was not identical to today's spoken language (pp. 312, 325).

Today we cannot imagine the difficulties our ancestors failed in dealing with the written language unless,perhaps,we could think of what it would be like to have to use only English for our written communications.

It is needless to say that the original motivation which led Great King Sejong to invent Hangeul was to overcome this unmunichi. The introductory remarks, “as our national language is different from that of China, so we cannot communicate with the Chinese characters (國之語音 異乎中國 與文字 不相流通)” in uejesoe (御制序: the preface by the King himself) indicated this very stateu of affairs. In this context, if our distant forefathers had imported Chinese characters and modified them for use in writing our language, and furthermore if their modified writing system had been being used without any great discomfort, King Sejong might not have thought of inventing Hangeul. It reminds us again of the maxim that big misfortune and discomfort is the mother of great invention.

The invention of Hangeul by King Sejong can only be thought of as a miracle, as are all great creative achievements. It might be that by considering many letters of alphabetic series such as Sanskrit, Uigur, Tibetan, and hP'ags-pa scripts, etc., known in our country at that time, a similar system could be found suitable for writing Korean. But what attracts our line of vision is the fact that King Sejong did not select one of the above mentioned foreign writing systems, modifying it more or less, and at last adapting it to writing Korean. It is the more outstanding for the fact that the modifying method is the easiest way and a general tendency in the world's history of writing systems.

King Sejong, in the long run, came to the idea of creating a brand new system for writing Korean. How did he reach this kind of conclusion? The documents remaining today are too short to provide a clear explanation. The most important document existing today is Hunmin-Jeongeum, Haerye (Explanations and Illustrations of Korean Alphabets), especially Chejahae (Explanations of Inventing Letters). Here appears only some vague phrases on the basic idea of inventing Hangeul.2) The Korean translation from Chinese borrows that of Kang Shin- Hang (1987).

今正音之作 初非智營而力索 但因其聲音而極其理而已 理旣不二 則何得不與天地鬼神同其用也. Now the making of Jeongeum (It literally means ‘right sound’.) did not result from the preparation of wisdom and the finding out of efforts in advance, but only from the accomplishment of right reason based on sound, i.e. according to the principles of sound. As the right reason already exists in only one form, not two, how would we not make use of the same line of right reason altogether with sky and earth, ghost and god?

旴 正音作而天地萬物之理咸備 其神矣哉 是殆天啓聖心而假手焉者乎.  Oh, what a marvel it is that sky and earth and all things in nature have been prepared at the same time of making of Jeongeum! It certainly is that heaven almost has opened a saint's mind (King Sejong) and lent him its capabilities.

1) This phrase 言文二致 appeared in the final report submitted to the chief officer of The Ministry of Learning by Institute for National Language (國文硏究所) on December 28th, in the year 1909. Please refer to the edition owned by Lee Ki-Moon: “言文이 二致고” on page 6, “言文이 二致됨으로” on page 310. Here appeared an example of another usage of 言文二致 that old written language was not identical to today's spoken language (pp. 312, 325).

2) The Korean translation from Chinese borrows that of Kang Shin- Hang (1987).
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10