Many kings have ruled in the world since organ-ized political life began, but the list of truly greatones is comparatively short. Any such list wouldsurely have to include a Korean Monarch, Sejong (r.1418-1450), the fourth king of the Chosòn Kingdom(sometimes called the Yi dynasty, 1392-1910), who isuniversally regarded by Koreans as the wisest andmost gifted ruler of their long history. The basis forthis proud regard lies primarily in Sejong's havinginvented the Korean alphabet, an absolutely uniquesystem of writing which Koreans consider to be thevery soul of their national culture.

Koreans have always known that King Sejongfirst announced the new alphabet during the winterof 1443-1444, and that he formally proclaimed it as"The Correct Sounds for the Instruction of thePeople" (Hunmin Chòng’ùm) in October, 1446. Butthe full modern understanding of this event did notbecome possible until 1940, when an exhaustivecommentary which had been joined to the originalproclamation came to light in the small town ofAndong, in the southeastern part of Korea. Thecommentary went into detail on the technicalrationale for the shapes of the original twenty-eightletters (only twenty-four are used today) andrevealed the alphabet to be the conscious and close-ly reasoned invention of a highly original mind.Western historians of writing, guided by the evolu-tionary and diffusionist development of writing intheir own tradition, had explained the alphabet –which first came to their attention in 1799 – as aderivative of various known Indian or Tibetanscripts, and even today such uninformed specula-tion can still be found in western reference litera-ture. But for the most part the world now recog-nizes this script as the unique and amazing inven-tion that it is. The life and career of its inventor,less well known, deserves attention not only in

connection with the alphabet, but more broadlyfor its own intrinsic interest.

Sejong's Accession and Early Reign

Of all Korean kings, Sejong is the most remem-bered. He is the king who appears on the postagestamps and money, whose name identifies boule-vards, cultural centers, foundations and prizes. Butthe blaze of his halo has turned him into a saintly,mythic figure, and ironically obscured many of his

7

The Cultural Work of Sejong the Great

Gari Ledyard

8 GARI LEDYARD

achievements and human qualities. To genuinelyunderstand him, it is necessary to turn away from allthe statues and hagiography and see this great mansecurely in his time and place.

The political culture which produced KingSejong, eschewing charisma and personality as thechief criteria of royal greatness, rather emphasizedConfucian morality and conformance to the imageof the "sage" (sòng) established in the Confucianclassics. Even in his lifetime, the king's persona wassacralized.The most powerful political figures couldonly approach him with utter deference, while thecommon people, on the relatively rare occasionswhen he left his palace for some necessary royalfunction, actually had to cover their windows andturn away from him lest their gaze sully his sagelypresence. Inevitably, however, even this solemn aurahad to be broken by the exigencies of practical gov-ernment and politics. Officials could argue vigor-ously with him over policy and administrative mat-ters; indeed, the Confucian concept of loyal remon-strance obligated them to do so. Sejong wasdenounced, for example, for spending so much ofhis workday on the alphabet, and there were plen-ty of other matters over which he and the bureau-cracy were from time to time at loggerheads. Insuch circumstances, the king's personality andcharacter could hardly remain hidden. Even thecommon people, though deprived of directimpressions or "news" in the formal sense, couldhardly have been unaware of what manner of mansat on the nation's throne.

Very little is known of Sejong's early life. Hewas born on May 7, 1397, the third son of YiPangwòn, himself the son of Yi Sònggye (KingT'aejo), the founder of the Chosôn dynasty. YiPangwòn had played a major role as aide to his fatherin the establishment of the new dynasty, and after hehimself came to throne as King T'aejong (r. 1400-1418) he laid strong administrative and politicalfoundations for the new state. In 1404, T'aejong

selected his eldest son, Prince Yangnyòng, as crownprince, and the younger Sejong (then known asPrince Ch'ungnyòng) would seem to have been des-tined for obscurity along with his ten other broth-ers. But in the end it was Prince Yangnyòng whofaded into obscurity. He remained crown princealmost to the end of his father's reign, but was sud-denly deposed in 1418 and replaced by his youngerbrother Sejong. Less than two months later,T'aejongabdicated and Sejong came to the throne(September 7, 1418). He was at that time twenty-one years old.

The reasons for this sudden turnabout areunclear. Given that Prince Yangnyòng had been crit-icized for his weakness of will and indecisive char-acter, the conventional thinking is that Sejong'ssuperior intelligence simply made him the moreappropriate choice to succeed his father. But if per-sonal character had been the sole criterion, thatwould have been apparent much earlier; why waitfor years to effect the change? It is the very sud-denness of the change, and the quickly followingabdication, that compel attention. They suggestthat T'aejong intended to surprise his bureaucracy.With more than one qualified heir, some seniorofficials, anxious for more power for the bureau-cracy, might have wanted the weaker Yangnyòng tosucceed. Doubtless many of them, anticipating hissuccession during his fifteen years as designatedsuccessor, had cultivated his friendship. ForT'aejong to now replace him with Ch'ungnyòng(Sejong), and then abdicate while he himself stillhad a few healthy years left, would enable him todecisively set the course of the kingdom fordecades to come. If such was indeed T'aejong'splan, he succeeded admirably.

When Sejong came to the throne in 1418, theadministrative and political structure of the Chosòndynasty had already been laid out by T'aejong.Sejong kept that structure running smoothly, andrefined it from time to time, but thanks to

T'aejong's foundations he did not find it necessaryto be constantly preoccupied with administrative orpolitical matters. But neither did he waste this sta-bility by resting on his oars and giving himself overto a life of ease and comfort, as he might easily havedone. Although he did not leave an explicit person-al declaration of the policies he would follow,numerous casual remarks and the overall results ofhis reign allow us to see that he wanted to build astate in which Confucian institutions in both publicand private life would be carefully cultivated, inwhich defense and security would be prudentlyattended to, in which agriculture, the "foundationof the state," would be brought to new levels ofstrength, and in which culture and education wouldbe developed in a manner to compare favorablywith the standards of the leading Chinese dynasties.National pride was an important element in theseplans. Korean culture was not merely to imitateChinese culture, but was consciously seen torequire a distinctive Korean dimension. And thiswould serve the highest political purposes: in aninter- national system in which Korea was insuzerain relationship to the Ming dynasty in China,Korea would create a self-defined standard ofConfucian culture that would support a separateKorean legitimacy independent of China.

From Sejong's youth his intelligence and stu-diousness had been remarked by all, and in hisencouragement of learning after he became king hewas as much a participant as the presiding spirit.Toserve as the guiding institution for his cultural poli-cies, Sejong looked to an existing institution calledthe "Hall of the Wise" (Chiphyòn chòn). Establishedin 1399, it had languished on organizational chartsuntil 1420, when Sejong reorganized it as an activeorgan of applied research, a kind of fifteenth-cen-tury Korean think tank. He staffed it with the bestand the brightest young men that he could find. In1426, a program of research grants was established,in which young men of unusual gifts could devote

themselves to advanced study away from the dailypressures of an official career. The library for theHall of the Wise was completed in 1428. Educationand scholarship were fostered throughout the king-dom, and books were collected and purchased,often in China, occasionally in Japan. In every way,Sejong worked to set a scholarly yet also pragmatictone for his government.

The attention given by Sejong to study andresearch did not detract from his primary duties asking; in no sense was he a scholarly escapist. Heopened his court each day at dawn (as was the cus-tom in East Asian kingship), and after the ceremo-nial visits of his senior officials went directly towork on state affairs. He rarely accepted the opin-ions or arguments of petitioning officials withoutasking questions and contributing his own remarks,and not infrequently these were more to the point.In thousands of recorded discussions of this kind, heshowed an evenness of judgment and a lack of prej-udice. On one occasion, during a regular review ofthe national statutes, the question arose whetherpolo should be designated as an official supportfor the military.The relevant officials were againstit on Confucian grounds (it supposedly divertedofficers from full attention to their duties), andalso because leaders of the preceding Koryôdynasty had reportedly pranced at polo while theMongols were burning the country. Sejong admit-ted that the Koryô rulers had played it excessively,even to the detriment of the state, but he could seeno harm in it as a military sport and indeed con-fessed his admiration for the skill and agilityrequired of good players. (It probably helped thatT'aejo, Chosôn's founder and Sejong's grandfather,had excelled at the game.) He insisted that polo bereflected in the national statutes, "and, if later, peo-ple would denounce it, let them not play it." Suchexamples of flexibility and common sense gleamlike scattered gems throughout the Sejong sillok, theofficial chronicle of his reign.

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Sejong’s Cultural and Scientific Projects

In his own time and later, Sejong was famousfor the number and quality of his cultural projects.It would be quite impossible to describe these atlength, but a short summary will at least suggestthe range of activity and the close involvement ofthe king himself in the work.

To begin with the humane sciences, Sejongordered the compilation or revision of the offi-cial annals of the reigns of his three predecessorson Chosôn's throne, and followed closely theactivities of the "Spring and Autumn Hall,"which held the official archives of the state. Heestablished the procedures by which, after thedeath of each king, that king's official chronicle,or sillok, was to be compiled, and he began thepractice of making extra copies for storage infour branch archives in different regions of thecountry. Because of this foresight we still havethese records today, the main Spring and AutumnHall copies having been destroyed in 1592 dur-ing the disorders caused by the Hideyoshi inva-sions. Beginning in the reign of Sejong's son Sejo(1455-1468), the annals were printed.Today, thecollected annals of all of Chosôn's kings over 518years take up over 115,000 pages printed in thetraditional format, and are collected in a modernedition (the Chosôn wangjo sillok) of 31,000 pagesin 51 large volumes. Another of Sejong's histori-cal projects was the compilation of the officialhistory of the preceding dynasty, Koryô.Although much valuable source material hadalready been lost or dispersed by his time, and inspite of lingering political problems involvingthe treatment of some key events and personali-ties of late Koryô, the Koryò sa is remarkable forits coverage, coherence and organization. Both inthis dynastic history and in the royal annals, thehistoriographical methodology was influenced bylong-established Chinese and Korean precedents,

but the historiographical quality of the workinspired by Sejong is outstanding by any criteri-on and shows a special dimension that can becredited to him.

The geographical projects of Sejong were ofequal scope. In 1434, detailed maps of the king-dom were prepared, although they have unfortu-nately not survived.They were based on previouscartography and records, but principally on athorough survey of the nation completed twoyears earlier. A final, comprehensive gazeteerbased on this work can be found in the appendicesto Sejong's annals, and is now a rich source ofinformation on early Chosòn administration andlocal lore. A draft of the original survey for a sin-gle province still survives, showing the thorough-ness of Sejong's overall plan.The survey recordedthe formal details of administrative geography:population, irrigation facilities, key economiccrops, local manufactures, regional defense, edu-cation, important mountains and waterways,communications, boundaries, regional distancesaccurate to the foot, and useful information on thesocial and family system. All this provided a solidfoundation for later maps and gazeteers.

Agriculture and agronomy attracted Sejong'sinterest at an early date. He ordered surveys ofagricultural conditions throughout the kingdom,the collection and improvement of cropping tech-niques, irrigation methods, and tools, and thecomparative study of Chinese agriculture. SeveralChinese farm handbooks were edited in versionsincorporating local Korean practice and distrib-uted throughout the nation. In order to moreaccurately measure Korean agricultural produc-tivity and to more fairly assess crop value for tax-ation purposes, rain gauges were devised andinstalled, careful rainfall records were maintainedin each district town, and soil types were studiedand classified according to specifications of sixgrades of fertility.This work not only rationalized

and enhanced the national taxation system, butimproved the quality of life for the peasantry.

Medicine and pharmacology were other fieldsin which Sejong's busy academicians labored withmuch energy. As in agriculture, this researchinvolved extensive local surveys of regional med-ical practice and medically efficacious herbs andsubstances. Between 1443 and 1445, a giant med-ical encyclopedia in 365 volumes was organizedand completed. Although it does not survivetoday, its rich research provided a solid foundationfor the later Tong'ùi pogam (1610), which eventoday is frequently seen on the reference shelves ofpractitioners of traditional Chinese medicinethroughout East Asia.

Sejong had a deep interest in music, andassigned a brilliant musicologist named Pak Yòn toconduct research in classical Chinese and Koreanmusical theory, court music and musical instru-ments. Much new music was composed for officialcourt functions; the scores for some of these com-positions have been preserved in Sejong's annals.This research resulted in the recovery or recon-struction of older music and musical instruments,and is today highly regarded by all who specialize inthe classical music of East Asia.

Nor were mathematics and the observationalsciences ignored. Beginning in 1433, Sejong'sastronomers, led by Chòng Ch'òl, conducted stud-ies of the various calendrical systems that had beenused in China or Korea.The results – laid out in alltheir mathematical detail in the appendices toSejong's annals – were embodied in the design of abattery of observational and demonstrationalinstruments developed during the 1430s, and in aspectacular clepsydra (water clock) built in thepalace to indicate the nation's standard time. Thiswork too served as a foundation for later research,contributing particularly to the weight-drivenclock and demonstrational armillary sphere built inthe 1660s, and a privately-made weight-driven

clock which also incorporated some later westernfeatures derived from Jesuit astronomical workscompiled in China.

Military science was advanced by studies ofearlier works on strategy and tactics, and by devel-opmental research in artillery and pyrotechnicalweapons. In the Sejong annals we find an interest-ing series of technical reports sent to the kingdirectly from the proving grounds.

Printing technology had a long developmentaltradition in Korea, going back to the world's earli-est known xylographically (i.e, by wood block)printed text, dated 751, and the world's first castmetal movable typography, achieved in 1252. TheChosòn kingdom produced its first font of metalmovable type in 1403.Three fonts appeared duringSejong's reign – in 1420, 1434, 1436, and one justafter his death, in 1450; of these, the "kabin" font of1434 has received the greatest acclaim from print-ing connoisseurs and historians. Printing, however,is more than just fonts. Many problems involvinginks, papers, matrix materials and design, andother areas, had to be identified and solved in orderto make type-casting technology actually practica-ble on a wide scale. The bulk of this experimenta-tion was carried out during Sejong's reign.

This background sketch of Sejong's variousscientific and cultural projects demonstrates aremarkable procedural consistency. The kingwould identify an area for special research, desig-nate the researchers from among people of appro-priate talent or the staff of the Hall of the Wise,and follow the progress of the project throughreports and his own personal reviews. In somecases the projects ended with a formal report orpublication (as in the case of the provincial gaze-teers or the scores of the court music), or with thedesign and production of certain items (as shownby the rain gauges, musical instruments, cannons).Sejong is the only king of the Chosòn dynasty tohave special appendices in his official annals devot-

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ed to such projects. In the modern edition thesetake up several hundred closely printed pages.

A Political Problem in Mid-Reign

Although Sejong was a very strong monarch,the Korean monarchy itself had serious institu-tional and political limitations. In theory, the kingwas not only the head of government, whose per-son was sacred and whose word was law, but thevery father of the state, the apex of the hierarchi-cal pyramid that formed the structure of both gov-ernment and society. In practice, however, he wasclosely checked by the higher bureaucracy, espe-cially by formal organs of remonstrance which hadthe responsibility of scrutinizing the actions of theking and the government as a whole. In addition,the official royal tutors, nominally in charge of theking's Confucian formation, had traditionallyexercised remonstrance functions as well.The kingwho wished to execute policy had to steer itbetween all these censorial forces and also amongvarious administrative organs. In China, which alsohad a Confucian system of government, there wasa despotic tradition that allowed the ruler to over-ride and even to dismiss, humiliate, or even exe-cute such critics. But in Korea the bureaucracy hadgenuine countervailing power that usually ruledout such monarchical caprice; the king had to fightand persuade.There were times, indeed, when theking seemed to be all alone in his government.

One such case was the controversy over thecrown prince's administrative powers, which con-sumed so much of the court's time and energy inthe last thirteen years of Sejong's reign. Fromaround the mid-1430s, Sejong did not enjoy goodhealth, and in 1437 he was sufficiently ill toannounce that he wished to turn the lesser mattersof state over to the crown prince, reserving for hisown decision only high political matters and

appointments and national security issues. His offi-cial tutors, who were concurrently high appointeesin the various ministries and departments, arguedthat this was too sensitive and radical an innova-tion, one strongly opposed by all the traditions andprecedents of Confucian rule.The filibuster was sovigorous that Sejong had to drop the matter. Butthree months later he raised it again, this time withhis chief state councillor, the venerable HwangH'ùi, complaining specifically of rheumatic diffi-culties. Hwang, who was then seventy-four andwould live to be ninety, seems to have been toohealthy to understand the king's problem. Heassured Sejong that he was only forty, in the primeof life, and that in such prosperous and stable timesas Chosòn then enjoyed there was no precedent forturning responsibilities over to the crown prince.Hwang's reservations were not without somemerit; such an administrative arrangement, whichcame close to dual monarchy, was perhaps easierto propose than to carry out. It was not alwayseasy to decide what was "major" and what was"minor," and bureaucrats could understandablyhave cause to worry about the consequences ofmisjudging such a question. The old Confucianadage was: "There are neither two suns in the sky,nor two rulers in the kingdom." So on this occa-sion too, Sejong dropped the matter. Twice in thenext two years he pressed further for administra-tive help from the crown prince, but still in vain."In two or three years, you will have to follow mywishes," he warned his officials.

But nothing happened in two or three years,and Sejong's health did not improve. In 1442 heagain raised the issue, revealing that his eyes weretroubling him so much that he could not keep upwith paperwork. Treatments at the hot springs ofIch'òn had given relief but no cure. But again thesenior bureaucracy turned a deaf ear. Finally, in1443, tired of any further discussion and havingexhausted every possibility for harmonious com-

promise, Sejong issued an edict, composed byhimself and citing precedents from Korean andChinese history, in which he decreed that hence-forth the crown prince would handle all but majordecisions for the last half of every month, and thathis ministers would all assemble and swear theirloyalty to the crown prince.This edict hit the courtlike a shock, unleashing all the pressures that hadbeen building since 1437. Protests flowed in fromall agencies of the government. The personnel ofthe six administrative departments closed theiroffices and marched in a body to the palace.Memorials and protests arrived in a flood. Whatwas new, and intolerable to the officials, was thatthe crown prince would actually preside at court.This involved extremely complicated issues ofprecedent and ceremonial. The very relationshipbetween lord (kun) and liege (sin), at the inner coreof Confucian concern, was at stake. But now it wasSejong's turn to be implacable. Each memorial wasno sooner presented than it was denied, in spite ofthe fact that many of the protests were reasonableenough in raising the fundamental problems thatwould flow from the division of royal power.

The king's determination now set the stage fora compromise along the lines originally proposed,even though the actual effecting of the planinvolved two more years of haggling. Finally, inJune of 1445, the crown prince began officially tohandle routine administrative affairs.The drain allof this had caused on Sejong's already poor healthcan be imagined, as can the tensions that had beencreated in the relationship between king andcourt.

The last years of this controversy over-lappedthe period – roughly 1442 to 1446 – when Sejongwas working intensively on his alphabet.Inevitably, that too would become a matter of bit-ter debate, not least because the king had assignedcertain administrative details concerning alphabet-ic research and publication to the Office of

Deliberation (ùisa ch’òng), the very same organthat, under the crown prince, would decide the so-called "minor affairs."

The Invention of the Alphabet

The alphabet project developed in the sameway that the other cultural projects had: a needwas identified, researchers were appointed, a finalreport was published, and actual publication proj-ects using the alphabet were launched.There wereonly two factors that were new: Sejong himselfwas the chief expert and principal researcher, andthe project was marked by controversy from theday it was announced.

The need for an effective Korean script musthave become evident to Sejong from some of hisearlier projects. For example, in 1431, in connec-tion with the pharmacological survey, numerousKorean plants with no standard Chinese name hadto be written in phonetic transcriptions usingChinese characters. An alphabet would have obvi-ated that problem. In 1433, a survey of popularsongs and ballads was conducted "in all towns anddistricts" by the Board of Rites, which countedmusic among its many responsibilities.The resultsof this project are not known, but surely therewould have been many problems in transcribingthe Korean words of the songs. Korea had a longtradition of writing Korean vernacular poetry inthe phonetic medium of Chinese characters, butno consistent notation method had ever evolvedeven for the standard language, let alone for thedialectal needs of the "towns and districts. " (Sucha development had occurred in Japan, as shown bythe Chinese-character-based script known asmanyogana. But such a development could notoccur in Korea because the phonology of its lan-guage was vastly more complex than that ofJapanese.)

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Then there was the matter of standardizingthe Korean pronunciation of Chinese characters.This question seems to have aroused considerableconcern in the early Chosòn dynasty. In 1416, inKing T'aejong's time, a Korean riming dictionary,or possibly a Korean edition of a Chinese rimingdictionary, had been compiled, but it evidently didnot meet Korean needs, because Sejong made arenewed attack on the problem. Before he died in1450, his chief phonological scholar, Sin Sukchu(1417-1475), had carried out at his direction stud-ies of the phonological systems of both the Yuanand Ming dynasties, and had edited a Korean dic-tionary, entitled "The Correct Rimes of theEastern Country" (Tongguk chòngün), which wasintended to define correct Sino-Korean pronunci-ation. All of this demonstrates on the part ofSejong not only a clear concern with Sino-Koreanphonology, but also an unusual level of expertise inthis very rarefied area of Chinese studies.

The Korean pronunciation of Chinese charac-ters was an area of concern for scholars and thehighly educated members of the bureaucracy. Yetthey were but a small minority of the total popu-lation of Korea. What of the common people?Sejong also had their particular needs very muchin mind. In 1444, in justifying his alphabet to hiscritics, he urged the necessity of reforming legalprocedure in connection with the recording of tes-timony: those who could not read the complicatedChinese character transcriptions of witnesses'statements were put at a serious disadvantage, onethat he proposed to rectify by using the alphabet torecord the testimony in the original vernacular.And his proclamation of the alphabet in 1446emphasized his special distress that ordinary peo-ple were unable to read or write.

This royal concern for the literacy of thecommon people seems to have been first manifest-ed in 1434, on the occasion of the publication of acollection of morality tales that Sejong had

ordered compiled in order to promote conscious-ness of Confucian ethics.This work, entitled "TheThree Bonds and True Examples of their Practice,with Illustrations" (Samgang haengsil to), was con-cerned with the three basic Confucian relation-ships: those between parents and children, seniorsand juniors, and husband and wife.Three hundredand thirty inspiring stories exemplifying these"three bonds" were culled from Chinese andKorean history and rewritten in Chinese versions,each filling a single printed page. But Sejong clear-ly saw the essential problem: if the people couldnot read Chinese, how could they be uplifted bythe stories? Adding an illustration for each storywas helpful but hardly met the difficulty, as theking acknowledged. "Since the common peoplegenerally do not know Chinese characters," helamented, "even when this book is distributed howwill they be able to act upon it unless someoneshows them how to read it? ... Let everyone, in thecapital and out, exert themselves in the arts ofteaching and instruction; let everyone seek outpeople of learning and sophistication, withoutregard to class status, strongly urging them toteach people to read, not excluding women of allages ... May the hearts of the people profit bymorning and advance by evening, let there benone who do not feel an opening of their naturalgoodness."

What Sejong evidently had in mind at thattime was a kind of nationwide tutorial in the textof "The Three Bonds." His prescription followedthe traditional Korean reading pedagogy forChinese: using Sino-Korean pronunciation, oneteaches the student to pronounce a Chinese textout loud; the student then memorizes it andabsorbs instruction on its meaning; and as thesame procedure is repeated with more and moretexts, he or she gradually learns to read. WhileSejong's wishes were noble enough, he himselfsurely realized that they were unrealistic. The

idea for a new and different approach – the directpromotion of national literacy through the cre-ation of a national phonetic script – may indeedhave been conceived at this time. In any case, weknow for certain that a decade later, within a fewweeks of his announcement of the alphabet,Sejong was talking of a Korean translation of"The Three Bonds.”

However that may be, no sign of any workon the alphabet is evident during those nine orten years. But in late 1443 or early 1444, Sejongsuddenly announced to his court that he hadcompleted a phonetic script of twenty-eight let-ters which could be functionally classified as "ini-tial, medial, or terminal sounds" and arranged insyllabic groups. Soon after this we hear of ademonstration class of clerks being assembled tolearn the script, printing technicians preparingalphabetic textual material (unfortunately notdescribed), the launching of a major researchinquiry into the phonology of a Chinese rimingdictionary, Yun hui (compiled 1292), and ofcourse the plans for "The Three Bonds" inKorean. These announcements had a powerfuleffect on the capital; indeed, they precipitated apolitical crisis.

It seems that Sejong's alphabet plans hadfound major opposition among the senior officials,including some even in the Hall of the Wise. Infact, Sejong had found it necessary to go aroundthe Hall and locate the phonological research proj-ect in the Office of Deliberation. The academicattack was led by Ch'oe Malli, who had also been aprominent opponent of the proposed administra-tive role for the crown prince. Ch'oe at that timeoccupied the highest research position in the Hall.From his long protest memorial, sent to the kingearly on March 5, 1444, we can see that he wasbasically an elitist who believed that literacy meantChinese literacy and should be the privilege of theruling class. To him, a phonetic script was a "bar-

barian matter" and not something a culturedcountry should have. He protested against usingthe "unattested" alphabet to "lightly revise therime books already perfected by the ancients." Hethought that mass literacy would destabilizeKorea's social order, and he was skeptical thataccurate transcription of trial testimony couldbring any improvement in the quality of justice.He complained that Sejong had acted precipitous-ly, without consulting his high officials, andlamented that the king was spending so much timeon such things when he should be attending to thereal business of government, and that even thecrown prince was being diverted from his absorp-tion in "the learning of the sages. "

Sejong was clearly angered by these argu-ments. He summoned Ch'oe Malli and the six aca-demicians who had joined in his protest and pointby point demonstrated the errors in their thinking."How," he wondered as he looked over Ch'oe'smemorial, "can these words be the informed andreasoned words of Confucian men? What utterlyuseless, commonplace Confucian men!" Althoughthe king had his way, the views voiced by Ch'oewere widely held in officialdom and in the upperclass, and would have a significant effect on theearly history of the alphabet.

During the following two years, the phonolog-ical research went forward, the alphabet wasrefined, and various orthographical problems wereconfronted. But the most valuable product of thisperiod was a thorough theoretical defense of thescript, carefully conceived on Confucian principlesand based on a highly sophisticated understandingof phonetic articulation. It was entitled "TheCorrect Sounds for the Instruction of the People,with Explanations and Examples" (Hunmin chòngùmhaerye). This was the commentary mentioned earli-er, the long-lost text of which was found in the oldhouse in Andong in 1940.

Among the many fascinating details in this doc-

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ument is an explanation of the shapes of the letters.The seventeen consonants are classified accordingto the five basic categories established by Chinesephonologists during the eleventh century. Thesewere velars, dentals, labials, alveolars, and laryn-gals.The letters for the velar sounds k and k' werebased on an upper-right angular shape which wassaid to represent the outline of a tongue pressedagainst the soft palate, where these consonantswere articulated.The dental letters n, t, and t' werebased on a lower-left angle, representing the out-line of the tip of the tongue touching the gum inback of the teeth. The labial letters for m, p, and p'were built on a square, representing the mouth andlips. The graphs for alveolar sounds s, z, ch, and ch'were based on an the shape of an inverted "v", saidto represent the incisor teeth which are clearly vis-ible during articulation of these sounds (theChinese name for this category was "incisorsounds"). Finally, the laryngeal letters for h, andthe glottal stop, etc., were based on a circle, repre-senting the larynx.

Vocalization was analyzed in a three-partscheme, front vowels symbolized by vertical line,mid-vowels by a horizontal line, and back vowelsby a thick dot. The eleven individual vowel signsand fifteen diphthong combinations were thenconstructed using various combinations of thesethree strokes.

Thus Sejong's system was not only based on thebest linguistic science of his day, it literallyengraphed that science. And his recognition of anindependent phonetic category for vowels wentcompletely beyond the Chinese theory from whichhe had started. On the other hand, his provision thatthe letters, though they constituted a genuine alpha-bet, be written in syllabic blocks rather than sequen-tially in a line, shows an accommodation to the basicEast Asian habit of writing a single syllable as a sin-gle graphic unit. No other alphabet in the world hassuch a feature.

The commentary went on to rationalize thephonological structure of the alphabet in terms ofwhat might be called a Confucian physics, which inturn was correlated, in the Confucian manner, withethics, music, and the sequence of the seasons.Thissection, not easy to summarize, was designed toconvince men trained in Confucianism of the funda-mental appropriateness of a phonetic script.

The commentary continued with orthographi-cal explanations concerning initial consonants, vow-els, and final consonants, and laid out a system ofdiacritics to indicate pitch levels, or accents. It con-cluded with a long list of sample Korean wordsdemonstrating possible combinations of the letters.

The Korean alphabet is thus revealed to be ascript like no other. It was conceived and inventedby a true genius, and explained in theoretical termsthat, for their time and place, can be called scientif-ic without hesitation or scruple. Phonetic evolutionand various orthographic reforms since Sejong'stime have rendered three of the original consonantsand one of the vowels obsolete, and the lettershapes, originally rather geometric, have gradually

become streamlined. But in its fundamental designand structure, the alphabet has not changed since itwas invented.

But it proved to be easier to create a theoreti-cally ingenious alphabet than it was to change socialand cultural attitudes toward writing and literacy. Itis true that the Buddhists, under the patronage ofSejong and especially of his son Sejo (r. 1455-1468),quickly realized the benefits of an alphabet for theproduction of popular translations of religious texts,and that women took up the alphabet almost imme-diately for purposes of informal writing and corre-spondence. But neither the Buddhists nor womenhad much influence in public education. Sejongtried to encourage Confucian scholars to use thealphabet for translation and educational work, but itwas nearly a century before there was any significantresponse to his initiative. By the early seventeenthcentury the alphabet began to have an impact on thegrowth of vernacular literature, but in the main clas-sical Chinese still held sway. Predictably, oppositionto the alphabet was the greatest in the bureaucracy,which not only retained Chinese in its traditionalexclusive role until the latter part of the nineteenthcentury, but even continued to favor the old charac-ter-based systems over the alphabet in many vernac-ular applications. During the eighteenth and nine-teenth century, however, trends in Korean societyand the gradual breakdown of the traditional classstructure brought major changes in political andcultural attitudes. The vigorous growth of Koreannationalism created many champions of nativeKorean culture, and of all the treasures that theyclaimed from the national past, the alphabet was thefirst and the greatest. Sejong's wisdom was recog-nized and his vision vindicated, and in the end his"Correct Sounds" enjoyed the respect and gratitudeof all Korean people.

For approximately the last hundred years,Koreans have called their alphabet by the name“Han’gùl, " or "Han script." The syllable han is sig-

nificantly ambiguous, yielding three different butlegitimate translations for the name: "the Koreanscript," "the great script" and "the one script." Thislast reflects the desire of most modern Koreans touse Han’gùl unmixed with Chinese characters,which because of the Chinese origin of a part of theKorean vocabulary was once a popular option butwhich in more recent times has encountered steadyresistance throughout the culture.

Sejong’s Last Years

Throughout his reign, Sejong had worked toperfect Confucian institutions in government andadministration, and to strengthen Confucian val-ues in Korean education and life. Although in thishe followed the long established policies of T'aejoand T'aejong, he also was in accord with his owndeeply felt convictions, nurtured by a lifetime ofstudy and research in the Confucian classics and inKorean and Chinese literature, music and history.But he was not because of this hostile toBuddhism, in the manner of most Korean scholarsand government officials throughout the long his-tory of the Chosòn dynasty. Indeed, in the lastyears of his life, Sejong turned more and more tothe comforts of Buddhism, and this increased thedistance that had been growing between him andmany of his senior officials. Sejong had actuallyshown Buddhist sympathies early in his reign, andthe agencies of remonstrance had fought him onthis ever since 1426, when they petitioned him tohave removed from his throne hall a Buddhistprayer engraved in the exotic Siddharn script onone of the ceiling beams. On that occasion Sejonghad gone along with their wishes, and he also fol-lowed earlier dynastic precedents in applying strictstandards for the licensing of monks, severelyrestricting the number of Buddhist temples thatcould be maintained throughout the country, and

17THE CULTURAL WORK OF SEJONG THE GREAT

18 GARI LEDYARD

limiting the amount of land that they could hold.But insofar as he personally was concerned, he wasnot only open-minded but positively cordial toBuddhism. In 1428, he admitted monks to thepalace on his birthday. "The monks' robes mixedwith the officials' caps and insignia, and the Indianmusic clashed with the sounds of the gongs andreed organs." This aroused a protest which he dis-missed without discussion. Such complaints con-tinued throughout his reign, some of them com-ing, not surprisingly, from the ever combativeCh'oe Malli. Things came to a head in 1448 and1449, when Sejong had a shrine built on the palacegrounds. The bombast that followed was particu-larly bitter; the students of the Confucian univer-sity even went on strike, and conducted a demon-stration outside the palace.

During this same period, Sejong composed – inKorean, using his alphabet – hundreds of devotion-al Buddhist poems, all dedicated to the memory ofhis wife, Queen Sohòn, who had passed away in1446. Sejong himself passed these last years on areduced schedule, attending to important businessbut spending much time in study and thought, find-ing what peace he could.

In the early months of 1450, his accumulatingpains became too serious for his physicians to alle-viate. He died on March 30, 1450, in the thirty-second year of his reign, at the age of fifty-three.The name Sejong, by which he is known to historyand which means something like "epochal ances-tor," was chosen for him at that time.

NOTE

"The Cultural Work of Sejong the Great" was written

in 1990 as a proprietary paper for the Overseas

Information Service (Haeoe Kongbogwan) of the

Republic of Korea, which used it in a brochure pre-

pared for ceremonies to inaugurate the King Sejong

Literacy Prize, held in Paris under the joint auspices

of the Korean government and the United Nations

Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization

(UNESCO). The prize was established by the Korean

government; the selection of winners is decided

annually by UNESCO.

The paper was translated into French and appeared in

both French and English in the bilingual brochure pre-

pared for the occasion. In a mutual understanding with

the Overseas Information Service, there was no indica-

tion of my authorship in the brochure, which was dis-

tributed by both the Korean government and UNESCO.

In the intervening years, copies of the brochure have

become completely unavailable. Since neither my text

nor the brochure itself was ever copyrighted, I have

decided to prepare copies in a new format for free dis-

tribution, with my authorship now indicated.

—GARI LEDYARD November, 2002

Gari Ledyard is the King Sejong Professor of Korean

Studies Emeritus at Columbia University in the City of

New York.