Why Did King Sejong Create Hangul? The King Who Invented an Alphabet for Ordinary People

King Sejong created Hangul because ordinary Koreans could not write their own language. Korean was written with Chinese characters, which were hard to learn and did not fit Korean speech, so most people were unable to express themselves in writing. Sejong, the fourth king of the Joseon dynasty, introduced a new alphabet around late 1443 and promulgated it in 1446 in a document called the Hunminjeongeum, "The Correct Sounds for the Instruction of the People". Nearly six centuries later, Hangul is one of the few writing systems in the world whose creator, date and purpose are all known, and it is often the first pleasant surprise for anyone who starts learning Korean.

The third son who became king

Sejong was born on 15 May 1397, the third son of King Taejong. He was not supposed to rule. He became crown prince in 1418 only after his older brother was removed from that position, and he took the throne the same year. He reigned until his death in 1450 and is widely regarded as the greatest king in Korean history.

He governed largely on Confucian principles, and one of his reforms was strikingly practical: he reformed the land tax, cutting the rate from 10% to 5% of the harvest.

A golden age of science

Sejong's reign is often described as a golden age for Korean science. He supported a royal research institution, the Hall of Worthies, and his court produced a new calendar, astronomical instruments, a rain gauge and advances in movable metal type.

He was also interested in very down-to-earth knowledge. His government compiled Nongsa jikseol (1429), an agricultural handbook based on the experience of Korean farmers rather than Chinese manuals, and major medical works, including the 365-volume Uibang yuchwi. The common thread is clear: knowledge should be useful to the people who actually needed it.

The problem with Chinese characters

For centuries Koreans had written using Chinese characters, known in Korean as hanja. There were two problems. First, there are thousands of characters, so only people with years of education, mostly the aristocratic elite, could read and write well. Second, Korean and Chinese are very different languages, so Chinese characters were an awkward fit for Korean speech.

The preface of the Hunminjeongeum says this directly: because Korean speech differs from Chinese, many ordinary people had things they wanted to say but could not put them into writing. Sejong's goal was a script simple enough for anyone to learn.

How the letters work

What makes Hangul famous among linguists is its design. The basic consonants are drawn from the shape of the speech organs that make each sound:

• ㄱ (g/k) shows the root of the tongue blocking the throat.
• ㄴ (n) shows the tongue touching the ridge behind the teeth.
• ㅁ (m) shows the shape of the mouth.
• ㅅ (s) represents a tooth.
• ㅇ represents the throat.

Other consonants are built by adding strokes to these shapes, so related sounds look related: ㄱ, ㅋ and ㄲ, for example. The original system had 28 letters; modern Korean uses 24 basic letters, 14 consonants and 10 vowels. Letters are then grouped into square syllable blocks: ㅎ + ㅏ + ㄴ makes 한, the first syllable of "Hangul".

A popular saying claims that a wise person can learn Hangul in a morning and even a slow learner in ten days. Whatever the exact time, most learners can read Hangul aloud within a few hours of practice, even before they understand the words.

Not everyone was pleased

Hangul was controversial. Many scholars and officials valued literacy in Chinese characters as a mark of status and a link to Chinese civilisation, and they saw a simple new script as a threat to both. After Sejong's death the alphabet had a difficult history. In 1504, after criticisms of King Yeonsangun were written in Hangul, he persecuted its use.

For centuries Hangul was used mostly by women, commoners and in popular literature, while official documents stayed in Chinese characters. Only in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries did it become the main script of Korean public life.

Final years and legacy

In his later years Sejong's health declined, and from 1445 his son, the future King Munjong, handled daily government affairs. Sejong died in 1450.

Today he is everywhere in Korea. The administrative city of Sejong is named after him, and South Korea celebrates Hangul Day every year on 9 October.

Learn with King Sejong: your first Korean words

Because Hangul is phonetic, you can start reading real Korean words almost immediately. Here are five to begin with:

Korean	Pronunciation	Meaning
한글	han-geul	Hangul, the Korean alphabet
세종	se-jong	Sejong
안녕하세요	an-nyeong-ha-se-yo	Hello (polite)
감사합니다	gam-sa-ham-ni-da	Thank you (formal)
책	chaek	book

And because this is also an English lesson, here are useful English phrases from the story: to be illiterate (unable to read or write), a writing system, to be phonetic (letters match sounds), a mark of status, and to put something into writing.

Try this: Break 한글 into its letters (ㅎ ㅏ ㄴ / ㄱ ㅡ ㄹ) and say each sound aloud. Then write one English sentence explaining to a friend why Sejong created Hangul, using "put into writing".