Our ancestors' hope embedded in 'Hangeul'
Chun Woo-yong, president of the King Sejong Institute Foundation / Courtesy of King Sejong Institute Foundation
On June 10, 1926, the funeral of Yi Cheok, the last emperor of Korea, was held. On that day, Koreans once again staged an independence demonstration. About five months later, on Nov. 4, members of the Korean Language Society and pro-independence groups gathered at a restaurant in Seoul to mark the 480th anniversary of the promulgation of the "Hunminjeongeum."
At the time, six-decade cycles were a far more familiar milestone to the public than centennials. Following the ceremony, members of both organizations resolved to commemorate the occasion annually. The next year, the Korean Language Society introduced "Hangeul" as the script's official new name and launched its signature journal. Accordingly, the holiday was named "Hangeul Day."
"Hunminjeongeum" translates literally to "the correct sounds to instruct the people." Created in an era of strict social hierarchy, when Classical Chinese dominated as the writing of the elite yangban class, the new alphabet served primarily as a written language for commoners, women and children. In everyday speech, colloquial terms like "eonmun" (vulgar script), "bangeul" (half-script), or "amgeul" (women’s script) were used to refer to the writing system far more often than its formal name.
These labels implied that the script was fit only for country folk, women or children, people thought incapable of mastering full expression. Although it was officially elevated to become a national script during the Gabo Reforms of 1894, the title was short-lived. Following the forced annexation of Korea in 1910, Imperial Japan promoted its own scripts and demoted Korea’s writing system. The different legal status of the two different written languages in daily life reflected the unequal relationship between the colonial rulers and the people they ruled over.
The name Hangeul was coined around 1913 by linguist Ju Si-gyeong. Overturning the dismissive undertones of terms like eonmun, bangeul, and amgeul, the new name conveyed a meaning more akin to "great script," "complete script" or "script of the Korean nation." When the Korean Language Society formally adopted the name roughly a decade later, it could be seen as a declaration of cultural independence — an attempt to break free from medieval and colonial forms of discrimination through language.
A century later, Hangeul has become a writing system studied by people around the world. That the writing system of a colonized nation not only survived, but went on to attain global influence is remarkable, powered by the Korean people’s own relentless drive for decolonization. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the establishment of Hangeul Day. May the hope of our ancestors, seen in Hangeul a century ago as a vision of human equality and global peace, continue to spread across the world with Korean culture.
Chun Woo-yong is president of King Sejong Institute Foundation.