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The Hunminjeongum
manuscript
Inscribed 1997
What is it
This book, published in 1446, contains the Korean
alphabet Hunminjeongum (now called hang-gul), newly
created by King Sejong and explanations by scholars on
how to use the alphabet.
Why was it inscribed
After the creation of Hunminjeongum, the Korean people
had an alphabet with which they could directly write
down their distinctive national language. Consequently
their culture began to develop at a new level.
Where is it
Kansong Art Museum, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Prior to the publication of the Hunminjeongum, there
had been no written Korean alphabet. Instead Chinese
characters had been used since the beginning of the
Christian era, and by the middle of the 15th century there
were many scholarly and literary works composed in
classical written Chinese. However, Chinese characters
were not suitable for writing Korean, a language quite
different from Chinese. A system for using Chinese
characters to represent the Korean language, called
yidu, was used for the everyday paperwork of the
bureaucracy and the people, but it did not provide a
perfect representation of the Korean language.
Therefore, after studying the methods of writing in
neighbouring countries, King Sejong (1418–50), the
fourth king of the Joseon dynasty, with the assistance
of scholars of the Hall of Worthies, invented the twentyeight
alphabetic letters (seventeen consonants and eleven
vowels) of the Hunminjeongum, which both allowed a
perfect representation of spoken Korean and were easy
to learn. Sejong had scholars write commentaries with
examples of the new writing system, and compiled them
with his own simple explanation of the new script in a
book with the same name as the alphabet itself and his
own explanation of it, Hunminjeongum (‘Proper Sounds to
Instruct the People’).
� A page from the main text
of Hunminjeongeum. It
explains each of the twenty-eight
letters of the Korean alphabet
that were created in this book:
seventeen consonants and eleven
vowels. Of the twenty-eight
original letters, four fell into
disuse naturally and the remaining
twenty-four are still used today.
� A page of explanation
of how the Korean
alphabet works, from the
Commentaries that form
part of the Haerye edition
of Hunminjeongeum.
The Hunminjeongum was created as a phonemic writing
system, where written syllables correspond exactly with
spoken syllables (modern hang-gul no longer maintains
this direct relationship). The letters of syllables are written
together in blocks approximately the same size and shape
as the monosyllabic Chinese characters they often appear
with in so-called mixed script.
Published in the ninth lunar month of 1446,
Hunminjeongum is printed from woodblocks carved
in a refined and elegant style. It is made of thirty-three
leaves, printed on both sides, and is 32.2 cm high and
20 cm high. The main text comprises four leaves and the
Commentaries twenty-nine leaves. This book used Sejong’s
original font, with all strokes of uniform thickness. This
rectangular font became more cursive from the mid-
15th century. This style harmonized well with the cursive
Chinese characters. This is the only surviving example
of the Hunminjeongum with its commentaries and is often
referred to as the Haerye Edition of Hunminjeongum. It
was thought to have been lost around 1504 and was only
rediscovered in 1940. The discovery of these commentaries
answered many questions about the creation of this
alphabet that had been previously debated.
The Hunminjeongum manuscript 141