한글의 이야기
Creation by King Sejong
In the 25th year of his reign, King Sejong the Great of the Joseon Dynasty completed a writing system designed from first principles. Unlike scripts that evolved over millennia, Hangeul was engineered — each consonant shape maps to the position of the speech organs that produce it.
Hunminjeongeum Proclaimed
The "Correct Sounds for the Instruction of the People" was promulgated. Sejong's preface declared: "Being of foreign origin, Chinese characters are incapable of capturing uniquely Korean meanings. Therefore, many among the common people have no way to express their thoughts and feelings. Out of my sympathy for their difficulties, I have invented a set of 28 letters."
A System of Infinite Combination
With 14 basic consonants and 10 basic vowels, Hangeul can represent over 11,000 syllable blocks. Its geometric logic — consonants from articulatory shapes, vowels from the cosmic trinity of heaven, earth, and human — makes it one of the most systematic and learnable writing systems ever created.