King Sejong and the creation of Hangul, the Korean Script

So who was King Sejong and what did he do?

Sejong was the youngest of three children of King Taejong, ruler of the early Joseon Kingdom. He was born in 1397 and died in 1450.

He was favored by his father because he excelled in his studies. Later, his older brother, Yangnyeong, who had been designated as heir-apparent, was seen to be too free spirited by his father and was known to prefer leisure activities. This lack of seriousness was a fault to his father, so in 1418, Sejong was designated heir-apparent and became King upon the abdication of his father.

These two semi-postal stamps are the same basic design as the definitives issued in 1956. These are Scott B3 and B4.

B3 (KPS S3)on the left is watermarked with zigzag lines
B4 (KPS S4) on the right is watermarked with the postal emblem

Both were issued in 1957 and the additional surtax of 10 hwan was meant for flood relief.

Most importantly, however, King Sejong was known for his promotion of scholarship via the creation of the Hall of Worthies (Jiphyeonjeon/집현전) and the creation and promulgation of Hangul (한글), the Korean script.

Up until that time, the Korean educated and ruling class had been using Chinese characters to represent their language. Indeed, as many as 300 Chinese characters are still in use today and can be seen in some books and Korean newspapers. This is, however, falling by the wayside.

The Korean language and Chinese are wholly different, unrelated languages and the scholars of the Jiphyeonjeon were asked to come up with a writing system that was easy to learn and could be used by the person on the street.

The "letters" surrounding the vignette on this new definitive, show the script created by King Sejong. It is easy to learn, easy to write and logical.The idea was to shape the letter by the way the sounds are formed in the mouth. The letters are written in sets of 2 or 3 or even 4 and typically consist of consonant/vowel combinations. To non-Koreans the letters may look superficially like Chinese but they are much more regular and boxy looking.

This new set of definitives which included this King Sejong design was issued starting in 1962. The same or similar design was used 4 different times in 4 different printings as follows:

From left to right:
Scott 339 (KPS 191) was from the last Hwan denominated group of definitives.
Scott 365 (KPS 200) was part of the new "won" white paper series and is denominated in the new currency of Cheon and Won.
Scott 390 (KPS 211) was issued with the postal emblem watermark
Scott 519 (KPS 242) is from a set of definitives issued in 1966 where the same designs as previous are used but the stamps are now in a smaller format.

Note that the KPS or Korean Postage Stamp Catalogue recognizes an additional set of stamps printed on Granite Paper which are listed in Scott as minor numbers. In this case, Scott 390a (KPS 225) which would be exactly the same as Scott 390 noted above except for the paper type.

Historically it is thought that King Sejong introduced Hangul on October 9, 1446. Because of the importance of Hangul that date has remained a commemorative day up to the present day in Korea.

In celebration of the 500th anniversary of the introduction of Hangul, a stamp was issued on October 9, 1946. This stamp is the first of several issued commemorating this important day. Scott no. 74 (KPS C10).

Less attractive, in my opinion, is this stamp issued in commemoration of Hangul Day, Scott no. 2232 (KPS C1954), issued on October 9, 2006. It is possible Korea will start issuing a stamp every 10 years for Hangul Day but this is speculation on my part.

This stamp, however, does touch on the idea that King Sejong based the shape of his alphabet on the articulation points in the human mouth which is shown by the background profile often seen in phonetics textbooks.

King Sejong's statue is situated just south of the entrance to his palace, Gyeongbokgung. This is that entrance.

And, finally, this is the throne room where King Sejong would have held court.

King Sejong's legacy was recognized in 2000 with the addition of the Hunmincheongeon manuscript and the Annals of the Chosun Dynasty to the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.

This occasion was celebrated with the issuance of a beautiful set of lithographed and engraved stamps depicting King Sejong and the two manuscripts. The Scott no. is 2042 (KPS C1626 and C1627) for the sheet of 8 stamps and 2042a and 2042b for the two different stamps contained in the sheet.

Very interesting darkormex

Thank you. It certainly looks better here than on my own FB page. I had been working on it over the last couple of days, hiding it from my timeline until complete, but when I finally posted the whole album, the results were disappointing. It is just not a nice presentation on FB.

This could have been or could be an article in the newsletter.

A superb summary of the birth of Hangul, well worthy of inclusion in the newsletter.

I never managed much Korean beyond basic greetings, answering the phone, ordering a beer, getting a receipt and writing my name in Hangul.

My name reads clockwise from the aircraft symbol (I was attached to the Republic of Korea Air Force)

Thanks, Darrin, my memory is good, but it's short!
I was trying to find Hangul characters on my PC, but they haven't been installed on this build.

The "f" sound, as in Phil, is not present in Korean so pronunciation of my name was always "Pil",
or else they called me by my surname, with a "y" on the end, so "Le Pagey"!
Coffee shops always sounded like "copy shop", which confused me for a while.

Once explained to me, the rules in Hangul were generally simple and rigid unlike in English, but I never worked out why my Warrant Officer, whose name was written "Roh" was always referred to as "Noh".