Tree with Deep Roots

Tree with Deep Roots: Korean King Sejong the Great and Hangul, Korean Alphabet The setting of this Drama gets back to 15th century, Joseon Dynasty of Korea. King Seojong was the fourth King of Joseon. Joseon dynasty is the last empire before Korean Republic was founded. Today, let's talk about Hangul. Thanks to Korean drama, many people around the world started learning Hangul. One is because they like the sound of Hangul, the other says she wants to talk in Korean with Korean pop starts. Either way is fine. Learning a different language is a reat way to understand one's culture.

Three main characters in Tree with Deep Roots Sejong the Great and Hangul, Korean alphabet Sejong the Great was the fourth king of the Joseon Dynasty of Korea. King Sejong the Great profoundly impacted Korean history with his introduction of hangul, the native phonetic alphabet system for the Korean language. Before the creation of Hangul, only members of the highest class were literate. King Sejong presided over the introduction of the 28-letter Korean alphabet, with the goal that Koreans from all classes would read and write. He also attempted to establish a cultural identity for his people through its unique script. According to him, it was not easy to persuade scholars to create new letters because they did not understand why it is necessary.

Then, Sejong himself began this work. His smart sons and daughters helped him in the beginning. It was a secret project. Without love for his people, he could not be able to begin this project. In the beginning of Hangul proclamation, people did not use it much. Like it takes some time when a new wave arrives in one’s era, it was not widely used by Korean people within Sejong’s time. However, when one wrote a novel criticizing politics of Joseon dynasty in Hangul around Jungjong era, 11th King of Joseon dynasty, it received an enthusiastic support from people of middle and lower classes. It was all thanks to Hangul. If it had been written in Hanja, a language of upper class, ordinary people could not understand the content.

Sejong the Great was a seonin (an elightened being) who came to Earth in order to spread Hangul and to contribute scientific development of Joseon in the foundation era. According to him, the power of letters is significant. In order to awaken one’s consciousness, you need education. Without easy Korean alphabets, they were not able to read books and this means their consciousness stays all the time. Letters have their own life power, thus they are to be spreaded and this is what he meant when he first created Hangul although he knew it would not be well received in the beginning. Even today, art is considered something that people of upper class can only enjoy. However, the more society is evolved, the more art would become ordinary. Everyone becomes artist and everyone enjoys art. That is how the world gets richer and full of art.