King Sejong
King Sejong is known to be one of the greatest Korean kings during the Choson Kingdom. His reign, which ended in 1450, is often called the "Golden Age" because of its time of great cultural and intellectual accomplishment. He was chosen over his oldest brother as the heir to the throne at age twenty two after his father, King T'aejong, abdicated his throne. King Sejong implemented a lot of reform to improve the life of the common people. He provided shelters and food during times of drought and flood. He created a loan system for farmers who had an unsuccessful harvest. He supported research in cultural, economic, and political heritage of Korea while also helping to improve scientific inventions and musical instrument.
King Sejong also put great emphasis on scholarship and education. He commissioned several numbers of literary works to encourage and spread education among his people. He created a book about the history of the Koryo Kingdom and handbooks such as those on farming methods and filial deeds. The most important achievement of King Sejong was the Korean alphabet, or han'gul, in 1443. Before, Koreans used the Chinese language, which is a very different from Korean in its vocal patterns and sentence structure. Especially since the Chinese language was so hard to learn, the Korean people in the upper class were usually the only ones who knew how to read and write. Han'gul allowed all classes to have the opportunity to read and write. By the establishment of the Korean alphabet, King Sejong created a cultural identity for the Korean people. Han'gul has 28 letters and people can read and pronounce Korean in just a few hours. Having once learned the Hanja, the adapted Chinese characters, and the Chinese language before, I know how difficult Chinese is when compared to the simple Korean language.
Consonants and Vowels are put together to make the Korean characters.
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