Chapter 230
When I saw Hunminjeongeum written by Sejong himself, tears burst from my eyes.
I could not control the hot emotions rising from deep within my heart.
“Your Majesty, is this truly a script belonging solely to Joseon? Are you saying that Your Majesty created a script that all the people can easily learn?”
Of course, I already knew that Sejong would create Hunminjeongeum.
That was why, in preparation for the creation of Hangul, I had increased paper production and developed printing technology.
To usher in a new era with a script called Hangul and create a country where all the people could read and write, we needed a foundation that would allow us to mass-produce and expand the books and paper necessary to teach and use the script.
A script only demonstrates its true value when it is written on paper and carries content (information).
Even though I knew everything and had been preparing for it, when I actually saw a sheet of paper with Hunminjeongeum written on it before my eyes, an unfamiliar emotion surged forth from my chest like a dam bursting, as though a pillar of blazing fire had risen from deep within me.
“I feel as though I must be dreaming.”
Sejong's face was filled with a smile.
"Do you like this script that much?"
"I like it more than words can express. Just looking at it makes my emotions well up and my heart pound as though it might burst. I like it so very much."
In Joseon, to read and write in Chinese characters—or even in idu—one had to learn at least several thousand Chinese characters.
On top of that, anyone who tried to learn the complex notation system unique to idu had to pour an enormous amount of effort into learning even that one writing system.
They probably had to devote several times more effort to their studies than what it took to get a perfect score on the TOEIC.
However, as written in the Hunminjeongeum Haerye, a person gifted at learning could master Hangul in only a few hours, while even a dull person could learn it in about ten days...
With the help of compulsory education, making the illiteracy rate less than one percent in thirty or forty years was no longer a mere dream.
Considering that Korea had only managed to achieve an illiteracy rate below one percent after the twenty-first century began, this was truly remarkable.
"Your Majesty, there are only twenty-eight letters. No matter how foolish a person in this world might be, they should be able to learn them all within one shijin (2 hours)."
"Learn all the letters in just one shijin? Yes, you are right. While creating these letters, I too kept in mind the goal of making them easy enough for an ordinary person to learn with only about one shijin of effort. But can letters alone convey meaningful speech?"
Sejong ordered a eunuch to bring him a seowan (a desk one could write at while seated).
Then he carefully wrote Hangul on a sheet of paper and gave it to me.
"This is read as giyeok, and this is read as a. When these two are combined, they are read as ga. Similarly, this is read as nieun..."
Sejong personally taught me how to read all the consonants and vowels of Hunminjeongeum.
I had used Hangul for quite a long time, so I knew how to read it and how to write it even without Sejong telling me...
Just as the musicians on a certain YouTube channel who had reached the highest level concealed their abilities, appeared as beginners, and pretended to learn step by step without revealing their true skills, I too had to play the role of a beginner before Sejong.
If he realized that I already knew this script that had only just appeared in the world...
Judging by common sense, what would I look like?
I would be regarded as the very embodiment of the uncanny and supernatural, a supernatural being like the god who turned water into wine and fed five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish.
'In Joseon, the uncanny and supernatural are objects of extreme suspicion.'
Therefore, I had no choice but to pretend to be an ordinary person and play the role of a beginner learning Hunminjeongeum.
And I loved watching King Sejong the Great teach me how to read each letter, his eyes sparkling like those of a child.
"Haha, this is formed by combining ㄱ,ㅜ,ㄴ,ㄲ,ㅠ,ㅋ,ㅗ,ㅐ,ㅇ,ㅓ,ㅂ. It is read as 군규쾌업."
"So it is read as 군뀨쾌업(군규쾌업)."
"When I promulgate Hunminjeongeum, I intend to place this phrase at the very beginning. Do you know why?"
"Please tell me so that I may understand, Your Majesty."
Sejong gave me a broad grin.
"My royal father gave birth to me and raised me, and when I had to leave the throne under the pretext of illness while I was creating this script, he even protected the royal ancestral shrine and the state. Moreover, he supported my task of creating this script more than anyone else. Therefore, I intend to engrave in Hunminjeongeum the meaning that these are letters created joyfully through the combined efforts of my royal father, the great dragon who protects Joseon, and me, his young dragon."
In actual history, the phrase 군규쾌업 had been placed at the very beginning of the Haerye to signify that Sejong and Munjong had created the script together...
But the creation of the script had occurred fourteen years earlier than in actual history, and Yi Bang-won was still alive and healthy, helping Sejong.
The great dragon had become Yi Bang-won, and King Sejong the Great had become the young dragon.
"Now, because Hunminjeongeum is written by combining consonants and vowels, it can record every word used in Joseon exactly as it sounds. Unlike Chinese characters, or the hiragana and katakana used in Japan, or Sanskrit, if you put your mind to it, you can even write down the sound of falling water and the cry of an oriole."
"Then we could even preserve the performances of Gong-gil's troupe, which is performing so energetically in the marketplace right now."
"Would it end there? We will write down and preserve all the knowledge of Joseon. If it is hyangak (folk songs), then hyangak; if it is deotboegi, then deotboegi; if it is a song, then a song; if it is a book, then a book... Everything will be written and recorded in Hunminjeongeum, and as long as the royal ancestral shrine and the state endure, no record or information will disappear or be forgotten."
If anyone suggested recording deotboegi or the performances of a namsadangpae, Park Yeon, the Akhak Byeolje, would step forward and make an enormous fuss.
In Joseon, where rites and propriety prevailed, court music should have been enough, so why would anyone want to preserve vulgar music like hyangak in writing?
If he made noises like that, King Emeritus Yi Bang-won would personally step forward and persuade him with an iron mace.
"Now, pick up the brush. And write what I say in Hunminjeongeum."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Under normal circumstances, I would have said, ‘How could a subject like me use the brush and inkstone His Majesty used?’ and begged him to reconsider.
However, with the promulgation of Hunminjeongeum being prepared, it would be absurd to quibble over etiquette at a time like this.
Hangul had appeared a full fourteen years earlier than in actual history, after all.
Not only had Hangul appeared, but the moment when it would be distributed throughout all eight provinces of Joseon through compulsory education was now just around the corner.
At this point, that fellow Heo Jo would be so excited that even his permanently bent back might straighten.
Indeed, that very morning, I had stopped him from making a commotion about dumping his entire fortune into printing the Four Books and Three Classics.
Sejong looked at me and spoke.
"A country where all the people learn the ways of a gentleman."
I wrote those words down in Hunminjeongeum.
My heart continued to pound the entire time I was writing.
The unwanted promotion to a senior official that I had suffered, the twenty-day vacation Jo Mal-saeng and Hwang Hui had taken by selling me out, and my civil service career, which had drifted far into the distance...
All the disasters I had endured...
I was so happy that I could almost believe they had all been for this very moment.
For a moment, I even had this thought.
'For the sake of promulgating and distributing Hunminjeongeum, perhaps I could remain in office until I was seventy?'
In truth, for the sake of promulgating and distributing Hunminjeongeum, I was prepared to do anything.
But...
When I thought again about remaining in office until I was seventy, I suddenly realized that this was not right.
At that age, by Joseon standards, I would be old enough to be watching my great-grandchildren play rather than merely my grandchildren.
For a brief moment, I had been intoxicated by the opium called Hunminjeongeum, and my judgment had become clouded.
I repent.
"I have written it."
"I have spoken about Hunminjeongeum for only about two gak (30 minutes), yet you already seem to have mastered how to read and write the letters... This proves that it is a script so easy that even an intelligent person can learn it in two gak."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"I shall take this writing with me. And I will hang it in the Jiphyeonjeon and Seonggyungwan."
When I heard that, my head began to ring.
Even being struck hard on the head with an iron mace could not have been this shocking.
"Your Majesty, why would you hang the writing of a lowly person like me in the Jiphyeonjeon and Seonggyungwan?"
Sejong had always been deeply saddened that the people could not properly convey what they wished to say because they did not know the written language. That was why he had wanted to create a script that anyone could easily read and write. However, before hearing my words, he had never gone so far as to think that Joseon should become a country where all the people could enjoy the pleasure of learning.
Sejong tightly grasped my hand as he spoke.
"That dream you told me about—the dream of creating a country where everyone could experience the joy of learning. Is that not something even the Sage (Confucius) failed to imagine?"
Well, Confucius certainly had not gone so far as to consider introducing compulsory education.
"When a seonbi passes the civil service examination and enters public service, he is supposed to leave his achievements and name in the records of history. Therefore, as king, I wish to leave your contribution in those records."
"I am overwhelmed by Your Majesty's boundless grace."
"It is late tonight, so withdraw for now. And take good care of your health."
When I heard him tell me to take good care of my health, goosebumps suddenly rose all over my body.
This was just my imagination, right?
He could not have said that because he intended to turn me into Hwang Hui.