A Nation Where All the People Learn (8)

Gyeonggi Province, Anseong County, Nam-myeon, Daeseong-ri.

Twenty-five-year-old Cheoldong sat with the villagers in the newly established village school in Daeseong-ri.

They had come to learn how to read and write in Hunminjeongeum.

The young village instructor seated before them had already held his tenth Hunminjeongeum class since taking up his post, teaching the script to nearly 130 people.

Teaching people who had never studied a day in their lives caused him tremendous mental fatigue, but...

The young instructor, who had just turned sixteen that year and been appointed to Daeseong-ri, taught the people with great diligence and fiery enthusiasm.

He believed that it was a yangban's duty to learn extensively, then teach and edify others, and that he must not neglect the duty of teaching the people.

“Now, this is read ga. Giyeok and a combine to make ga. And when giyeok and yeo come together here, it is read gyeo.”

Cheoldong and the others sat on straw mats, listening to the lesson with utmost attention.

When they first heard that a seodang teaching Hunminjeongeum would be established, they had wondered what ignorant bumpkins like them could possibly use learning for. But after hearing the instructor say that if they remained illiterate, they could not even voice their grievances when charged outrageously high tenant rents, they deeply agreed and changed their minds...