[Essay in My Heart]

King Sejong the Great

“Hangeul is the most creatively devised writing system on the planet.”

- James McCawley, University of Chicago Linguist –

“Hangeul is undoubtedly one of the greatest intellectual products of mankind.”

- Geffrey Sampson, University of Sussex Linguist -

'King Sejong the Great' was authored by Joe Menosky who is an American TV drama writer and producer famous for the science-fiction drama 'Star Trek'. It is a historical fantasy novel focused on the achievements of King Sejong the Great, the great king of Joseon, in particular, the creation and publicity of Hangeul for the Korean people. It was published simultaneously in Korean and English in October 2020.

Thankfully, I received this novel as a gift from an acquaintance recently. First of all, the title of it caught my attention. This novel, the first in the world to be written in English by a foreigner in Hangeul, aroused interest in many people when it was published. In fact, even if we have gratitude for the Hangeul we use every day, in a way, it seems that the evaluation of King Sejong's very original, scientific, and systematic achievements in the creation of Hangeul is in fact not well recognized by Koreans.

Rather, as the Korean Wave, centered on K-Pop, is hitting the world these days, foreigners are giving us a new perspective on Hangeul. I have been impressed by reading or reporting through various media that foreigners, who are more passionate Hallyu (Korean Wave) fans than Koreans, eagerly learn and write Hangul.

Most of the characters in this novel are real people who have appeared in history. For example, there are people like Choi Man-ri, who strongly opposed the creation and publication of Hangeul, and Shin Suk-ju, a genius linguist and one of the scholars of Jiphyeonjeon (Academy of Scholars).

I saw that the phrase ‘Sejong’s genius is more than the sum of Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton, and Steve Jobs’ was written on the cover of a novel book. The reinterpretation of Korean history, culture, and great figures from a Western point of view and the author's creativity and interest were added to the storytelling, which I felt was a work that showed the professional expertise of the writer as a TV drama writer.

However, even though this novel is a historical fantasy novel, I personally felt that the author did not fully understand the history of East Asia as it unfolded while explaining the historical confrontational relationship between Joseon, Ming, Mongolia, and Japan. For example, after a long period of thorough deliberation with King Sejong the Great, Choi Yun-deok (최윤덕: 崔潤德) took the lead in the conquest of the Yeojin Tribe in the north and Daemado (Tsushima Island) and made a remarkable achievement. He was the first Korean dignitary from the Joseon Dynasty, served as the second-highest official as a general, and for that achievement, he received a special award from Sejong for his achievement.  He was not mentioned in the novel at all.

If the historical facts of our country are conveyed to the world in an inaccurate or distorted state through these novels, especially through films, I think it will be problematic. If a movie is made later based on the content of the novel, these points should be thoroughly checked and confirmed one by one before production. Given the current reality in which the world distorts history by putting the national interest of each country first by using the powerful power of culture, or telling false, baseless lies, these issues should be dealt with very carefully and accurately.

On the positive side of this novel, at least the excellence of Hangeul will be more widely known around the world, and the influence of Korean culture will be stronger.

Based on this, it is expected that this international cultural phenomenon can bring many positive effects to our country both economically and politically.

It is said that there are still quite a few tribes in the world that are still suffering from a lack of text. In this regard, the opinion of world-class linguists that Hangeul is the world's best and most practical script recognized by the United Nations and that it has sufficient qualifications as an international official language in the future is increasing. Considering that the number of people who want to learn Hangul diligently in this trend is rapidly increasing around the world, I think it is not far away that Korean will become a major language in the world and be widely used in the near future. It is simply surprising to see the foresight of King Sejong the Great who promulgated ‘Hunminjeongeum (훈민정음: 訓民正音),’ a great spiritual legacy of mankind that is created in 1443 and recognized as the best and most original in the world in 1446.

This novel, which is the story of King Sejong who truly loved the people and the excellence of Hangeul from a Westerner's point of view, is a novel that Koreans should read at least once. ***

Solti 

At Soongseonjae(崇善齋)

January 2, 2022