During my research for my Cultural post last week, I became very intrigued in the intertwining political and cultural relationship between Korea and China. It is known that Sejong the Great (세종대왕) created Hangul in 1446, which ended the use of Chinese characters due to its complexity. However, the extent to which the two cultures merge and clash extends thousands of years prior to this obvious schism, without a clear geographical boundary and lies beyond the definition of “nations.”
Ancient Chinese and Korean civilizations were divided among ethnic groups rather than a defined “nation.” Korean mythology described the earliest contact with China as when 5,000 followers of Jizi left China and settled in Dangun’s kingdom (단군檀君) of Gojoseon (고조선_
, which is the first Korean kingdom around present day Liaoning, China, and Jizi was later made king in 1122 BC. The adoption of the Chinese Title Wang (왕 王) in Gojoseon signaled the early influence of Yan China (燕). The Chinese culture was brought directly to the Peninsula during the Han Dynasty (汉朝206 – 220 BC) when refugees fled the nation. Han later established four military colonies, or commanderies, in Manchuria and northern Korea. The presence of Han Chinese (as the ethnic group) largely increased trade and physical contact between Korea and China, allowing more culture exchange. All three nations of the “Three Kingdoms Period ”, Baekje (백재百济), Goguryeo (고구려 高丽) and Silla (신라 新罗), adopted the Chinese writing system, which facilitated in their adaptation of Confucianism, that greatly influenced the Korean politics, ethical thoughts, and family relations. The Baekje kingdom adopted Buddhism as their official state religion in 384 CE, which had a tremendous impact on the state’s literature, art, architecture and ceramics.
King Sejong, the creator of Hangul, was greatly respected and loved, and considered as one of the greatest ruler in the history of Korea. As a scholar, he recognized the difficulties and complexities of Chinese characters had led to the low literacy level of the Korean population. Moreover, due to the foreign origin of this language, many found it difficult to communicate their feelings due to the lack of words to describe their exact feelings. It was also inefficient for people to complain to their rulers, because they can only do so orally as most people are illiterate. The creation of Hangul made illiteracy nonexistent with simple characters that are much more easier than Chinese.
Reference:
Mark Cartwright. Ancient Korean and Chinese Relations. Ancient History Encyclopedia. 30th Nov 2016. https://www.ancient.eu/article/984/ancient-korean--chinese-relations/
“History of Hangul” https://zkorean.com/hangul/history_of_hangul
Replies
I am somewhat surprised that Korean would not have kept the old script. I would be more suprised, however, to learn that this was part of an early modern attempt at mass literacy. Thinking of other cases in my mind, I find it difficult to image Korean elites would have wanted mass literacy in the early modern era. I would imagine Hangul was rather a way to create elite literacy. It would be a noteworthy exception to the general global trend of low literacy up until the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries if this were otherwise. In the Ottoman Empire, for example, elites and state-made elites were literate, along with some of the underclass for the greater part of its history. With the coming of print culture and the centralizing state, mass literacy became more important to elites. However, only in the 1920's, when the Empire was replaced by a nation-state with a decidedly nationalistic ideology, did mass literacy became realized. I would be curious when and why the elites of Korea first began pushing for mass literacy.