''Hunminjeongeum Haerye'' (
Hanja
Hanja (Hangul: ; Hanja: , ), alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters () used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom.
(, ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, ...
: 訓民正音解例; literally: "Explanations and Examples of the Correct/Proper Sounds for the Instruction of the People"), or simply ''Haerye'', is a commentary on the ''
Hunminjeongeum
''Hunminjeong'eum'' () is a document describing an entirely new and native script for the Korean language. The script was initially named after the publication but later came to be known as hangul. Originally containing 28 characters, it was c ...
'', the original promulgation of
hangul
The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The le ...
. The ''Hunminjeongeum Haeryebon'' (訓民正音解例本) is the printed edition—''bon'' (本) means "book" or "edition".
It was written by scholars from the ''
Jiphyeonjeon
The Hall of Worthies, or Jiphyeonjeon (; ), was a royal research institute set up by Sejong the Great of the Korean Joseon Dynasty in March 1420. Set up during the beginning of his reign, King Sejong staffed the Hall of Worthies with talented sc ...
'' (Hall of Worthies), commissioned by
King Sejong the Great
Sejong of Joseon (15 May 1397 – 8 April 1450), personal name Yi Do ( Korean: 이도; Hanja: 李祹), widely known as Sejong the Great ( Korean: 세종대왕; Hanja: 世宗大王), was the fourth ruler of the Joseon dynasty of Korea. Initi ...
. In addition to an introduction by Sejong (excerpted from the beginning of ''Hunminjeongeum'') and a
colophon by the scholar
Jeong Inji
Jeong In-ji (; December 28, 1396 – November 26, 1478) was a Korean Neo-Confucian scholar, historian who served as Vice Minister of Education or Deputy Chief Scholar (Head of Office for Special Advisors) during the reign of King Sejong the Gre ...
(鄭麟趾), it contains the following chapters:
# "An Explanation of the Design of the Letters" (制字解)
# "An Explanation of the Initials" (初聲解)
# "An Explanation of the Medials" (中聲解)
# "An Explanation of the Finals" (終聲解)
# "An Explanation of the Combination of the Letters" (合字解)
# "Examples of the Uses of the Letters" (用字例)
See ''
Hangul letter design'' for an excerpt of the letter design explanations from chapters 2 through 4.
The original publication is 65 pages printed in
hanja
Hanja (Hangul: ; Hanja: , ), alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters () used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom.
(, ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, ...
with right-to-left vertical writing as is the case for all the ancient Korean literature in
regular script
Regular script (; Hepburn: ''kaisho''), also called (), (''zhēnshū''), (''kǎitǐ'') and (''zhèngshū''), is the newest of the Chinese script styles (popularized from the Cao Wei dynasty c. 200 AD and maturing stylistically around the ...
, except where Hangul are mentioned and illustrated. One original copy was made public in 1940 by Jeon Hyeongpil, an antique collector who acquired it from Lee Hangeol (1880–1950), whose family had possessed it for generations.
Another copy was reported to be found in 2008. It included detailed footnotes by scholars at the time
Now kept in the
Kansong Art Museum (간송 미술관; 澗松美術館), it is
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...
n
National Treasure No. 70 and has been a
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
Memory of the World Register since October 1997.
["Hunminjeongum Manuscript." UNESCO Registry. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/memory-of-the-world/register/full-list-of-registered-heritage/registered-heritage-page-8/the-hunmin-chongum-manuscript]
See also
*
ʼPhags-pa script
The Phags-pa script is an alphabet designed by the Tibetan monk and State Preceptor (later Imperial Preceptor) Drogön Chögyal Phagpa for Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan dynasty, as a unified script for the written languages within the Yu ...
:
Gari Ledyard, Sejong Professor of Korean History Emeritus at Columbia University, traces five consonants credited in the manuscript to the Gu Seal Script of the
Mongol
The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member ...
Yuan dynasty
The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fift ...
to similar-sounding Indoeuropean consonants linking the Greek, Latin and Syriac alphabets of the West to the 'Phags-pa/Tibetan scripts of the East
References
External links
Entire publication typed up in hanja and translation in Japanese translation available in
German
Record in UNESCO Memory of the World Register
Joseon dynasty works
Korean language
Korean culture
Hangul
{{writingsystem-stub