HE-0003 · Twenty-Eight Letters · Black

A printed artifact from the Historic Echoes archive: the 1446 promulgation of Hangul, the Korean alphabet built so ordinary people could read and write — rendered in the tradition of Joseon woodblock print.

Artifact note. In 1446, King Sejong of Joseon promulgated Hunminjeongeum, "the proper sounds for the instruction of the people", a new alphabet of twenty-eight letters, made so that common people who had long been unable to express themselves in Classical Chinese could finally write their own words. Court scholars opposed it; it endured. The artwork reinterprets the moment in the tradition of Joseon woodblock print.

"The sounds of our country's speech differ from those of China, and do not flow together with the written characters. So among the simple people there are many who have something they wish to say, yet in the end cannot give voice to what is in them. Grieved by this, I have newly made twenty-eight letters, wishing only that every person may learn them with ease and find them convenient for daily use — nothing more."

— King Sejong the Great, preface to the Hunminjeongeum (1446). Translated for Historic Echoes from the public-domain classical Chinese.