OBS Chapter 363
Chapter 363
Chapter 363
With each exchange between King Sejong and Hyang, the bundles grew larger and larger.
This wasn’t just because of the petty vengeance mixed into the work process.
The main reason for this gradual increase in volume was the problem of mindset and communication.
***
As Hyang became fully involved in the creation of Hangul, he introduced a large portion of 21st-century grammar and notation systems.
The use of the term “large portion” here was due to the unavoidable issues caused by the time gap between the 21st century and the mid-15th century.
In other words, it was a problem of mindset.
Another obstacle, the communication problem, was an unavoidable issue that arose from conducting everything through written correspondence rather than real-time conversation.
Even when looking at the same sentence, their understanding couldn’t be exactly the same, leading to continuous conflicts. As related points, rebuttals, and counter-rebuttals continued, the volume gradually increased.
***
“This won’t do! At this rate, we’ll need to move it by cart!”
In the end, Hyang had no choice but to appeal this issue directly to King Sejong.
Putting down the bundle that had grown as large as his own body, Hyang immediately got to the point with King Sejong.
“Father, at this rate, we absolutely cannot produce proper results quickly.”
King Sejong nodded at Hyang’s words.
“That’s true. By now, we should have finished organizing and started creating the example book...”
“The work keeps getting delayed because there’s a communication problem between you and me, Father. To be more specific, it’s because misunderstandings arise as we exchange written messages like this.”
“Misunderstandings...”
As King Sejong stroked his beard and pondered Hyang’s words, he nodded.
“That’s probably the most accurate description. Well, even with the writings of ancient sages, people often come up with different interpretations...”
Recalling incidents from the royal lectures that he hardly held anymore, King Sejong nodded and turned to Hyang.
“Your words are correct. But there’s a problem. Creating a writing system unique to our Joseon will be more than groundbreaking; it will be close to revolutionary. Even the ministers who are currently obedient might be likely to rise up. Therefore, we need to keep it secret until it’s fully completed. But won’t meeting every night at Gangyeongjeon or the Crown Prince’s palace draw the ministers’ attention?”
While eunuchs and court ladies were not supposed to disclose what happened inside the palace to outsiders, there were always those with ‘slightly’ loose lips everywhere. So far, they had entrusted the work to carefully selected individuals, but they couldn’t guarantee how long the secret would be kept.
As King Sejong’s point was valid, Hyang racked his brain to think of a suitable method.
After a moment of consideration, Hyang soon recalled a useful entity.
“Father, how about using the secret guards?”
“The secret guards?”
“Yes, order the secret guards to find a suitable secret location.”
“Hmm...”
At Hyang’s suggestion, King Sejong stroked his beard and calculated the pros and cons. After weighing various possibilities, King Sejong soon made his decision.
“That seems good. I should tell them to find a suitable house within 2 gak (about 30 minutes) of Gyeongbok Palace.”
“Yes, if you and I can work without misunderstandings for even 2 shijin, no, 1 shijin (2 hours), the work will become much easier. Working outside might draw attention, but in exchange, we can greatly increase the speed and shorten the time.”
“I understand. I’ll summon the captain of the Royal Guards tomorrow and have him proceed with this.”
***
The captain of the Royal Guards, having received King Sejong’s order, immediately relayed the command to the secret guards.
“His Majesty commanded that a tiled house might draw attention, so find a suitable thatched house.”
At the captain’s words, the directors of the secret guards stared at him blankly.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Do you think there’s a thatched house suitable for His Majesty within 2 gak of Gyeongbok Palace?”
“Ah... Tsk!”
The ones who suffered the most in this process were those dragged into the Records Office. They had to use punctuation marks in the process of organizing, categorizing, and rewriting past records. This meant that they couldn’t simply transcribe old records, but had to examine each sentence and word carefully.
***
“That’s true, but won’t people say it’s a waste of paper?”
At King Sejong’s point, Hyang replied with an incredulous expression.
“With cheap paper already overflowing, who would say such nonsense?”
Hyang had transferred the technology for mass-producing yellow paper using pulp to the private sector. Of course, it wasn’t free. He collected a tidy sum in technology usage fees and sales of papermaking machinery.
This pulp papermaking technology released to the private sector led to mass distribution of paper and polarization.
Traditional Korean paper (Hanji) was sold as a luxury item, while yellow paper and bleached white paper made from yellow paper became established as low-cost products.
With their decent quality and low prices as weapons, yellow and white papers soon began to gradually dominate the paper markets in Ming and Japan.
In the end, after several rounds of debate, King Sejong accepted word spacing.
“The benefits outweigh the drawbacks, and it’s especially useful for understanding sentences, so it would be good to use it.”
***
After adopting word spacing, King Sejong and Hyang engaged in another heated debate over the issue of horizontal versus vertical writing.
“If we use metal pens, left-to-right horizontal writing wouldn’t be much of a problem. But this is only for metal pens. When writing with a brush, left-to-right horizontal writing is very inconvenient. For the simplest example, when dipping the brush in ink from the inkstone and moving to the paper, what if the ink drips? Also, we’ve been using right-to-left vertical writing all this time, so changing to left-to-right horizontal writing will face strong resistance.”
Hyang nodded at King Sejong’s point.
“You’re right. However, using left-to-right horizontal writing will make many things easier. For the simplest example, if you look at the reports created in the court, they contain many tables, formulas, and graphs. If we use left-to-right horizontal writing, it will be much more useful when using these. Of course, as you said, Father, if we force the government and people to use left-to-right horizontal writing right now, there will be strong resistance. We can start by having the government use left-to-right horizontal writing for documents created from now on.”
“There will still be considerable resistance. Do you have any good strategies or tools to persuade them?”
At King Sejong’s question, Hyang’s expression momentarily became enigmatic.
“Why that expression?”
At King Sejong’s question, Hyang quickly composed his expression and answered.
“Ah, it’s nothing. I just happened to think of a tool.”
King Sejong’s eyes sparkled at Hyang’s words.
“Oh? What is it?”
“It’s called a typewriter.”
After hearing Hyang’s explanation, King Sejong was very pleased.
“If it’s made properly, it will be very useful! Especially for those with poor handwriting!”
King Sejong really liked the idea of the typewriter. He often had headaches when reports or petitions written in poor handwriting were submitted.
***
Thanks to the hidden card of the typewriter, left-to-right horizontal writing was easily approved.
The last remaining issue was what to name this newly born writing system.
“Do you have a name in mind, Father?”
“At first, I thought of ‘Ija (易字)’ meaning ‘easy characters’, but I put it aside because it might be seen as the ‘Yi (易)’ of change and cause unsavory rumors. So now I want to call it ‘Jeongeum (正音)’, meaning ‘correct sounds’. Because the people can correctly record their speech.”
As Hyang nodded at King Sejong’s words, he opened his mouth.
“How about adding ‘Hunmin (訓民)’ to that? Because the people can correctly understand your intentions, Father.”
“Hunmin... Hunminjeongeum...”
After repeating it a few times, King Sejong soon nodded.
“That’s good.”
***
Note 1) https://namu.wiki/w/훈민정음’s dental and palatal sounds