Great ruler remembered on Hangul Day

SHIN BOK-RYONG
The author is a former chair professor of history at Konkuk University.

I don’t feel comfortable writing about King Sejong the Great (1397-1450), who has already become like a saint to Koreans. But the hero must be known. Why teach about him if our children cannot keep up?

King Sejong, the fourth king of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), was not even in line to become a king. Nor was he born with the physical strength needed for being a monarch, as he had been unhealthy as a prince. All he could take pride in was his hard work.

The king was constantly sick because he would read books until the eunuchs asked him to sleep, then woke up early to study more. It is said that he read the Four Books and Five Classics on Confucianism a hundred times and read the Book of History 30 times.

He suffered from an eye disorder all his life. When he passed away, the official historian wrote in his obituary, “He never put a book down from his hands all his life.”

King Sejong thought it would be easier to govern if people were educated. The most dangerous people are the ones who are ignorant yet diligent. He thought that people fell into sinning out of ignorance. The most controversial part when evaluating his life was the rule that subordinates cannot sue their superiors. His agony over approving the rule in the stringent class-based society shows well his depth of thought about the people and governing.

As food mattered most to the people, King Sejong put a lot of thought into the land system. He had collected opinions of 173,000 people over 14 years before deciding how the tax should be imposed — whether to base it on the size of the land or the amount of the harvest. The king decided that the land tax should be imposed based on the yield.

What is more surprising is that pregnant slaves were given 100 days of postpartum leave and their husbands were also allowed to take care of their wives during that period.

As the royal family of the Joseon Dynasty was mostly short-lived, King Sejong was no exception. He died at age 53. The historian recorded that the “wise king of the East” had passed away.

As we celebrate Hangeul Day on Oct. 9, I cherish the wise king whose many accomplishments have been overshadowed by his invention of the great Korean alphabet in 1446.