The King Who Made 28 Letters: King Sejong's Story | Big Leaders Ep. 5

Most alphabets grew slowly over thousands of years, and nobody knows who started them. Korea's has an inventor, a date and the inventor's own notes. He was a king. The story of King Sejong the Great: the third son who read so much his father banned reading at night, the king who ran a poll of 172,000 people, the inventor he lifted up from the bottom of society, and the 28 letters he designed so ordinary people could finally write down what they wanted to say. Shaped like your own mouth. Then his own scholars protest. Back down, or push ahead? And the other side, told honestly: the powerful ignored his letters for centuries, a later king banned them, and his favourite inventor fell from favour. Released two days after Hangul Day (9 October), the holiday that celebrates his alphabet. Big Leaders is an animated series for curious kids and their parents about how great leaders thought, the choices they made, and what worked and what didn't. Chapters 0:00 Something you can't write down 0:35 The boy who read all night 1:42 A king who asked questions 2:54 The inventor from the bottom 3:48 History detectives 4:15 The problem nobody else saw 5:12 Letters made of mouths 6:08 The fork in the road 6:58 Who else will do it? 7:51 The other side 9:06 The ending he never saw 9:47 What he left us Talk about it at dinner: Choe Manri said easy letters would make people lazy about learning. Was he right, wrong, or a bit of both? Sources The court records (Joseon Wangjo Sillok, National Institute of Korean History) 1. 1418: the king on his son's night reading; the heir changed. https://sillok.history.go.kr/id/kca_118060... 2. 1433: Jang Yeong-sil's background and promotion. https://sillok.history.go.kr/id/kda_115090... 3. 1439: Sejong on his illnesses. https://sillok.history.go.kr/id/kda_121060... 4. 1441: the crown prince's rain gauge; the "yellow rain". https://sillok.history.go.kr/id/kda_123040... 5. 1442: the palanquin breaks. https://sillok.history.go.kr/id/kda_124030... 6. 1442: Jang's sentence reduced. https://sillok.history.go.kr/id/kda_124040... 7. 1443: "the king personally made 28 letters". https://sillok.history.go.kr/id/kda_125120... 8. 1444: Choe Manri's protest and Sejong's reply. https://sillok.history.go.kr/id/kda_126020... 9. 1446: the Hunminjeongeum and Sejong's preface. https://sillok.history.go.kr/id/kda_128090... 10. The Veritable Records of King Sejong (English translation). https://sillok.history.go.kr/eslk/ The alphabet 11. Peter H. Lee (ed.), Sourcebook of Korean Civilization, vol. 1 (1993), trans. Yongho Ch'oe: the protest and reply. https://afe.easia.columbia.edu/ps/korea/al... 12. UNESCO Memory of the World, Hunminjeongeum Manuscript. https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/silk-road-t... 13. Korea Heritage Service, Hunminjeongeum. https://english.khs.go.kr/cop/bbs/selectBo... 14. National Hangeul Museum, how the letters were designed. https://m.hangeul.go.kr/lang/en/html/educa... 15. Gari K. Ledyard, The Korean Language Reform of 1446 (1998), via Language Log. https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=6... 16. Monash University, "10.9 Hangul Day". https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-lite... Science and the king's life 17. National Palace Museum of Korea, the rain gauge. https://www.gogung.go.kr/gogungEn/pgm/psgu... 18. Ben Griffis, "Sejong the Great," World History Encyclopedia (2021). https://www.worldhistory.org/Sejong_the_Gr... 19. Wikipedia (as a pointer to sources): Sejong the Great; History of Hangul; Hall of Worthies; Nongsa jikseol; Borugak Jagyeongnu; Korean Wikipedia, 세종 (the 1430 tax poll). Real quotes only where the records give them, in English translation; Sejong's are read by a designed voice. Choe Manri's name is said "Choi". Animation drawn in code. Voices by ElevenLabs. #History #KidsHistory #KingSejong #Hangul