Statue of King Sejong (Gwanghwamun)
The statue of King Sejong was dedicated on 9 October 2009, in a ceremony attended by attended by President Lee Myung-bak and other Korean government official, on a Hangul Day in celebration of the 563rd anniversary of the invention of the Korean alphabet by King Sejong, two months after the Gwanghwamun Plaza opening. The golden statue is 6.2 meters high (another source gives the statue height as 9.5 meters and yet another, 6.7 meters) and weights 20 tons. The king has one hand raised and another placed on a book. Sides of the statue display all of the hangul alphabet characters. In front of the statue there are small models of a celestial globe, a rain gauge, and a sundial, the invention of which is also traditionally attributed to King Sejong in Korea. While King Sejong is best remembered for his invention of hangul, he is also considered to have been involved in promotion of agriculture, literature, science and technology, as well as Confucian philosophy, in Korea.
Origin of Hangul
The five adopted letters were graphically simplified, retaining the outline of the ’Phags-pa letters but with a reduced number of strokes that recalled the shapes of the speech organs involved, as explained in the "Haerye." For example, the box inside ’Phags-pa ꡂ "g" is not found in the Korean ㄱ "g" ; only the outer stroke remains. In addition to being iconic for the shape of the "root" of the tongue, this more easily allowed for consonant clusters and left room for an added stroke to derive the aspirated consonant ㅋ "k" . But in contrast to the "Haerye" account, the non-stops "ng" , ㄴ "n" , ㅁ "m" , and ㅅ "s" were derived by "removing" the top stroke or strokes of the basic letters. (No letter was derived from ㄹ "l" .) This clears up a few points that had been problematic in the "Haerye." For example, while it is straightforward to derive ㅁ "m" from ㅂ "b" by removing the top of ㅂ "b" in Ledyard's account, it is not clear how one would derive ㅂ "b" by adding something to ㅁ "m", since ㅂ "b" is not analogous to the other stops: If ㅂ "b" were derived as in the "Haerye" account, it would be expected to have a horizontal top stroke similar to those of ㄱ "g" , ㄷ "d" , and ㅈ "j" .