Christianity in Korea
Hangul, a phonemic Korean alphabet invented around 1446 by scholars in the court of Sejong the Great, was little used for several centuries because of the perceived cultural superiority of Classical Chinese (a position similar to that of Latin in Europe). However, the Catholic Church became the first Korean religious organization to officially adopt Hangul as its primary script. Bishop Siméon-François Berneux mandated that all Catholic children be taught to read it. Christian literature printed for use in Korea, including that used by the network of schools established by Christian missionaries, mostly used the Korean language and the easily learned Hangul script. This combination of factors resulted in a rise in the overall literacy rate, and enabled Christian teachings to spread beyond the elite, who mostly used Chinese. As early as the 1780s, portions of the Gospels were published in Hangul; doctrinal books such as the "Jugyo Yoji" (주교요지) appeared in the 1790s and a Catholic hymnal was printed around 1800.
Choe Sejin
Choe Sejin is mostly known for his 1527 work, "Hunmong Jahoe" (훈몽자회). It is a textbook for children to learn the Chinese characters, and is known to be very practical in its teachings. During the Joseon Era, literacy in Chinese was an essential skill for advancement in society. Chinese was the dominant language of literature at this time, and children were taught Chinese from an early age to prepare for the future. Although hangul, the Korean orthography, existed by this time, it was not widely used in the country. Choe wanted to promote the usage of hangul through his work "Hunmong Jahoe". As a textbook for children to learn Chinese, "Hunmong Jahoe" incorporated hangul in the textbook to promote both the learning of Chinese characters, as well as hangul. The Chinese characters were annotated in hangul, and in order for one to understand and learn the Chinese characters, one must have a full grasp of hangul first to comprehend the annotations. Choe wanted people to use hangul more extensively, and he thought that this would encourage people to take some time to fully learn hangul, before starting to learn Chinese. He wrote that "it would take [only a single day] to learn Hangul", commenting on the simplicity of hangul, and afterwards, one would be able to learn Chinese on their own without an instructor if one knew hangul and utilized his textbook.