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.
Hall of Worthies
The Hall participated in various scholarly endeavors, of which the best-known may be the compilation of the "Hunminjeongeum", in which the hangul writing system was first formulated. In the Hunminjeongeum, King Sejong wrote a preface which explained the origin and purpose of the newly created alphabet, Hangul. He then instructed his scholars of the Jiphyeonjeon (Hall of Worthies) to write detailed explanations of each of its letters along with examples of each of them. The purpose of the Hunminjeongeum was to provide instructions on how to use the new alphabet. The definitive edition of the Hunminjeongeum is known as the Haerye Edition of Hunminjeongeum (Haerye refers to the explanations and examples of the Hall of Worthies scholars, which were previously missing in other known editions)