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.
Korean mixed script
In 1446, King Sejong the Great (朝鮮 世宗大王, 조선 세종대왕) introduced "hunminjeong-eum" (訓民正音, 훈민정음), 'correct pronunciation for teaching the people' in a proclamation, published with extensive description of the new alphabet. Sejong begins the document (in literary Chinese), 'Because our language is different from the Chinese language, our poor people cannot express themselves in Chinese writing. In my pity for them I create twenty-eight letters, which all can learn easily and use in their daily lives.' This script is now known as "hangul" in South Korea and "choseongul" in North Korea, with the proclamation celebrated as national holidays on the 9th of October in the south and the 15th of January in the north, respectively.
The new script spread rapidly among the segments of society that were traditionally denied access to education, such as women (except those in the higher classes), farmers, fishermen, rural merchants and children. Despite later attempts to ban the Korean alphabet, as commoners wrote disparaging this about rulers they disliked, and the fear that the upper classes would lose the privileges of being literate in Chinese led to attempts to ban the alphabet, but "hangul" survived. The twenty-eight letters, arranged into syllable blocks, actually facilitated the study of "hanja" as they were used in teaching guides to indicate the native word and the Sino-Korean pronunciation, and the upper class, despite their disdain, would often have to study the "gugyeol" system of knowing a Chinese character's meaning, Sino-Korean pronunciation and its native Korean equivalent, and "hangul" thus became an important tool in teaching "hanja". Nevertheless, its use as an exclusive writing system was mocked by the upper classess as "jinseo" (真書, 진서) or 'real script.'