King Sejong's Legacy

Document Type

Oral Presentation

Event Website

https://source2022.sched.com/

Start Date

19-5-2022

End Date

19-5-2022

Keywords

King Sejong, Korea, Confucianism

Abstract

King Sejong (1397-1450) is known as one of the greatest rulers of Korea of all time, as he created Hangul (Korean alphabet), encouraged significant scientific advancements, reinforced Confucianism in Korea, and caused many political and social advancements. However, despite how important he is in Korean culture, he is rarely mentioned in American classes about Asia. This knowledge is more important now than ever, with South Korea being a major power in economics, technology, and more. To rectify the lack of knowledge of King Sejong, this presentation will cover his achievements and their influence on Korea today, the most obvious of which being Hangul, which is the current Korean writing system. The presentation will also cover how his Confucian beliefs influenced his achievements, as King Sejong’s reign was a major turning point for Korea in terms of Confucian impact. A major reason why there is so much information about King Sejong, even though he lived in the early 1400s relates to another of his accomplishments – he took the printing advancements that had been made during his father’s reign and embraced them, causing Korea to become the lead East Asian nation in printing, improving printing speeds by 20 times before the design was finalized, providing a better way of publishing scientific advancements and inventions. Through these publications and modern publications discussing them, we can get a picture of King Sejong’s life and influence. The broad scope of his influence will illustrate the Korean trajectory of innovation and accomplishment that we see today.

Faculty Mentor(s)

Marilyn Levine

Additional Mentoring Department

History

Additional Mentoring Department

AKS Korean Studies Scholarship

Streaming Media

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May 19th, 12:00 AM May 19th, 12:00 AM

King Sejong's Legacy

King Sejong (1397-1450) is known as one of the greatest rulers of Korea of all time, as he created Hangul (Korean alphabet), encouraged significant scientific advancements, reinforced Confucianism in Korea, and caused many political and social advancements. However, despite how important he is in Korean culture, he is rarely mentioned in American classes about Asia. This knowledge is more important now than ever, with South Korea being a major power in economics, technology, and more. To rectify the lack of knowledge of King Sejong, this presentation will cover his achievements and their influence on Korea today, the most obvious of which being Hangul, which is the current Korean writing system. The presentation will also cover how his Confucian beliefs influenced his achievements, as King Sejong’s reign was a major turning point for Korea in terms of Confucian impact. A major reason why there is so much information about King Sejong, even though he lived in the early 1400s relates to another of his accomplishments – he took the printing advancements that had been made during his father’s reign and embraced them, causing Korea to become the lead East Asian nation in printing, improving printing speeds by 20 times before the design was finalized, providing a better way of publishing scientific advancements and inventions. Through these publications and modern publications discussing them, we can get a picture of King Sejong’s life and influence. The broad scope of his influence will illustrate the Korean trajectory of innovation and accomplishment that we see today.

https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source/2022/COTS/59