象數易學 기반의 훈민정음에 구현된 말글체계

Abstract

This paper started with the problem that the Hunminjeongeum, which was created before the modern era, was evaluated by the values of modern system. East Asia in pre-modern times had a different cultural background from what it has today. The intercorrelated view on the world of Yin-Yang and Five Elements(陰陽五行) predominated the East Asian culture. Shaokangjie(邵康節), who founded Neo-Confucianism and compiled Xiangshuxue(象數學), calculated the numbers and overlooked the system of voice. After the concept of speech-sounds was introduced to Chosun, King Sejong and scholars at the Royal Academic Institute(集賢殿) with great creativity and effort initiated a new system of letters. The fonts to represent all voices were created without making too many characters. Instead, King Sejong developed “basic” components to deliver all sounds there were. The Initial Sounds were based on pictograph of the vocal organs while pronunciation and derivatives were made by adding stroke. King Sejong assembled a new type of letters by combination based on xiangshuyixue(象數易學) proposed by Shaokangjie(邵康節). Through this system, it was possible to represent all sounds by 28 basic letters. Today, interpretation of Hunminjeongeum(訓民正音) is limited as the fonts of Chosun, and the function is not completely utilized. In the global multicultural era, it would be of great benefit to re-recognize the significance and value of Hunmin Jeongeum to boost its future value.