Yep, Hangeul was created during the Joseon Dynasty. Mighty late, it's true. By order of Sejong the Great, one of the Joseon kings, the Hall of Worthies (a bunch of scholars) created the "great script." Sejong, you see, was a keen observer. He noticed that Chinese characters, which are ideographs, were proving to be rather tricky for the peasants and uneducated folk to deal with. So he ordered up a new alphabet that was easier to understand and write. The Hall of Worthies managed to crank it out in 1446, and spent the next few centuries trying to promulgate it. It did catch on eventually, though, and is now on every billboard and road sign in South Korea (although many signs are still to be found with the old Chinese characters, or Hanja as they're called in Korean, and some Koreans, like Charles, can still read them).
It worked. According to Discovery magazine (as quoted by VANK), Korea now boasts the highest literacy rate in the world, thanks to Hangeul, which Discovery called "the most logical alphabet in the world." Today Hangeul is held to be one of the foremost among Korean achievements.
Joseon was also foremost in the fields of architecture and shipbuilding, especially as regards to fortresses and battleships. Hwaseong Fortress was constructed in the late 1700s in Suwon, Gyeonggi-do Province (same province that Seoul's in). There are differing opinions for its construction. One theory is that it was built to commemorate the memory of Prince Sado, who was locked alive inside a rice chest (and thereby killed) after disobeying his father King Yeongjo's order to commit suicide. Prince or not, this seems like a mighty thin reason to build a whole dang fortress. I'm more inclined to believe that the fortress was built as a bastion against invasions such as those the Japanese daimyo Toyotomi Hideyoshi, leading a newly unified Japan, perpetrated against Joseon in the latter sixteenth century (otherwise known as the Imjin War). Some unique features of the fortress include:
- it was not built with coercion; rather, all those bourgeoisie involved were duly compensated with sacks of rice
- the fortress incorporated both Eastern and Western martial doctrines; whereas the normal Korean fort would've merely been a fortified wall, Hwaseong was replete with turrets, crossbow parapets, sentry towers, beacon towers, multiple gates, serried walls, and an inner keep
- a complete record of its instruction was written in 1800; and it was fortunately left lying around, for it proved to be invaluable for the reconstruction efforts after most of the fortress was destroyed in the Korean War
Called geobukseon by Koreans, "turtle ships" by foreigners, they were really marvels of maritime military technology. Invented and built by Admiral Yi Sun-Shin, who apparently suspected the Japanese would invade, they were used to great effect in the Imjin War. They were shaped like boxy turtles, with a dragon figurehead, and cannon ports running down both sides of the hull. Unlike conventional ships that could boarded and taken by a force of infantry, turtle ships were nearly invulnerable to this type of attack, thanks to a sturdy layer of armor, studded with spikes, overlaying the top deck. Cannon fire bounced right off, and any foot soldier attempting to board would get his feet poked. Charles told me that sometimes the Korean sailors would lay straw over the tops of their turtle ships, luring the enemy into leaping aboard...onto the spikes waiting just underneath. Rumor has it that the Koreans mastered the science behind chemical warfare, too: the dragon's head was actually a spout through which poison gas could be heated and vented. The Koreans had but to sail close to enemy ships, arrows and cannonballs ricocheting harmlessly off the armored hull, and spew out some gas. The hapless enemy soldiers would choke, stagger and fall, and the Koreans would sail off, leaving a dead ship in their wake. Admiral Yi Sun-Shin was a naval genius, and he used his brainchild to its full potential at the Battle of Okpo (the town just next to Gohyeon!) and also Hansando, held to be one of the four greatest naval battles in human history.
Joseon's inventions weren't just literate or military, however. There was also the Cheugugi, toutedly Asia's first rainfall gauge; and the Honchonui, National Treasure No. 230, an extraordinarily detailed and accurate astronomical clock, containing nine plates for horizon, meridian, equator, tropic, polar circle, ecliptic, and all the rest. Joseon's star maps were absolutely incredible in their intricacy and beauty as well.
Like all empires, however, Joseon was wracked with strife and infighting, and was doomed to fall someday. Not long after its bloody founding by King Taejo (formerly Yi Seong-Gye, the rogue general who did an about-face at the border of Korea and ousted the last king of Goryeo), things got ugly. If Wikipedia can be believed, the most capable son of Taejo was Yi Bang-Won, and there was no love lost between him and some of his father's advisors, prime minister Jeong Do-Jeon and Nam Eun. Seeing Yi Bang-Won's popularity, Jeong Do-Jeon went to the king and counseled him to choose his favorite son as his successor. Now, Yi Bang-Won might have been the most capable of Taejo's sons, but he wasn't his favorite. Grand Prince Uian was. After Prince Uian's mother suddenly died and Taejo was stricken with mourning, Jeong Do-Jeon saw his chance to rid himself of Yi Bang-Won, and plotted to kill him and secure his position in court. Hearing of this plan, Yi Bang-Won started an all-out rebellion, stormed the palace, and slaughtered Jeong Do-Jeon, all of his followers, and Prince Uian and his brothers. This was the First Strife of Princes.
It didn't do Bang-Won any good, though. Still grieving for his wife and horrified that his sons were killing each other for the crown, King Taejo went ahead and appointed his second son, Yi Bang-Gwa, to the throne. He switched capitals for comfort's sake and settled down. Undaunted, Yi Bang-Won began plotting how to make himself the legal successor to Yi Bang-Gwa (to his credit, assassinating him wasn't an option this time). However, out of nowhere, Taejo's fourth son, Yi Bang-Gan, got in on the action. (ARGH! Too many Yi Bangs!)
Matters came to a head in 1400; apparently there was open fighting, which came to be known as the Second Strife of Princes. Yi Bang-Gan lost and was exiled; his followers were executed. Cowed, Yi Bang-Gwa appointed Yi Bang-Won his successor and got out of Dodge. Yi Bang-Won finally ascended to the throne, and changed his name to King Taejong. After some sweeping political reforms that lasted nearly two decades, King Taejong stepped down. That's when King Sejong came in, created Hangeul, and all that jazz. After that various other stuff happened. (I don't want to go any further or I'll either be accused of plagiarizing Wikipedia or worse, worshipping it.)
Various Japanese invasions of Korea, from 1592-1598, which became lumped together into the Imjin War, pushed Korea into a more isolationist ideology. The Koreans were victorious, thanks to superior naval commanders like Yi Sun-Shin, and timely intervention by the Ming Dynasty of China, who threw their lot in with the Koreans and helped push the Japanese and their European firearms back off the peninsula. After that, relations between Korea and Japan were nonexistent, and Korean rulers tried to limit the amount of contact and exposure the nation had with outsiders.
The years that followed were sometimes turbulent, sometimes peaceful; following the Manchu invasions in the seventeenth century, Korea experienced nearly two solid centuries of peace, during which a scientific and architectural revival sprang up. But Korea remained firm in its isolationism, only encouraged by the invasions and even a brief violent encounter with the French in the 1860s over the execution of some French priests who were preaching illegally.
Things really started to go south during the First Sino-Japanese War, 1894-1895. Most of it was fought on the Korean mainland. The current Queen of Joseon, Myeongseong, who opposed Japanese influence on the peninsula, was assassinated and her body defiled by Japanese agents. Almost as bad as this, the Chinese, who were still technically allies of the Koreans, were defeated. The treaty signed between the Chinese and the Japanese supposedly guaranteed independence to Korea; but feeling the Japanese fingers closing around their necks, the Koreans sent out a plea for Western military aid. The Russians responded. Then came the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. The Battle of Port Arthur was inconclusive, some say, but the very fact that the Russians failed to crush the Japanese completely took the world completely by surprise. In fact, some suspect it was a catalyst for the Russian Revolution, as it caused the Russian people to lose faith in the military.
But that's beside the point. If I ever go to live in Russia then I'll write up the history of Russia on here for you.
With the Russians out of the way, nothing stood between the Japanese and Korea. After signing a treaty, Korea officially became a protectorate of Japan in 1905. Not content with that, the Japanese annexed Korea by force five years later. The government, the old Joseon Dynasty, renamed the Korean Empire, but still maintaining the force and tradition of the old monarchy, crumbled soon thereafter. Joseon is thought to have come to its final end in 1910.
The rest you know. Korea was subjugated by the Japanese, liberated in World War II, divided into North and South afterward by the Russians and the Americans, embroiled in conflict once again in the Korean War, and ever since has existed as two nations, one a democratic, free society and a powerhouse of industry, the other a closed, dictatorial, uncooperative, immature Communist regime that oppresses and brainwashes its people and pontificates and postures pedantically at every juncture. How the world turns, and the mighty have fallen. I'm not saying I have no respect for modern-day Korea. I believe and always will believe that the good old ROK is the one of the best places for an English-speaking expatriate to live in the entire world. The food's great, the culture commands anyone's respect, the societal attitude ("can-do") is inspiring, and furthermore the products are of such good quality that even my grandfather, who tends to dislike Koreans, has said he loves Kia. (Don't blame Gramps; he was a flamethrower in the Korean War, so he saw some pretty ugly things over here.) But I mourn for the loss of glory, of heritage, of tradition, of momentousness.
On a final note, I would just like to point out, here as always, that my three main sources of information for the above were, in order of importance, (a) Wikipedia, (b) the Volunteer Agency Network of Korea's educational videos on YouTube, and (c) Charles, my Korean teacher. As such, the information I've provided here is more than likely inaccurate in some way, and more than a little subjective as well. I invite you to research on your own, and uncover the accurate information that's undoubtedly out there. If you spot any discrepancies, please inform me, and I'll edit 'em out. And thank you for reading.
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