\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nUntil the early 20th century, the Korean elite preferred to write using Chinese characters called Hanja. They referred to Hanja as jinseo (\uc9c4\uc11c) or \u201ctrue letters\u201d. Some accounts say the elite referred to the Korean alphabet derisively as amkeul (\uc554\ud074) meaning \u201cwomen\u2019s script\u201d, and ahaetgeul (\uc544\ud587\uae00) meaning \u201cchildren\u2019s script\u201d, though there is no written evidence of this.
\nThe Korean alphabet faced opposition in the 1440s by the literary elite, including politician Choe Manri and other Korean Confucian scholars. They believed Hanja was the only legitimate writing system. They also saw the circulation of the Korean alphabet as a threat to their status.\u00a0However, the Korean alphabet entered popular culture as King Sejong had intended, used especially by women and writers of popular fiction.\u00a0King Yeonsangun\u00a0banned the study and publication of the Korean alphabet in 1504, after a document criticizing the king entered the public.
some old Korean discourse
\nballsy move, someone writes a callout post about you and you\u2019re like fuck it, I\u2019m gonna ban reading and writing
\nI mean I gotta say it\u2019s tempting, but still, ballsy.
Huh. “Alphabet adapted from Chinese characters to represent local language, first used by women and enabling a spread of popular fiction, a contrast with earlier male srs bzns court literacy” is also the backstory of Japanese hiragana
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