Hunminjeongeum Haerye


Hunminjeongeum Haerye, or simply Haerye, is a commentary on the Hunminjeongeum, the original promulgation of hangul. The Hunminjeongeum Haeryebon is the printed edition—bon means "book" or "edition".
It was written by scholars from the Jiphyeonjeon, commissioned by King Sejong the Great. In addition to an introduction by Sejong and a colophon by the scholar Jeong Inji, it contains the following chapters:
  1. "An Explanation of the Design of the Letters"
  2. "An Explanation of the Initials"
  3. "An Explanation of the Medials"
  4. "An Explanation of the Finals"
  5. "An Explanation of the Combination of the Letters"
  6. "Examples of the Uses of the Letters"
See Hangul letter design for an excerpt of the letter design explanations from chapters 2 through 4.
The original publication is 65 pages printed in hanja with right-to-left vertical writing as is the case for all the ancient Korean literature in regular script, except where Hangul are mentioned and illustrated. One original copy was made public in 1940 by Jeon Hyeongpil, an antique collector who acquired it from Lee Hangeol, whose family had possessed it for generations. Another incomplete copy was reported to be found 2008.
Now kept in the Kansong Art Museum, it is South Korean National Treasure No. 70 and has been a UNESCO Memory of the World Register since October 1997.