장면1 호머 헐버트(Homer Hulbert, 1863~1949년)는 미국의 감리교회 선교사, 사학자, 7개국어를 구사하는 언어학자, 조선에서 영어를 가르쳤던 교육자, 독립신문 발행을 도운 언론인, YMCA 초대회장, 한국어 연구와 보급에 앞장선 한글학자였다. 또한 대한제국 말기 고종을 도와 국권수호 운동을 했으며 일제강점기 한국의 독립운동을 지원한 독립운동가였다. 한글의 우수성과 과학성에 매료되어 미국 언론과 영문 잡지에 기고와 논문을 통해 한글과 한국문화를 홍보했고, 한글에 띄어쓰기 도입을 적극 권장하여 오늘날 띄어쓰기가 보편적으로 한글에 도입되도록 한 장본인이기도 하다. 또한 한글 발전에도 지대한 영향을 미친 사람으로, 주시경 선생과 함께 한글 표기에 띄어쓰기와 쉼표, 마침표 같은 점찍기를 도입하고, 고종에게 건의해 국문 연구소를 만들도록 했다. 이 공을 인정받아 2014년 10월 9일 한글날에 금관 문화훈장을 받게 되어 그의 증손자가 행사에 참석해서 훈장을 대신 받았다. 한글학회에서는 한힌샘 주시경을 위시한 여러 근대 국문학자들 가운데 유일한 외국인으로 존경받고 있다.
장면2 ‘불어(佛語)’는 붙여 쓰는 것이 맞고, ‘프랑스 어’는 띄어 쓰는 것이 맞다고 되어 있습니다. 똑같은 대상을 가리키는 말이 한 단어가 됐다가 두 단어가 되기도 합니다. 한국말은 어렵다는 인식을 가져옵니다.” 전직 국립국어원장이 “복잡하기 짝이 없는 현행 띄어쓰기 규정이 국어를 망친다”고 주장하고 나섰다. 2006~2009년 노무현·이명박 두 정부에 걸쳐 국립국어원장을 지낸 이상규 경북대 국문과 교수다. 이 교수는 본지 통화에서 “솔직히 말해서 나도 글을 쓸 때 띄어쓰기가 자신 없다”고 털어놨다. 한자로만 된 ‘동해’ ‘남해’는 붙여 쓰지만, ‘외래어+한자어’ 구성인 ‘카리브 해’ ‘에게 해’는 띄어 쓰게 되어있다. ‘가슴속에 품은 희망’은 ‘가슴속’이지만 ‘총알이 가슴 속에 박혔다’는 ‘가슴 속’이다. ‘가슴속’이란 말은 ‘마음속’과 같은 뜻일 때만 한 단어로 붙여 쓸 수 있기 때문이다. 표준국어대사전에 올라 있는 ‘돼지고기’ ‘쇠고기’는 붙여 쓰지만, 올라 있지 않은 ‘멧돼지 고기’ ‘토끼 고기’는 띄어 써야 한다. ‘큰돈’은 붙여 쓰고 ‘작은 돈’은 띄어 써야 한다. 이 교수는 “국민의 불편을 가중시킬 뿐 아니라, 합성어가 단어로 인정되지 않기 때문에 조어(造語) 생산력에도 문제가 생긴다”고 했다. 조선일보 유석재 기자 – 2013.05.22
장면1과 2에서 한글의 부끄러운 2가지가 동시에 지적된 듯 합니다. 구한말 조선에 들어온 선교사가 한글을 발견하기 전까지 띄어쓰기도 없이 한글을 사용해 온 조선인들. 세종이 만들어 준 후 단 한번도 국어사전이나 맞춤법 교재 없이 방치되어 있던 한글에게 이제 국립국어원도 생기고 띄어쓰기 규칙도 만들었는데, 이번에는 그 규칙이 시시콜콜 잔소리하는 기숙사감처럼 학생들을 괴롭힌다는 것입니다. 하지만 저는 이것이 2개의 문제가 아니라, 두 문제를 합치면 0개의 문제가 된다고 봅니다. 헐버트 박사가 세종실록 권145 속 취풍형(醉豊亨)을 볼 기회가 있었다면 좋았을 텐데요. 선교사들이 찬송가의 음표간격에 맞춰 한글가사를 적듯이, 세종은 12음계를 적고 거기에 맞춰 훈민정음을 띄워 적었습니다. 가사의 중심주파수(center frequency)에 해당하는 12음을 적고, 방점으로 가사의 억양(intonation)을 표기했으며, 세로쓰기 원고지 같은 일정간격의 칸(間)을 나눠 1박자 삼아 비트(bpm)를 형성한거죠.
세종실록 권145 취풍형(醉豊亨) 악보 원본스캔
국립국어원장이 “솔직히 말해서 나도 글을 쓸 때 띄어쓰기에 자신 없다”라고 했을 때 그걸 고백이라 여길게 아니라 ”솔까말 찬송가 책을 보면 동일 단어라도 곡마다 띄어쓰기가 다르지만 거기에 통일된 규칙이 왜 없냐고 지적하는 사람은 시가 뭔지 음악이 뭔지 모르는 사람 아닌가?“ 라고 저는 묻고 싶습니다. 훈민정음을 만든 사람은 정간보를 만든 사람이고 music lover입니다. 아이들에게 시와 가사 띄어쓰기에 일관된 법칙을 세우고 그걸 외워서 시험치게 만드는 교육은 하지 말아 달라고. 다만 의무교육 기간동안 한글 맞춤법 등 통일된 철자법을 교육하는 것은 필요합니다. 한글은 대한민국의 문자이며 스펠링이 통일되어야 국민들 각자가 매일 생산하는 글을 검색해서 찾을 때 용이하니까요.
세종실록 권136-권147은 악보로 구성되어 있습니다. 박연을 시켜 아악(雅樂)을 정비하고 1정간1박 형식의 정간보라는 유량악보를 만든 세종은 신악(新樂)으로서 보태평(保太平)과 정대업(定大業)을 작곡하였습니다. 세종의 의도는 궁중잔치를 위한 회례악(會禮樂)으로서, 우리 고유의 선율(향악)을 바탕한 음악이 조상에게 바쳐지길 원했으나 세종 당대에는 조정의 보수적인 분위기 때문에 제사에 사용되지는 못하였고, 세종의 아들이 세조가 1464년(세조10년)에 “조상님들이 평소 들으시던 음악을 제사 때 연주하는 것이 옳다”며 보태평과 정대업을 종묘제례악으로 정식 채택했습니다.
– 보태평(11곡): 역대 왕들의 **문덕(文德, 학문과 통치 능력)**을 찬양하는 음악입니다. 희문, 기명, 귀인, 형가, 집녕, 융화, 현미, 용광정명, 중광, 대유, 역성 으로 구성됩니다. – 정대업(11곡): 역대 왕들의 **무공(武功, 군사적 업적)**을 찬양하는 음악입니다. 소무, 독경, 탁정, 선위, 신정, 분웅, 순응, 총유, 정세, 혁정, 영관 으로 구성됩니다.
율려신서가 12율(12음)의 기반이듯이 봉래의(鳳來儀)가 ‘황종’ 역할을 하면서 12곡이 채워집니다. 곡의 이름은 봉황이고 가사의 이름은 龍이니 황종이자 임금이자 주인공임이 분명합니다. 세종실록의 악보가 권136-권147까지 총12권으로 구성된 것도 같은 이치입니다. 천지인 三才의 이치에 따라 봉래의는 ‘용비어천가’라는 동일한 가사내용으로 3가지 버전(여민락, 치화평, 취풍형)이 만들어 집니다.
가사
연주길이
템포
여민락(與民樂)
용비어천가(한문)
길다
느리고 장중함. 호흡이 길고 성조변화 완만
치화평(致和平)
용비어천가(正音)
중간
중간
취풍형(醉豊亨)
용비어천가(正音)
짧다
빠른 곡, 정간 속의 가사와 음표 매우 조밀
정음으로 인쇄된 서적이나 서간문은 많이 있지만 세종실록 속 ‘취풍형’ 원본스캔을 보는 것은 각별한 즐거움이 있습니다. 세종사후에 간행되긴 했으나 세종이 작곡한 악보이니 만큼 세종본인이 훈민정음을 어떻게 적었는지 알 수 있고, 판본체 같은 인쇄용 서체가 아니라 붓으로 쓴 필기체라서 세종이 보내온 편지나 시를 보는 느낌이 듭니다. 사건기록을 위한 문‘서’가 아니라 악‘보’이니 만큼 소리를 생생히 캐치하기 위해 세로쓰기 원고지 같은 井間을 3겹의 track으로 채워넣은 레이아웃이 돋보입니다.
세종실록 취풍형 악보에서 잘라낸 ㅢ 자형들 — ㅡ와 ㅣ를 띄워 쓴 훈민정음 필기체
취풍형 font에서 ‘ㅢ’ 형태를 관찰해 봅시다. 현대한글 폰트에서 ㅡㅣ가 한통으로 붙어있는 것과 달리 ‘긔’를 그ㅣ 라고 할 정도로 띄워 썼습니다. 사실 띄어쓰기의 ‘띄’ 발음도 의사의 ‘의’ 발음과 다릅니다. ‘뜨이’를 빠르기 붙여 발음하는 것에 가깝죠.
뜨ㅣ어쓰기 vs 띄어쓰기
사소해 보이지만 이것이 영어 g,d,b를 ㄱㄷㅂ 대신 그 드 브 로 표기하자는 생각에 영감을 주고, 丙辛合에 의해 형성되는 자음조합이 가 될 때 ㅡ를 다른 모음에 어떤 순서로 끼워넣을지 결정할 때 중요한 힌트가 됩니다. (별도후술) 물론 취풍형 속 ‘븨’ 발음이 /bi/라는 뜻은 아닙니다. ㅡㅣ가 한통으로 붙어서 의사의 ‘의’처럼 발음되는 것도 공존하며 ‘븨’는 거기에 해당하죠.
취풍형 속 훈민정음의 자형을 상기하면서 현대정간보에 사용되는 해금/장구의 기호를 들여다보면 한층 더 재미있습니다. 해금 기호속에 ㅡㅣ가 보이고, 장구 기호 속에 ㅇㆍㅣ 가 보입니다. 환각일까요?
해금정악보 66쪽 타령(打令) — 정간 속에 ㅣ ㅡ 모양의 해금 악상기호가 보인다
⦁해금 악상기호 ㅣ ㅡ
ㅣ
활대를 왼편에서 오른편으로 당기는 부호이다.
ㅡ
활대를 오른편에서 왼편으로 미는 부호이다.
전통악기 해금(왼쪽)과 장구(오른쪽)
⦁장구 악상기호 ㅇ ㅣ ㆍ
현대 정간보의 장구 악상기호표 — 덩·작은 덩·덕·기덕·궁·더러러러·다(더)
해금의 활대를 왼쪽으로 미는 音과 오른쪽으로 미는 音이 어떻게 다른지 해금연주자가 아닌 저자가 알리 없으니 ai(chatGPT)에게 물어보았는데 그랬더니 더욱 흥미진진해 집니다.
당기는 활 (좌 → 우) ㅣ
미는 활 (우 → 좌) ㅡ
집중도 높은 소리, 선명한 중심 어택이 또렷함 강약 강조, 리듬 표현에 유리 👉 말소리처럼 또렷한 소리
상대적으로 부드럽고 확산적인 음색 소리가 살짝 늦게 붙는 느낌 (완만한 어택) 긴 호흡, 이어지는 선율에 유리 👉 노래하듯이 이어지는 소리
酉 (서쪽, 금속, 건조하다, 분리되다) →ɨ
卯 (동쪽, 나무, 습하다, 달라붙다) →ɰi
장구의 기호에서 ‘작은 덩’, ‘채편을 짧고 약하게 치라는 부호’라는 설명은 마치 schwa을 위해 준비된 표현같네요. 강세없는 음절에서 살짝쿵 짚어만 주는 모음 ə(schwa) = 작은 덩
전통악기 해금의 형태와 활켜는 음색이 세종이 ㅡㅣ 소리맛을 시시콜콜 설명하지 않아도 보여준다면, 장구는 국어학자들이 ㅇ의 소리에 대해 ‘음가 없슴’ vs ‘아니다 울림이 있다’로 싸우는 것에 해답을 줄 것 같습니다. 장구의 형상을 보면 양쪽에 ‘ㅇ’가 붙어있는 통이고. 이것은 스스로 울지는 않으나 발생한 울림을 더 넓고 부드럽게 방사시켜주는 passive radiator입니다. 스스로 울리는 기호는 ㆍ이고, ㆍ옆에 ㅇ가 있으면 그 울림이 한층 더 번져나갑니다. 영어는 aaa라고 적는데, 한글은 왜 ㅏㅏㅏ 대신 아아아 로 적느냐 에 대한 설명이 되고, 한자독음을 적을 때는 종성에 ㅇ를 넣어 표기하여 노래하는 언어로서 유성음 위주인 중국어의 특징을 표현하고, 초등학생 1학년이 국어 시간에 교과서를 읽을때 한자씩 또박또박 읽으라고 선생님이 강요하는 한국어는 종성에 ㅇ를 넣을 필요가 없다는 것이 이해가 갑니다. ㅇ는 장구의 울림판이자 피아노의 음향판처럼 한글 모음속에 포함된 ㆍ(타격)에 의해 발생한 진짜 울림을 부드럽게 방사시키는 수동적 울림장치인 것이죠.
원형 정간보 vs 현대 정간보
세종 당시의 원형 정간보는 오늘날 국악에서 사용하는 근대 정간보와는 구성과 표기 방식에서 상당한 차이가 있습니다. 현대의 정간보에는 숨표(△), 흘림표, 꺾는표 등 화려한 장식음과 주법기호가 가득한 반면 세종실록의 악보는 단순해 보이는 데, 이는 구전심수(口傳心授)라 하여 동양 전통음악은 악보에 모든 것을 적기보다, 기본적인 골격만 기록하고 세부적인 표현이나 농음(떨림) 등은 스승으로부터 제자에게 직접 전수되는 관습이 강했고, 당시의 궁중 음악은 집단합주 중심이라 개인기량을 뽐내는 산조와 같은 음악이 아니라, 수십 명이 함께 연주하는 합주곡이었습니다. 따라서 세세한 개인적 장식음 기호보다는 정확한 박자와 계음을 전달하는 것이 중요했습니다.
오늘날 정간보에서 흔히 볼 수 있는 세모꼴(△) 모양의 쉼표를 비롯해, 앞서 예로 든 해금/장구의 악상기호와 꾸밈음 등은 근·현대에 이르러 새롭게 만들어진 것들입니다. 이러한 현대 정간보의 세부 부호들은 국악학자인 대마루 김기수 선생(1917-1986)에 의해 집중적으로 제작되고 체계화 되었습니다. 서양 오선보의 연주 기호에 대응하기 위하여 음을 짧게 끊어내는 ‘끊음표’, 길게 늘여 연주하는 ‘늘임표’, 특정음을 강조하는 ‘특강표’, 그리고 ‘점점 느리게’나 ‘좀 빠르게’ 같은 템포 지시기호들까지 현대 정간보에 고안되어 추가되었습니다. 따라서 현대 정간보는 세종대왕이 창안한 과학적인 시간 분할의 틀(정간)을 기본 바탕으로 하되, 20세기 이후 현대 국악 학자들에 의해 실용적인 연주 및 교육용 부호들이 대폭 덧붙여져 완성된 체계라고 할 수 있습니다.
현대 정간보에서 ㅿ를 쉼표에 할당한 것은 전통을 이어가는 적절한 표기라고 생각합니다. 골프에서 par3/par4를 발음할 때, ㅿ가 사라진 한글에서는 파3/파4 라고 적을 것입니다. pa vs par의 발음차이는 무엇일까 생각해보면 par는 ‘파’소리 뒤에 짧은 휴지기가 있습니다. 숫자 3,4를 발음하기 전에 짧은 휴식을 갖죠. 모음뒤에 오는 rhotic을 정음이 파ᇫ3/파ᇫ4 로 표기한 곳에서 짧은 휴지기(ㅿ)를 본 것이죠. ‘파ㅿ’에서 ‘파’ 다음칸의 ㅿ가 ⅓을 소리로 채우고 ⅔를 비워두었을 때, 정음은 채워진 ⅓을 종성ㅿ로 표기하고, 김기수의 현대 정간보는 비어있는 ⅔를 쉼표로 간주한 것입니다.
As a young king, he tuned twelve notes and wrote music that is still played today. Late in life, he made letters to write down the words.
1. One stone was a little too high
In 1427, a court musician named Pak Yeon (1378–1458) brought a new instrument to Gyeongbokgung, the main palace in Seoul. It was a pyeongyeong: sixteen L-shaped stones hanging in a wooden frame, each one cut to ring a single, exact note. Until then Korea had used chimes from China, and many of them were out of tune. Pak Yeon had found good stone in Korea and cut a new set at home.
King Sejong listened and was pleased. He was thirty years old.
“The Chinese chimes are not well tuned, but these are. Finding the stone was lucky, and the sound is clear and beautiful. But the stone for Ichik sounds a little high. Why is that?”
Ichik is the ninth of the twelve notes. Pak Yeon checked that stone and found that part of the ink line he had drawn for cutting was still on it. The stone had not been ground down all the way. He ground off the rest of the line, and the note came right.
In Korea this story is so well known that children read it in picture books. Here, Pak Yeon and King Sejong the Great (박연과 세종 대왕): Pak Yeon plays the stone chimes, and the king listens. 그림책 《박연과 세종 대왕》 — 박연이 편경을 연주하고 임금이 듣는다.
Sixteen years later, in 1443, the same king finished a new alphabet: Hunminjeongeum, “the correct sounds for teaching the people” – the letters we now call Hangul. Most people know Sejong only for that. But the alphabet came late in his life. When he was young, the sounds he cared about were the sounds of music, and the order of his life tells a story:
1418 – Sejong becomes king at 21.
1419 – A Chinese book on tuning, Yullyeo Sinseo, arrives in Korea. Sejong studies it with his scholars.
1420s – Pak Yeon tries again and again to make the Hwangjong pipe, the pipe of the first note. In 1427 he shows the king his new stone chimes.
1430 – A correct Hwangjong pipe is made. From it come all twelve notes – six yang and six yin – and the court’s chimes and bells are tuned to them.
The years after – Sejong invents a new score, jeongganbo, and composes court music and dances: the music still played at Jongmyo Shrine.
1443 – Now 46, Sejong finishes a new alphabet for the sounds of Korean speech.
1445–1446 – The first long work in the new letters, a song cycle, is written and set to music, and the alphabet is announced to the country.
1450 – Sejong dies at 52.
2. Twelve notes, twelve months
East Asian music divides an octave into twelve notes, just like the twelve keys from C to B on a piano. Together they are called the 12 yul-ryeo (律呂). Six of them are yul, the yang notes, and six are ryeo, the yin notes. They take turns: the odd-numbered notes are yang and the even-numbered notes are yin. Europe found the same twelve notes, but never split them this way. In East Asian thought, odd numbers are yang and even numbers are yin, and music followed the same rule.
The twelve notes on a Western staff, from the book. Top row: the names (Hwangjong 黃鐘 to Eungjong 應鍾). Middle row: the old five-note scale (宮 商 角 徵 羽) plus two extra notes. Bottom row: the nearest Western notes, with Hwangjong set at C. 책 그림 — 서양 오선보에 적은 12율: 율명(黃鐘~應鍾), 5음계(宮商角徵羽)와 변치·변궁, 黃鐘을 C로 둔 서양 음이름.
But these notes were never only music. Each one also belonged to a month and to one of the twelve earthly branches – the same twelve signs used for the animals of the zodiac, the two-hour blocks of the day and the directions of the compass. The first note, Hwangjong (黃鐘, “yellow bell”), belongs to 子, the month of the winter solstice. The old books say that this is when yang energy wakes up again, deep under the frozen ground. The seventh note, Yubin, belongs to 午 and the summer solstice. Going once around the octave is like going once around the year.
The original: a circle from the Akhak gwebeom (樂學軌範, 1493), the great music book of Joseon, which records the work of Sejong’s time. Each pitch stands on one of the twelve branches. At the bottom: 子 – 黃鐘 – 陽律, “branch 子, Hwangjong, a yang note.” 《악학궤범》(1493)의 원도 — 각 율이 12지지 위에 선다. 맨 아래: 子 – 黃鐘 – 陽律.
Remember this detail, because it is the key clue of this whole story: the first note, Hwangjong, is 子. Every other note is counted from it, the way every month is counted from the winter solstice. Whoever has the Hwangjong pipe has the starting point of the whole octave.
3. Find one pipe, and you have them all
How do you get twelve notes in tune? You start with one bamboo pipe, the Hwangjong pipe, and you make the others from it. Cut one third off its length, and the shorter pipe sounds a fifth higher. Add one third to that new pipe, and it sounds a fourth lower. Keep going – take away a third, add a third – and after eleven steps you have all twelve pipes. The method is called sambun-sonik (三分損益), “thirds taken away and added.” In ancient Greece, Pythagoras built a scale in almost the same way. The video below shows the Hwangjong pipe and the whole method step by step. It is in Korean without English subtitles, but the pipes, the lengths and the sounds speak for themselves.
The Hwangjong pipe and sambun-sonik, explained (in Korean).
So everything depends on the first pipe. And that pipe was more than a musical tool. Its length set the country’s standard unit of length, the grain it could hold set the standard measure of volume, and the weight of that grain set the standard weight. When a new dynasty began, getting the Hwangjong pipe right meant getting the whole country’s measurements right.
Joseon was still a young kingdom, founded in 1392. Sejong asked Pak Yeon to make the pipe, and it was not easy. The pipe was supposed to hold exactly 1,200 grains of millet, but Korean millet was not the same size as the millet in the Chinese books, so Pak Yeon even shaped grains out of wax to get the size right. His first tries failed. In 1430 a correct pipe was finally made, and the stone chimes (pyeongyeong) and the bronze bells (pyeonjong) of the court orchestra were tuned to it.
4. A music book in the king’s classroom
Sejong became king in 1418, at the age of twenty-one. The very next year, his half-brother Prince Gyeongnyeong came back from Ming China with a huge set of books, the Great Compendium of Neo-Confucianism (性理大全). Inside it was a short book called Yullyeo Sinseo (律呂新書), “A New Book on the Pitch Pipes,” written in Song China around 1187 by Cai Yuanding, a friend of the philosopher Zhu Xi. It explained, step by step, how to make the twelve pipes from the first one.
Sejong did not leave this book to the musicians. Joseon kings held regular study sessions called gyeongyeon (經筵), where the king and his scholars read the classics together and talked about how to govern. Sejong had the Yullyeo Sinseo read and discussed there. For a Confucian king, this made sense. Music was a model of order: when every note is in its right place, the sound is in harmony, and a good state should work the same way.
5. The king’s own music
Tuning instruments was only the start. Sejong also needed a way to write music down, so he made one. Jeongganbo (井間譜) is a score drawn as a grid of boxes, like squared paper read from top to bottom. One box is one beat. A note that fills two boxes lasts two beats. It was the first notation in East Asia that showed exactly how long each note lasts. The Veritable Records of King Sejong, the official history of his reign, ends with twelve whole volumes of these scores (volumes 136 to 147).
Then he wrote the music to fill them. His two great suites are Botaepyeong (保太平, “Keeping the Great Peace”), which praises the learning and wise rule of the earlier kings, and Jeongdaeeop (定大業, “Founding the Great Work”), which praises their victories in war. Sejong built them on native Korean melodies instead of Chinese court music, and he wanted them played for his ancestors. The court was too conservative to allow that while he was alive. In 1464, his son King Sejo finally made them the music of the royal ancestral rites, saying that the ancestors should hear the music they had heard in life.
They are still played. Every year, at Jongmyo Shrine in Seoul, an orchestra of bells, stones, drums, flutes and strings performs Botaepyeong and Jeongdaeeop – eleven pieces each – while dancers move in a square of rows. For Botaepyeong they perform the civil dance, holding a flute and a feathered stick; for Jeongdaeeop they perform the military dance, holding wooden swords and spears. UNESCO lists the Jongmyo rite and its music as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
Sejong also set Hangul itself to music. Yongbieocheonga, the “Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven” (1445), was the first long work ever written in the new letters. It tells the story of the kings who founded Joseon. Sejong turned it into a court piece with dance called Bongnaeui (鳳來儀, “The Phoenix Comes”), and made it in three versions:
Version
Words
Length
Feel
Yeominnak (與民樂, “Joy Shared with the People”)
Classical Chinese
long
slow and grand, long breaths
Chihwapyeong (致和平)
Hangul
medium
medium
Chwipunghyeong (醉豐亨)
Hangul
short
fast, the boxes packed with words and notes
The book behind this site counts these works the way Sejong counted notes. Yullyeo Sinseo starts from one base note and fills the octave with twelve. In the same way, Bongnaeui – named for the phoenix, with words about dragons, the symbols of the king – stands as the “Hwangjong” of Sejong’s music, and with it the set becomes twelve, just as the scores fill twelve volumes. And the three versions of one song follow the three powers, Heaven, Earth and Human.
6. Letters hiding in the score
There are many old books printed in Hangul, but the Chwipunghyeong score is special. It is not printed in a stiff book type. The words are written with a brush, squeezed into the boxes beside the notes, so reading it feels like reading a letter from Sejong himself. You can even see small details of how he wrote: the vowel ㅢ is not joined into one shape as in modern fonts, but written as two separate strokes, ㅡ and ㅣ, side by side.
Now look at the marks Korean musicians use today in jeongganbo for two instruments: the haegeum, a two-string fiddle, and the janggu, an hourglass-shaped drum.
Haegeum: the bow runs between the two strings and always moves sideways. 해금 — 활이 두 줄 사이를 지나며 늘 옆으로 움직인다.Janggu: a hollow hourglass body with a round head on each side. 장구 — 가운데가 잘록한 울림통 양쪽에 둥근 가죽판.The two instruments, from the book. 두 악기, 책 그림.
Score marks from the book. Haegeum (top): ㅣ = pull the bow from left to right, ㅡ = push it from right to left. Janggu (bottom), from the top row: deong (both heads at once), small deong (the same, but soft), deok (the stick on the high head), gideok (deok with a quick grace note), kung (the left hand on the low head), deoreoreoreo (a rolled stroke), and deo (the tip of the stick, short and soft). 책의 부호표 — 해금(위): ㅣ = 당기는 활(왼쪽→오른쪽), ㅡ = 미는 활(오른쪽→왼쪽). 장구(아래): 덩·덱·기덱·쫑·더러러러·더.
The fiddle’s two bow strokes are ㅣ and ㅡ. The drum’s marks are ㅇ, ㅣ and ㆍ. Am I seeing things? These marks were set in the 20th century, mostly by the music scholar Kim Ki-su (1917–1986), so Sejong did not design them. But that is what makes them interesting: when musicians needed simple marks for kinds of sound, they reached for the same shapes Sejong had used for letters.
The two bow strokes are more than two directions. On a haegeum, ㅣ is the pull (the bow moves from left to right) and ㅡ is the push (from right to left), and they do not sound the same. The book gives each one a character. (The author does not play the haegeum, so he worked out this table with the help of an AI assistant.)
ㅣ pull (left → right)
ㅡ push (right → left)
Sound
focused, with a clear center
softer, spreading out
Start of the note
sharp and clear
a little late and gentle
Good for
accents and rhythm
long breaths and flowing melody
Feels like
clear, like speech
smooth, like singing
Direction
酉 – west, metal, dry, separating
卯 – east, wood, moist, clinging
Corner shape
⌎ = ᅟᆜ (ㅣ then ㅡ) → [ɨ]
⌏ = ㅢ (ㅡ then ㅣ) → [ɰi]
The pulled ㅣ belongs to 酉, the west, and the pushed ㅡ to 卯, the east. This may look odd if you know that in the letters ㅣ stands for the east, but on a haegeum the bow always moves sideways, never up and down. Here ㅣ is only the score’s mark for a pull, not a picture of the stroke, so it is no surprise that its sound has the character of 酉. The last row puts the two strokes together, and the order matters. ㅣ first and then ㅡ makes the corner ⌎ – which is the old Hangul vowel ᅟᆜ, sounding [ɨ]. ㅡ first and then ㅣ makes the corner ⌏ – which is ㅢ, sounding [ɰi]. Same two strokes, opposite order, different sound. Keep this in mind when you look again at the brush-written ㅢ in Chwipunghyeong, where its two strokes are kept apart.
The drum is the best clue. A janggu is a hollow body with a round head on each side – a pair of ㅇs. The body does not make sound by itself. It takes the sound of the strike and spreads it out, wider and softer, like the soundboard of a piano. The strike itself is the dot, ㆍ. Read Hangul with this in mind. ㅇ is written next to a vowel when no other consonant comes first, as in 아아아 for aaa, where English simply writes the vowels. In this book’s reading, ㅇ is not an empty placeholder but Hangul’s soundboard: it does not ring on its own, but it lets the vowel ring out.
7. A pavilion built like a calendar
Inside Gyeongbokgung there is a large square pond, and in the pond stands a wide two-story pavilion: Gyeonghoeru (慶會樓), “the Pavilion of Happy Meetings.” The king held banquets there for his officials and for foreign envoys. It was rebuilt on a much larger scale in 1412 by Sejong’s father, King Taejong, and the work was led by the builder Pak Ja-cheong. The wooden building burned in 1592, during the Japanese invasions, and the pavilion you can visit today was rebuilt in 1867.
Gyeonghoeru in its pond, Gyeongbokgung Palace, Seoul. 서울 경복궁 연못 안의 경회루.
At first sight it is just a big, beautiful hall. But count its parts, and it turns into a picture of the universe.
Gyeonghoeru as a calendar, from the book. Yellow center: 三才 (the three powers) and 中宮 (the central palace), held by 8 red pillars. Around it, the twelve months (월 = month), colored by season: blue for spring in the east, red for summer in the south, white for autumn in the west, gray for winter in the north. Each blue dot on the outside is a pillar named for one of the 24 solar terms, such as 동지 (winter solstice) at the top and 하지 (summer solstice) at the bottom. The oval petals mark the doors. 책 그림 — 달력으로 본 경회루: 가운데 노란 三才·中宮과 8개 붉은 기둥, 둘레의 12개월(계절색), 바깥 24기둥은 24절기, 타원 꽃잎은 문.
The plan made for rebuilding Gyeonghoeru in the 1860s. The outer pillars carry the names of the 24 solar terms, the inner ring the twelve months, and the center reads 三才 (the three powers) and 中宮 (the central palace). 1860년대 경회루 중건 때의 도면 — 바깥 기둥에 24절기, 안쪽에 12개월, 가운데에 三才·中宮.
The hall is 7 bays long and 5 bays wide, resting on 48 stone pillars.
In the very center are 3 bays: Heaven, Earth and Human (天地人), the three basic powers of the world.
Around them stand 8 pillars, for the 8 trigrams of the Book of Changes – the same signs you can see on the corners of the Korean flag.
Around those are 12 bays, one for each month of the year.
The outside of the building rests on 24 pillars, one for each of the 24 solar terms, the points that divide the farmer’s year into two-week steps.
Around the 12 month-bays hang doors, 4 on each of the 16 sides: 64 doors, for the 64 hexagrams of the Book of Changes.
Even the shape of the pillars follows an old saying, “heaven is round, earth is square” (天圓地方). Where the stone pillars stand on the ground they are square; higher up, holding the hall toward the sky, they turn round. The pond around the building is square too.
Under Gyeonghoeru: square where the pillars meet the earth, round as they rise toward heaven. 경회루 아래 — 땅에 닿는 곳은 네모, 하늘로 오르며 둥글어지는 돌기둥(天圓地方).
The twelve months even follow the directions. On the east side are the three months of spring (寅卯辰), on the south side the three months of summer (巳午未), and on the west side the three months of autumn (申酉戌). Walking around the upper floor is like walking through the year.
8. The scholars next door
Right in front of Gyeonghoeru stands a long, low hall called Sujeongjeon (修政殿). In Sejong’s time, this was the site of Jiphyeonjeon (集賢殿), the “Hall of Worthies” – the king’s research institute, where young scholars studied old books, wrote new ones and advised the king.
Gyeonghoeru (경회루) in its pond, with Sujeongjeon (수정전) – the site of the Hall of Worthies – just in front of it, and the throne hall Geunjeongjeon (근정전) to the southeast. From the book. 연못 안의 경회루와 그 앞 수정전(집현전 터), 동남쪽의 근정전. 책 그림.
Scholars from this hall, such as Jeong In-ji, Seong Sam-mun and Sin Suk-ju, wrote the Hunminjeongeum Haerye in 1446, the manual that explains the new letters. That manual explains Hangul with exactly the ideas built into the pavilion: yin and yang, the five elements, the seasons, and Heaven, Earth and Human. The three basic vowels are even drawn from them: ㆍ, a round dot, is Heaven; ㅡ, a flat line, is Earth; ㅣ, a standing line, is a Human.
So picture their workday. They read the Yullyeo Sinseo with the king, they heard the newly tuned bells and stones at palace ceremonies, and every day they looked out at a building made of months, seasons and the three powers. It would be strange if none of this had gone into the letters.
The letters had a practical reason too. In 1429 Sejong published Nongsa Jikseol, “Plain Words on Farming,” a guide built from the know-how of Korea’s own best farmers, because the Chinese farming books did not fit Korean soil and weather. It was printed and sent to villages and officials. But it was written in Chinese characters, so most of the farmers it was meant for could not read it.
9. Color and pitch
Here is the idea of the book behind this site. Think of the letters the way Sejong thought of music. The consonants are like the timbre of instruments – the color of a sound – and they come in five groups, for the five places in the mouth and the five elements. (You can see those five colors on the 3D model in the last post.) The vowels are like pitch, and pitch, for Sejong, meant the 12 yul-ryeo: six yang and six yin.
But there is a problem. Hunminjeongeum has 17 consonants and only 11 vowels. Some of those vowels are also made by saying two vowels in a row: ㅛ (yo) is ㅣ (i) followed by ㅗ (o). No musical scale makes a new basic note by playing two notes one after the other. So the 11 vowels in the manual look like a selection – the vowels heard most often in Korean – taken from a larger, more regular set of twelve.
And remember the pipe. Give someone the Hwangjong pipe, and they can work out the other eleven notes. 17 + 11 = 28. What if one of the 17 consonants was really the starting pipe for the vowels? Then the alphabet would be 16 consonants and 12 vowels – and the vowels would be a full octave.
The book’s answer is ㆆ. Go back to the clue: Hwangjong is 子. 子 is the time of the winter solstice, in December – the shortest day of the year, when the sun sinks lowest. Among Sejong’s consonants, the consonant of winter is ㆆ, a throat sound that belongs to water. Now look at its shape: a flat line, and under it a circle. It is the sun after it has gone down below the horizon. That is why, in this book’s vowel compass, ㆆ stands at 子, in the place of Hwangjong. Opposite it, at 午 and the summer solstice, stands ㆍ, the round sun high at noon. ㆆ and ㆍ make the north–south line of the compass, and ㅣ and ㅡ make the east–west line.
So here is the whole story in one breath. As a young king, Sejong wanted the notes of his court to be exactly right. He had Pak Yeon make one perfect pipe, Hwangjong. From that one note, thirds taken away and added gave him twelve – six yang yul and six yin ryeo. On those twelve notes he tuned the stones and bells, drew a new kind of score, and composed music that is still played at Jongmyo today. And near the end of his life he did one more thing: he gave his people letters that write down the sounds of their own speech – letters that could hold the words of a song as exactly as his score held its notes. The man who tuned a kingdom ended by tuning its alphabet.
10. Read more
This post is a short English version of ideas from the book 《正音으로 듣고쓰다》 (Listening and Writing with Jeongeum), pages 127–135 and 264–267. The Korean originals go further:
가 될 때 ㅡ를 다른 모음에 어떤 순서로 끼워넣을지 결정할 때 중요한 힌트가 됩니다. (별도후술) 물론 취풍형 속 ‘븨’ 발음이 /bi/라는 뜻은 아닙니다. ㅡㅣ가 한통으로 붙어서 의사의 ‘의’처럼 발음되는 것도 공존하며 ‘븨’는 거기에 해당하죠.
→ɨ
→ɰi
