King Sejong the Great

Including the fields of Politics, Economy, Culture, Military, as a matter of course, Numerous achievements of King Sejong(세종대왕) had developed Joseon(조선) into the most powerful and most scientifically advanced country in East Asia.

1411, He invented Cheugugi(측우기), an instrument to measure precipitation by collecting raindrops. 1434. He invented Jagyeongnu(자격루), a time alarming machine with an automatic system of a bell, jing, and drum resounding at exact moment by water. 1443, King Sejong created Korean alphabet - Hangeul(한글), which is recognized as the best letter in the world.

People's happiness was the number one concern of his politics. First, King Sejong was a great king who always considered people's hardship and tried to do his best to make people's life better.

The most apparent example of King Sejong's affection towards the nation was the establishment of the Korean alphabet, 'Hangeul.' King Sejong established 'Hangeul' despite the strong objections from many government officials, who were maintaining their power by using Chinese that the common could not easily understand. On the other hand, anyone could easily learn and write the newly established language. The ultimate purpose of the establishment of 'Hangeul' was to eliminate the hardships of the illiterate and to enhance their lives.

King Sejong was especially fond of reading books and was a prominent scholar. Also, he gained wisdom and power needed to be a good king by long periods of mental training. Considering that the first sentence of the epitaph inscribed on his gravestone was that he was excellent with his studies, we can see how passionate he was about knowledge.

Fourth, running the country's affairs through debate and conversation. It is known that King Sejong enjoyed debating with his followers at dawn. Debate was one of King Sejong's most important daily schedules that enabled him to think over his people's sufferings and to be always awakened like a keeper of his country.

In addition, in a society where kings had absolute powers, he was a king who valued and loved his intelligent followers even if they disagreed with him or criticized him. Also, even though he was a king who had absolute power he didn't run his country imperialistically but decided many issues through discussion.