The Hanja Writting system

Hanja is the Korean name for Chinese Characters, which were introduced to Korea more than two thousand years ago. In Dae Jang Geum, as in history, most documents were written in hanja. It was the sole means of writing Korean until King Sejong invented hangul (the Korean alphabet) in the 15th century. Before the invention of hangul, Koreans had a dual system of literacy: hanmun (classical Chinese) for the upper class, and idu (a system of writing Korean sounds in Chinese characters) for the middle class. King Sejong's invention led to an increase in literacy, but the conservative Confucian intellectuals objected to this new script. Therefore, in Dae Jang Geum, you will see that official documents are still written in hanja. It was not until the 20th century that Hangul completely replaced Hanja.

Scene from Dae Jang Geum - '3 Hanja Characters'
A scene from the first episode of Dae Jang Geum. Here, a Buddhist monk discusses the meaning of three Hanja characters with Jang Geum's father:


For more information visit Basic Hanja