Gugyeol, or kwukyel, is a system for rendering texts written in

Classical Chinese Classical Chinese is the language in which the classics of Chinese literature were written, from . For millennia thereafter, the written Chinese used in these works was imitated and iterated upon by scholars in a form now called Literary ...

into understandable

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...

. It was used chiefly during the

Joseon dynasty Joseon ( ; ; also romanized as ''Chosun''), officially Great Joseon (), was a dynastic kingdom of Korea that existed for 505 years. It was founded by Taejo of Joseon in July 1392 and replaced by the Korean Empire in October 1897. The kingdom w ...

, when readings of the

Chinese classics The Chinese classics or canonical texts are the works of Chinese literature authored prior to the establishment of the imperial Qin dynasty in 221 BC. Prominent examples include the Four Books and Five Classics in the Neo-Confucian traditi ...

were of paramount social importance. Thus, in ''gugyeol'', the original text in Classical Chinese was not modified, and the additional markers were simply inserted between phrases. The parts of the Chinese sentence would then be read in Korean out of sequence to approximate Korean ( SOV) rather than Chinese ( SVO) word order. A similar system for reading Classical Chinese is still used in Japan and is known as '' kanbun kundoku''. Gugyeol is derived from the

cursive Cursive (also known as joined-up writing) is any style of penmanship in which characters are written joined in a flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing faster, in contrast to block letters. It varies in functionality and m ...

and simplified style of Chinese characters.

Etymology

The term ''gugyeol'' (

Hanja Hanja (; ), alternatively spelled Hancha, are Chinese characters used to write the Korean language. After characters were introduced to Korea to write Literary Chinese, they were adapted to write Korean as early as the Gojoseon period. () ...

: 口訣) can be rendered as "phrase parting" and may refer to the separation of one Chinese phrase from another. This name is itself believed to originate from the use of hanja characters to represent the

Middle Korean Middle Korean is the period in the history of the Korean language succeeding Old Korean and yielding in 1600 to the Modern period. The boundary between the Old and Middle periods is traditionally identified with the establishment of Goryeo in 918 ...

phrase ''ipgyeot'' (입겿), with a similar meaning. ''Gugyeol'' is also sometimes referred to as ''to'' (), or ''hyeonto'' (), since ''to'' is also used to refer to the morphological affixes themselves or as ''seogui'' (), which can be rendered as "interpretation of the classics."

History

''Gugyeol'' is first attested from the 11th century in the early

Goryeo Goryeo (; ) was a Korean state founded in 918, during a time of national division called the Later Three Kingdoms period, that unified and ruled the Korea, Korean Peninsula until the establishment of Joseon in 1392. Goryeo achieved what has b ...

dynasty, but evidence indicates it likely dates back to the 7th century or earlier. In this period, certain hanja characters were used (along with specialized symbols) to represent Korean sounds through their meaning. For example, the syllable '잇' (''is'') was represented with the hanja character 有 since that character has the Korean meaning '있다.' This technique came to be replaced in the late Goryeo period with using hanja characters according to their sound. The later version of the ''gugyeol'' system was formalized by

Chŏng Mong-ju Chŏng Mong-ju (, January 13, 1337 – May 4, 1392), also known by his art name P'oŭn (), was a Korean statesman, diplomat, philosopher, poet, calligrapher and reformist of the Goryeo period. He was a major figure of opposition to the transit ...

and

Kwŏn Kŭn Kwŏn Kŭn (1352 – 14 February 1409) was a Korean Neo-Confucian scholar at the dawn of the Joseon period, and a student of Yi Saek. He was one of the first Neo-Confucian scholars of the Joseon dynasty, and had a lasting influence on the rise ...

around 1400 in the early

Joseon Dynasty Joseon ( ; ; also romanized as ''Chosun''), officially Great Joseon (), was a dynastic kingdom of Korea that existed for 505 years. It was founded by Taejo of Joseon in July 1392 and replaced by the Korean Empire in October 1897. The kingdom w ...

, at the behest of King Taejong. Many

Confucian classics The Chinese classics or canonical texts are the works of Chinese literature authored prior to the establishment of the imperial Qin dynasty in 221 BC. Prominent examples include the Four Books and Five Classics in the Neo-Confucian traditi ...

, including the ''

Classic of Poetry The ''Classic of Poetry'', also ''Shijing'' or ''Shih-ching'', translated variously as the ''Book of Songs'', ''Book of Odes'', or simply known as the ''Odes'' or ''Poetry'' (; ''Shī''), is the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry, co ...

'', were rendered into ''gugyeol'' at the time. The term ''gugyeol'' is often extended beyond this early system to similar uses of

hangul The Korean alphabet is the modern writing system for the Korean language. In North Korea, the alphabet is known as (), and in South Korea, it is known as (). The letters for the five basic consonants reflect the shape of the speech organs ...

following the introduction of the ''

Hunminjeongeum () is a 15th-century manuscript that introduced the Korean script Hangul. The name of the manuscript was also the original name of the script. King Sejong the Great commissioned the royal research institute Hall of Worthies to write the '' ...

'' in the 15th century. In this respect, ''gugyeol'' remains in occasional use in contemporary

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

, where such techniques are still sometimes used to render the Confucian classics into readable form. ''Gugyeol'' should be distinguished from the '' idu'' and ''

hyangchal ''Hyangchal'' () is an archaic writing system of Korea and was used to transcribe the Korean language in Chinese characters. Using the ''hyangchal'' system, Chinese characters were given a Korean reading based on the syllable associated with th ...

'' systems, which preceded it. ''Gugyeol'' used specialized markings, together with a subset of hanja, to represent Korean morphological markers as an aid for Korean readers to understand the grammar of Chinese texts. Also, the ''idu'' and the ''hyangchal'' systems appear to have been used primarily to render Korean into

hanja Hanja (; ), alternatively spelled Hancha, are Chinese characters used to write the Korean language. After characters were introduced to Korea to write Literary Chinese, they were adapted to write Korean as early as the Gojoseon period. () ...

; on the other hand, ''gugyeol'' sought to render Chinese texts into Korean with a minimum of distortion.

Table of Gugyeol

References

External links

Doosan Encyclopedia entry구결(口訣) - 한국민족문화대백과사전
Korean) Korean writing system Writing systems derived from Chinese characters Works by Joseon people Works by Goryeo people Classical Chinese Education in Goryeo Education in Joseon

Etymology

History

Table of Gugyeol

See also

References

Further reading

External links