Before the creation of Hangul, Koreans used Classical Chinese and various native phonetic scripts such as Idu, Hyangchal, Gugyeol, and Gakpil,^[59] which made literacy a challenge for the uneducated lower classes due to the complexity of the languages and the extensive number of Chinese characters. To address this issue, King Sejong the Great of the Joseon dynasty invented Hangul in the 15th century to promote literacy among all Koreans, regardless of social status. This new script was presented in 1446 in a document titled "Hunminjeongeum" (The Proper Sounds for the Education of the People), which laid the foundations for the script’s use.^[60]

Despite its practical design, Hangul faced opposition from the literary elite who were deeply rooted in Confucian traditions and saw the use of Chinese characters as the only legitimate form of writing. This resistance led to periods where the alphabet was suppressed, notably in 1504 by King Yeonsangun and again in 1506 by King Jungjong, which curtailed its development and standardization. However, by the late 16th century, Hangul experienced a resurgence, particularly in popular literature such as gasa and sijo poetry, and in the 17th century with the advent of Korean alphabet novels, despite the lack of orthographic standardization.^[61]

The revival and preservation of Hangul continued into the 18th and 19th centuries, garnering attention from foreign scholars such as the Dutch Isaac Titsingh who introduced a Korean book to the Western world. Hangul's integration into official documentation was realized by 1894, influenced by Korean nationalism, reform movements, and Western missionaries, marking its establishment in modern Korean literacy and education, as evidenced by its inclusion in elementary texts from 1895 and in the bilingual newspaper Tongnip Sinmun in 1896.