The Beauty of Hangul Left by the Last Princess of Joseon, Embracing Digitalization

National Hangeul Museum Develops 'Hangeul Museum Deokon Font' Using Princess Deokon’s Handwriting from 'Jagyeongjeon-gi' and Others

Jagyeong Electric

Princess Deokon (1822?1844), the third daughter of Sunjo (1790?1834), was the last princess of the Joseon Dynasty. From a young age, she enjoyed reading and writing, leaving behind numerous elegant Hangul court script materials. The representative work is the "Jagyeongjeon-gi." It embodies the deep filial piety of three generations of the Joseon royal family: King Jeongjo, King Sunjo, and Princess Deokon. Jeongjo built the pavilion "Jagyeongjeon" in Changgyeonggung Palace to serve his mother, Queen Hye Gyeonggung, and Sunjo continued this intention by writing the "Jagyeongjeon-gi." Princess Deokon, by the order of her mother, Queen Sunwon, transcribed the "Jagyeongjeon-gi" written by her father into Hangul. The carefully handwritten Hangul material was completed in a folding book form consisting of forty-eight pages. The book pages were connected like a scroll and folded into rectangular shapes of equal size on both sides, overlapping like a folding screen. It measures up to 5 meters in length and is highly regarded for richly embodying the aesthetic beauty of Hangul court script.

Gyuhun

The National Hangeul Museum announced on the 14th that it will develop a digital Hangul font using the handwriting of Princess Deokon’s original manuscripts, including "Jagyeongjeon-gi," "Gyuhun," "Ilchalgeum," and "Hyeonbuin Girok." The tentative name is "Hangeul Museum Deokonche." A museum official explained, “We are undertaking a project to restore the handwriting of major collection materials and develop them into digital fonts to revive the value of old literary materials and increase the diversity of Hangul fonts. Princess Deokon’s original manuscripts are the first focus.” The Hangeul Museum collected 667 pieces of Hangul heritage from Princess Deokon’s family between 2016 and last year. These are precious materials that reveal the Hangul literacy life of royal women and the characteristics of 19th-century Korean language.

Daily allowance

The "Gyuhun," used alongside "Jagyeongjeon-gi," records virtues and etiquette that women should observe. "Ilchalgeum" is a book interpreting the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching (Book of Changes). "Ilchal" means "a handful," referring to a very small amount. "Ilchalgeum" means "divining very simply." "Hyeonbuin Girok" is a book that interprets the biographies of various Chinese figures such as Do Cheok, Maeng Gwang, and Jeong Man-ri into Hangul. A museum official said, “We will analyze the handwriting of each material and revive it with modern digital font technology to develop a font that captures the graceful charm of Hangul. It will be distributed for free through the Digital Hangeul Museum website operated by the National Hangeul Museum.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.