Hunminjeongeum is the original name of Hangeul, which is the native alphabet of the Korean language created by King Sejong the Great(1397~1450) in 1443. It is also the name of the book published when the 28 letters were made public in 1446. The publication was discovered in 1940 in Andong, Gyeongsangbuk-do after nearly 500 years, and was designated as Korea's National Treasure No. 70 in 1962. It was registered as a UNESCO Memory of the World in 1997.
Several publications of Hunminjeongeum have been discovered so far. Among them, the book published at the time of Hunminjeongeum distribution can be regarded as the original, which is also called "Hunminjeongeum Haerye" because of the Haerye (explanations and examples). Hunminjeongeum Haerye consists of the Samples and Significance Edition, the Haerye and ad colophon by the scholar Jeong Inji. The Samples and Significance Edition comprises two parts: King Sejong's preface, in which King Sejong indicated his motivation and purpose for creating Hangeul, and the body, where the articulation positions, names and sounds of 17 consonants and the sounds of 11 vowels are explained with examples in addition to the explanation on various writing rules and four tones of Hangeul.
It is retained in Gan-song museum (located in Seongbuk-dong Seoul).