earticle

영어

In ancient society, unwritten laws became gradually codified. In this process simple writing system was essential. In ancient Greece and Rome, alphabet was very easy to learn which was sufficient for this process. If this condition is not fulfilled, most people can not read and write. By enlarging the population of literate people, the base for the creation of public opinion was made. In modern Europe reading public emerged as the effects of Gutenberg galaxy. But, in East Asia, there were no such appropriate medium for the common. Chinese characters were very difficult to learn, cost much efforts. The number who can read written laws were quite limited all the time. So hegemony of literate scholars continued till the 19th century. In Joseon dynasty, Korean alphabet was not in active use though it was very efficient and easy to learn. Among the purposes for the creation of writing system, proclamation of law was very important. In various situations, we can see simple and easy writing system was indispensible condition for rule of law and democracy. In East Asia, there were de facto rule of law, but weak democratic tradition. There were tendency to view rule of law as negative. In traditional east asian society, rule of li(rites) overwhelmed rule of law, which had been paternalistic. Due to the inefficient writing system, monopoly of knowledge and information were easy, ruling class was regarded as teacher. It can be inferred Chinese idiogram was main cause of all these phenomena.