Abstract

Not only King Sejong accomplished the reestablishment of the authentic aak in the Joseon Dynasty court, but he also tried to create “the real aak” of his era. The essence of the aak is reflected in his new music. The jeongdaeeop and botaepyeong were designated as ritual music for the royal ancestors by King Sejo, but it was King Sejong’s desire from the beginning and he intended to create new aak for his people. Therefore, it possesses a more widespread idea of the propagation of human virtue by music. In this sense, this cannot be interpreted as ethnocentric nationalism, since what he was looking for during his reign was the culmination of the perfect Confucian world. The reestablishment of the aak and the creation of new musical pieces and the influences of Hangeul on the creation of new music and the invention of a new notation system, jeongganbo, were all linked as an intertwined form in the achievements of King Sejong, and each were also respectively born as an individual cultural production.