In 1440, SeJong DaeWang World Ancestral Large (Great) King who was the fourth ruler of JoSeon Dynasty Fresh, which came to power through a coup d'etat ending the reign of KoRyeo High Elegant and establishing Confucianism as the new moral system from 1392 until 1910, or Morning Calm based on a common but incorrect translation of the name for Korea of the I Yi Dynasty, set a group of scholars to the task of inventing an indigenous writing system for the Korean language. The resulting phonetic alphabet, HanKeul, was promulgated in 1446 to educate the general population but did not enjoy widespread use until the twentieth century. Originally intended as a supplement to the HanJa Sino-Korean Characters, HanKeul faced heavy opposition by the literate elite and was banned in 1504. Until that time, HanKeul had been used primarily by women and uneducated men. When the idea of nationalism gained popularity in Korea in the late 19th century, HanKeul was recognized as a national symbol by some reformists and was adopted in official documents for the first time in 1894. After Korea was annexed by Japan in 1910, HanKeul became compulsory in schools.