The History of Korea (Vol.1&2). Homer B. Hulbert
but to retire to Kitan; but he secretly threw out a strong force toward Song-do. They found every point disputed and were obliged to withdraw to Yŭng-byŭn. Like most soldiers the Koryŭ forces fought best when on the offensive and the moment the enemy took this backward step Gen. Kang Kam-ch‘an was upon them, flank and rear. The invaders were driven out of Yŭng-byŭn but made a stand at Kwi-ju. At first the fight was an even one but when a south wind sprang up which lent force to the Koryŭ arrows and drove dust into the eyes of the enemy the latter turned and fled, with the exulting Koryŭ troops in full pursuit. Across the Sŭk-ch‘ŭn brook they floundered and across the fields which they left carpeted with Kitan dead. All their plunder, arms and camp equipage fell into Koryŭ hands and Gen. So Son-ryŭng with a few thousand weary followers finally succeeded in getting across the Yalu. This was the greatest disaster that Kitan suffered at any time from her southern neighbor. Gen. So received a cool welcome from his master, while Gen. Kang, returning in triumph to Song-do with Kitan heads and limitless plunder, was met by the King in person and given a flattering ovation. His Majesty with his own hands presented him with eight golden flowers. The name of the meeting place was changed to Heung-eui-yŭk, “Place of Lofty Righteousness.” When Gen. Kang retired the following year he received six honorary titles and the revenue from three hundred houses. He was a man of small stature and ill-favored and did not dress in a manner befitting his position, but he was called the “Pillar of Koryŭ.” Many towns in the north had been laid waste during the war and so the people were moved and given houses and land. The records say that an envoy came with greetings from the kingdom of Ch‘ŭl-ri. One also came from Tă-sik in western China and another from the kingdom of Pul-lă. Several of the Mal-gal tribes also sent envoys; the kingdom of T‘am-na was again heard from and the Kol-bu tribe in the north sent envoys. In 1020 Koryŭ sent an envoy to make friends again with her old time enemy Kitan and was successful. The ambition of the then Emperor of Kitan had apparently sought some new channel. Buddhism, too, came in for its share of attention. We read that the King sent to Kyöng-ju, the ancient capital of Sil-la, to procure a bone of Buddha which was preserved there as a relic. Every important matter was referred in prayer to the Buddhistic deities. As yet Confucianism had succeeded in keeping pace with BuddhismBuddhism. In 1024 the King decreed that the candidates in the national examinations should come according to population; three men from a thousand-house town, two from a five hundredhundred-house town and one each from smaller places. Several examinations were held in succession and only those who excelled in them all received promotion. The great struggle between Buddhism and Confucianism, which now began, arrayed the great class of monks on the side of the former and the whole official class on the side of the latter. The former worked upon the superstitions of the King and had continual access to him while the latter could appeal to him only on the side of general common sense and reason. Moreover Buddhism had this in its favor that as a rule each man worked for the system rather than for himself, always presenting a solid front to the opposition. The other party was itself a conglomerate of interests, each man working mainly for himself and joining with others only when his own interests demanded. This marked division of parties was strikingly illustrated when, in 1026, in the face of vehement expostulations on the part of the officials, the King spent a large amount of treasure in the repairing of monasteries. The kingdom of Kitan received a heavy blow when in 1029 one of her generals, Tă Yŭn-im, revolted and formed the sporadic kingdom of Heung-yo. Having accomplished this he sent to the King of Koryŭ saying “We have founded a new kingdom and you must send troops to aid us.” The Koryŭ officials advised that advantage be taken of this schism in Kitan to recover the territory beyond the Yalu which originally belonged to Ko-gu-ryŭ and to which Koryŭ therefore had some remote title. Neither plan was adopted. It seemed good to keep friendly with Kitan until such time as her power for taking revenge should be past, so envoys were sent as usual, but were intercepted and held by the new King of Heung-yo. This policy turned out to be a wise one, for soon the news came that Kitan had destroyed the parvenu.
Now that the fortunes of Koryŭ were manifestly in the ascendant, many people in the north sent and swore allegiance to her, thus following the example of a certain Kitan envoy who at this time transferred his citizenship voluntarily from Kitan to Koryŭ.
The King died and his son Heum, posthumous title Tŭk-jong, came to the throne in 1032. He married his own sister. All friendly relations with Kitan were broken off, because the bridge across the Yalu was not destroyed. It did not seem a friendly act to leave this standing menace to the peace of Koryŭ. In view of this the King ordered a wall to be built across the entire peninsula from the Yalu River to the Japan Sea. It was nearly a thousand li long. This would seem almost incredible were it not that the facts are given in such detail. The wall was twenty-five cha high and the same in breadth and stretched from Ko-gung-nă Fortress, near Eui-ju on the Yalu, to Yöng-heung near the Japan Sea. The Kitan people tried to hinder this work but without avail. This period marks the acme of Koryŭ’s power and wealth. She had reached her zenith within a century and a quarter of her birth and now for three centuries she was destined to decline.
The younger brother, Hyöng, of this King Tŭk-jong, succeeded him in 1035, after a short reign of three years. He continued the work of making impregnable the defenses of the north. He built a wall from Song-ryŭng Pass in the west to the borders of the Yŭ-jin tribe in the north-east. He also built a Fortress Chă-jŭn, now Ch‘ang-sŭng. His reign beheld the riveting of Buddhistic chains upon the kingdom. Those who could read the signs of the times surmised this when, in 1036, the King decreed that, if a man had four sons, one of them must become a monk. Because of the Buddhistic canon against the spilling of blood the death penalty was commuted to banishment. Another Buddhistic anniversary was instituted. The King also inaugurated the custom of having boys go about the streets bearing Buddhistic books upon their backs from which the monks read aloud as they passed along. This was for the purpose of securing blessings for the people.
In order to counteract the tendency toward luxury, the King forbade the use of silk and gold and went so far as to burn up the whole stock of silk held by the merchants. He made a new law of primogeniture. The first son is to succeed. If he dies, the son of the first son succeedssucceeds. If there is no grandson the second son succeeds. If there is no son by the wife the son by a concubine succeeds. If there is none then a daughter succeeds. The Yŭ-jin tribe came with rich gifts and promised faithfully to refrain from raiding the frontier again. In 1047 the King was succeeded by his younger brother, Whi, posthumous title Mun-jong, who was destined to sit upon the throne for thirty-seven years. After announcing to his suzerain his accession, he followed the custom of his house and married his sister.
This monarch at first showed a blending of Buddhistic and Confucian influences, for the annals state that in his second year he fed ten thousand monks in the palace and gave them lodging there, and that shortly after this he built a Temple to Heaven before the palace. The Yŭ-jin tribe broke their promise and made a descent upon the border fortresses but were driven back; and not only so, but the Koryŭ forces followed them to their haunts and burned their villages to the ground.
In 1053 the system of taxation was overhauled and a new schedule of weights was made. The King sent a letter to Kitan complaining that the bridge across the Yalu still stood, that a wall had been built to secure it and that a horse relay system had been established, with this bridge as one of its termini. It seemed, in the words of the letter, that “Kitan was the silk-worm and Koryŭ was the mulberry leaf.” The King was anxious to attempt an embassy to China and for that purpose suggested that a boat be built on the island of Quelpart but the officials dissuaded him from the attempt.
The year 1056 was signalised by the arrival of an envoy from Japan. It is probable that the strong Buddhistic tendency which had developed in Japan had tempted the Japanese to send and secure further instruction in that cult and to secure relics and paraphernalia. The envoy may have asked that Buddhist teachers be sent, but the records say nothing to this effect.
Buddhism was making steady advances. A large quantity of metal intended for the manufacture of arms was taken by order of the King and made into nails for use in building monasteries. He took away houses from many wealthy people, among them some of his own relatives, and gave them to the monks. The law requiring that of four sons one must become a monk was now revised so as to read that one of every three should don the cowl. Nearly every house furnished its monk. The King said “From the very first