The next year, again, the infatuated north-men flung themselves against the Koryŭ rock. Under Gen. So Son-ryŭng they advanced upon Song-do. The Koryŭ generals went out thirty miles and brought into the capital the people in the suburbs. Gen. So tried a ruse to throw the Koryŭ generals off their guard. He sent a letter saying that he had decided not to continue the march 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 Buddhism. 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 hundred-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.