page_title: Kujula Kadphises
section_title: Chinese accounts
hierarchical_section_title: Kujula Kadphises / History / Chinese accounts
caption_attribution_description: English: Kujula Kadphises. Circa AD 30-50-80 Laureate Julio-Claudian style head right Rev Kujula Kadphises seated right, raising hand; tripartite symbol to left
context_page_description: Kujula Kadphises was a Kushan prince who united the Yuezhi confederation during the 1st century CE, and became the first Kushan emperor. According to the Rabatak inscription, he was the great grandfather of the great Kushan king Kanishka I. He is considered the founder of the Kushan Empire.
context_section_description: There are few contemporaneous accounts of Kujula Kadphises; since none of these texts are by Kushan authors, their accuracy and the motives of the authors may be questionable. For example, the rise of Kujula Kadphises is portrayed, in a later Chinese historical chronicle, Hou Hanshu, as the result of a bloody civil war.
  [T]he prince [xihou] of Guishuang, named Qiujiuque [Kujula Kadphises], attacked and exterminated the four other princes [of the Yuezhi]. He established himself as king, and his dynasty was called that of the Guishuang [Kushan] King. He invaded Anxi [Indo-Parthia], and took the Gaofu [Kabul] region. He also defeated the whole of the kingdoms of Puda [Paktiya] and Jibin [Kapisha and Gandhara]. Qiujiuque was more than 80 years old when he died.
  
  In the process of their expansion eastward, Kujula Kadphises and his son Vima Takto (or Vema Tahktu) seem to have displaced the Indo-Parthian kingdom, established in northwestern India by the Parthian Gondophares since around 20 CE: 
  His son, Yangaozhen [probably Vema Tahktu or, possibly, his brother Sadaṣkaṇa], became king in his place. He defeated Tianzhu [North-western India] and installed Generals to supervise and lead it. The Yuezhi then became extremely rich. All the kingdoms call [their king] the Guishuang [Kushan] king, but the Han call them by their original name, Da Yuezhi [Great Yuezhi].
   The invasion of the Indo-Parthian kingdom led by Kujula Kadphises is thought to have occurred some time after 45 CE, during the reign of Gondophares's successors: Abdagases and Sases.
caption: Coin of Kujula Kadphises. Circa AD 30/50-80.
  Obv Laureate Julio-Claudian style head right. Greek legend Greek legend around: ΚΟΖΟΛΑ ΚΑΔΑΦΕϹ XOPANOV ZAOOV.
  Rev Kujula Kadphises seated right, raising hand; tripartite symbol to left. Legend Khushanasa Yauasa Kuyula Kaphasa Sacha Dhramatidasa.
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