ANAHI OSORIO

PERIOD 10
Many have heard of Kublai Khan and his many achievements but not many have
heard about Empress Wu, Chinas first and only female emperor. Nevertheless, both
of these rulers accomplished many great things during their rule. Although Empress
Wu and Kublai Khan bear many great differences such as Empress Wu being a
woman and Kublai Khan being a man, these great, ruthless leaders stopped at
nothing to get what they set their minds on by almost any means necessary such as
using violence to gain power and glory, hurting their family, and to adapting and
using Chinese culture to help them gain favor with their subjects or use it to help
them with managing the political aspects of their decisions.
One thing both Kublai Khan and Empress Wu have in common is how they both rose
to power. Although Kublai Khan was born with some power, he had to work to
become Kublai Khan. He first started off with an estate for himself, his older brother,
Mongke, became the Khan of the Mongols in 1251 and put Kublai in charge of the
Eastern Army and asked him to help him on an attack (Wu). Mongke was killed while
leading an attack and so, Kublai became Mongkes successor. Kublai had a younger
brother who also wanted to be the Khan of the Mongol empire and this led to a
series of battles that Kublai eventually ended up winning but this caused a division
on the Mongol empire. Empress Wu also came to power by the use of violence but
unlike Kublai, her rise to power did not necessarily cause a division in her empire.
You could say Empress Wu came from humble origins due to the fact that her rise to
power began with her being a concubine whose duties were to clean the imperial
rooms. When the current emperor died, she was saved from going to a covenant
due to the fact that long ago, she had seduced the emperors son, Gaozong. and
to return to the palace under Gaozongs protection before entrancing the new
emperor, removing empress Wang and the Pure Concubine, promoting members of

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her own family to positions of power, and eventually establishing herself as fully her
husbands equal. (Dash) Gaozong then began to get sick and so the Empress Wu
had to make basically all the political decisions. When Gaozong died, Wu Zetian
made her sons emperors. She forced Li Dan, her son who was currently emperor to
abdicate the throne for her and made herself the founding Empress. (Custer) Both
of these leaders came to power through eradicating those who stood in their way of
power.
Another way Empress Wu and Kublai Khan were similar is that they both used
existing Chinese practices and beliefs when running their empire. In order to
become empress, Zetian needed to gain favor of her fellow subjects, Empress Wu
purposely supported Buddhism and used it to claim her power. During her rule,
Buddhism became a widespread religion. She invested in the construction of
temples and used her own acquired money to make a Buddha statue after her own
image. She treated the followers of the religion with the utmost respect which
gained her even more favor among her subjects. She also helped translate the
Flower Adornment Sutra which is thought as one of the most significant scripts in
Chinese Buddhism. Because she helped recover the script, Buddhist monks
proclaimed that Wus power came from a higher power and added chapters to
various Buddhist scriptures to make people believe it. Kublai Khan

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Works Cited
History.com Staff. "Kublai Khan - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com." History.com. A E
Networks, 2009. Web. 25 Oct. 2016.
Annotation:
This source inspired my gift idea and gave me a clearer understanding of how Kublai Khan came
to be the greatest Khan.
Wu, Annie. "The Yuan Dynasty, History and Facts of Yuan Dynasty." China Highlights. N.p., 18
Oct. 2016. Web. 25 Oct. 2016.
Annotation:
This source helped me understand the impact Kublai Khan had on his empire.
"Kublai Khan." 2016. The Famous People website. Oct 24 2016, 08:57
//www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/kublai-khan-4344.php.
Read more at http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/kublai-khan4344.php#HpGsTHchsSc8h0yS.99
Annotation:
Wang, Xilong. "Wu Zetian: China's First Female Politician | Gbtimes.com." Gbtimes. 2016
Gbtimes, 31 Aug. 2011. Web. 23 Oct. 2016.
Annotation:
I used this source to help explain her many achievements. This site addresses how she used
Buddhism to secure supports and how she stopped people from invading her empire.
Dash, Mike. "The Demonization of Empress Wu | History | Smithsonian." SMITHSONIAN.COM.
N.p., 10 Aug. 2012. Web. 23 Oct. 2016.
Anootation:
This helped me understand how Empress Wu left a lasting expression through her legacy.
"Wu Hou." World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras, ABC-CLIO, 2016, ancienthistory.abcclio.com/Search/Display/602438. Accessed 24 Oct. 2016.