Emperor Shun's wife Empress Dowager Liang serves as regent, as Emperor Chong is an infant.

She apparently is fairly diligent and open-minded in her duties, but her major fault is in trusting her corrupt and violent brother Liang Ji, who is the most powerful official in the administration (the near-absolute power that he wields has become even more evident after Emperor Shun's death.)

When the young and capable official Huangfu Gui submits a report suggesting, in circumspect language, that Liang Ji and his brother Liang Buyi show some humility and live less extravagantly, Liang removes Huangfu from his post, then tries several times to falsely accuse him of capital crimes.

Emperor Chong dies early in 145; he is buried in his father's tomb complex in order to save costs.

Empress Dowager Liang initially intends to keep Emperor Chong's death a secret until she chooses a successor, but Li Gu, a key advisor, persuades her to make a proper public announcement of Emperor Chong's death without delay.

She summons to the capital a pair of candidates: Emperor Chong's third cousins Liu Suan, the Prince of Qinghe, and Liu Zuan, the son of Liu Hong, Prince Xiao of Bohai.

Liu Suan is apparently an adult (his birth year is uncertain) and is described as solemn and proper.

The officials largely favor him.

However, Liang Ji wants a younger emperor so that he can retain absolute control for the longest possible stretch, and so persuades Empress Dowager Liang to elevate the seven-year-old Prince Zuan.

To avoid having a person without an official title becoming emperor directly, he is first created the Marquess of Jianping.

Immediately thereafter on the same day, he ascends the throne as Emperor Zhi.

During Emperor Chong's reign, agrarian revolts, already a problem late in Emperor Shun's reign, had become more serious: bandits even pillage the tomb of Emperor Shun.

Empress Dowager Liang serves as Emperor Zhi's regent, and while she continues to misplace trust in her brother Liang Ji, she herself is diligent and interested in good governance, entrusting much of the important matters to Li Gu, an honest official.

The agrarian rebellions that began during the reign of Emperors Shun and Chong are largely quelled in 145, after she appoints the appropriate generals to lead the Han armies.

She also encourages young scholars from all over the empire to come to the capital Luoyang to study at the Imperial Academy.