After reaching adulthood, Emperor Ling was not interested in state affairs and preferred to indulge in women and a decadent lifestyle.

After his death, the Han Empire disintegrated in chaos for the subsequent decades as various regional warlords fought for power and dominance.

Dou Wu and Chen Fan, who became the most important officials in the central government, sought to purge the eunuch faction.

However, word of the plot was leaked, and the eunuchs, after kidnapping the empress dowager and taking the young emperor into custody (after persuading him that it was for his own protection) arrested and executed Chen Fan.

In that year, the eunuchs also falsely accused Emperor Huan's brother, Liu Kui (劉悝), the Prince of Bohai, of treason and forced him to commit suicide.

The members of his entire household, including his wife, concubines, children, assistants and principality officials, were all rounded up and executed.

That was exactly what Emperor Ling had in mind: he allowed the officials to pay by instalments after taking office if they could not afford the initial amount.

In January 181, Emperor Ling instated Lady He as the new empress and appointed her brother, He Jin, as a key official in his government.

During these years, Emperor Ling became interested in building imperial gardens so he ordered the commandery and principality officials throughout the Han Empire to pay their tributes to him directly, so he could use the money to finance his construction projects.

This, in turn, created pressures on the officials to resort to corrupt practices so they could extract a larger tribute from their jurisdictions for the emperor.

Sometime before 183, a major Taoist rebel movement had started in Ji Province – the Taiping Sect (太平教), led by Zhang Jiao, who claimed he had magical powers to heal the sick.

By 183, his teachings and followers had spread to eight of the empire's thirteen provinces – Ji, Qing, Xu, You, Jing, Yang, Yan, and Yu.

Several key imperial officials became concerned about Zhang Jiao's hold over his followers, and suggested that the Taiping Sect be disbanded.

Zhang Jiao had his supporters write jiazi in large characters with white talc everywhere they could – including on the doors of government offices in the imperial capital and other cities.

Emperor Ling ordered that Taiping Sect members be arrested and executed, and Zhang Jiao immediately declared a rebellion.

(Lü Qiang himself became a victim, however, when the other eunuchs, in retaliation, falsely accused him of wanting to depose the emperor, and he committed suicide later that year.)

A key military development with great implications later was that the Yellow Turbans fought mainly with troops deployed from the battle-tested Liang Province who had been accustomed to suppressing rebellions by the Qiang tribes.

In late 184, Zhang Jiao was killed, and while the rest of the Yellow Turbans were not defeated immediately, they gradually dissipated by the following year (although several of the minor rebellions would not be put down until 205 AD).

Emperor Ling then ordered the officials in Taiyuan (太原), Hedong (河東) and Didao (狄道) commanderies to transport wood and patterned rocks to Luoyang (the imperial capital) as construction materials.

[6] Emperor Ling appointed cavalry officers to serve as his messengers whenever he issued orders for things to be delivered to Luoyang.

These officers, known as zhongshi (中使; "central emissaries"), abused their power by forcing the regional officials, who were afraid of them, to give them bribes.

The appointment of officials below the position of Inspector (刺史) was decided by the amount of money they could pay to fund the army and palace construction.

When he reached Meng Ford (孟津) near Luoyang, he wrote a memorial to point out all the problems with the government and cite historical examples to warn the emperor.

After reading Sima Zhi's memorial, Emperor Ling temporarily stopped collecting funds for rebuilding the palace,[8] but quickly resumed his construction projects later.

[12] Emperor Ling appointed Zhao Zhong as "General of Chariots of Cavalry" (車騎將軍) but removed him from office after some 100 days.