Shi's mother Xu Pingjun was made empress as they were the descendants of Emperor Wu Of Han.

The Emperor deep mourned for his beloved wife and would look to the case for many years to follow and in 66 BC and he would later kill the entire family except Empress Huo.

Huo's wife, Lady Xian was shocked and displeased, because if her daughter ever had a son, why would he only be forever a prince and not the future emperor.

Empress Huo was striped of all her titles but not executed, but Emperor Xuan decided 12 years later that he wanted her to be exiled; in response, she committed suicide.

Emperor Xuan was concerned, so he had Empress Wang select the most beautiful of the young ladies in waiting and had them sent to Prince Shi.

This would also bring his father to consider changing the succession plans, as he was also disappointed by Prince Shi's general lack of resolve.

However, he could not bring himself to do so, remembering how Prince Shi's mother, Empress Xu, was his first love and had been murdered by poisoning, and also how he depended on his father-in-law in his youth.

Contrary to his father's governing philosophy, he relied heavily on Confucian scholars and put them into important governmental positions.

In 48 BC, Emperor Yuan made Consort Wang Zhengjun, the mother of his first-born son, Prince Ao, empress.

In 46 BC, alarmed at the high human and monetary cost of occupying Hainan and suppressing the frequent native rebellions, Emperor Yuan decreed that the two commanderies on the island be abandoned.

Early in Emperor Yuan's administration a factional schism developed, a phenomenon that would plague his entire reign and cause officials to concentrate on infighting rather than effective governance.

One faction included mainly Confucian scholars, his teachers, Xiao and Zhou, aligned with an imperial clan member who was also a Confucian scholar, Liu Gengsheng (劉更生, later named Liu Xiang 劉向), and imperial assistant Jin Chang (金敞).

[4] Yuan gave them both key administrative positions, which eventually proved disastrous as they plotted the deaths of many officials who opposed them.

The Confucian faction derived their power from the fact that Emperor Yuan trusted and respected their advice.

In 47 BC, Hong and Shi used procedural traps which led to Zhou and Liu being demoted to commoners and Xiao retired.

They did this by tricking Emperor Yuan into deciding to have Xiao investigated for inducing his son to make a petition for him, something considered inappropriate.

Despite the relatively low positions that Zhou and Zhang had, their advice was highly valued by Emperor Yuan.

However, this would not last long, as Zhou soon died of a stroke, and Shi Xian found an opportunity to falsely accuse Zhang of crimes and forced him to commit suicide.

Jing, who had become a trusted advisor of Emperor Yuan after Emperor Yuan greatly favoured his proposed system for examining and promoting regional officials, accused Shi and Shi's assistant Wulu Chongzong (五鹿充宗) of being corrupt and evil.

Around the same time, despite Emperor Yuan's general tendency for pacificism, a military confrontation had developed with one branch of Xiongnu, which had split into competing courts ruled by Chanyus Huhanye in the east and Zhizhi in the west.

In 49 BC, the last year of Emperor Xuan's reign, Chanyu Zhizhi headed north-west and conquered several Xiyu kingdoms, basing his capital in Jiankun (modern Altay, Xinjiang).

Emperor Yuan commissioned a guard commander, Gu Ji (谷吉), to escort Juyilishou.

Initially, based on advice from Gong and other key officials, who reasoned that Zhizhi had no real intention to submit and was far away, Emperor Yuan instructed Gu to escort Juyilishou only to the Han borders, and let him travel the remaining journey on his own.

In 36 BC, two Han commanders, Gan Yanshou (甘延壽) and his lieutenant Chen Tang (陳湯), took the initiative start a war on Zhizhi.

Reasoning that Zhizhi was a powerful warrior but lacked the affection to kingdoms that subjected to him, and also that his new capital (on the banks of Lake Balkhash) had only recently been built and lacked strong defences, his plan was to use the colonization forces that the Han army had in Xiyu as well as Wusun forces to advance to and capture Zhizhi's capital.

Impressed that Emperor Yuan gave him the most beautiful woman that he had ever seen, Huhanye offered to have his forces serve as the northern defence forces for Han, a proposal that Emperor Yuan rejected as ill-advised, but the relationship between Han and Xiongnu thereafter grew stronger.

Empress Wang apparently tried to maintain a cordial relationship with both, and she was largely successful, at least as far as Consort Feng was concerned.

One happened in 35 BC, when Emperor Yuan's youngest brother Prince Liu Jing of Zhongshan (中山王劉竟) died.

During his illness, apparently encouraged by Consort Fu, Emperor Yuan reconsidered whether he should make Prince Kang his heir instead.

Only the intercession of Shi Dan, who risked his life by stepping onto the carpet of the imperial bed chamber, an act that only the empress was allowed to do (on pain of death) led Emperor Yuan to cease those thoughts.