When Emperor Yingzong was captured by the Mongols in 1449, the Empress Dowager Sun ordered that Consort Zhou's eldest son would be named Crown Prince.

The Chenghua Emperor held his mother in high regard, and never dared to disobey her orders.

Zhou secretly changed the design of Emperor Yingzong's mausoleum so that she can be buried with him in the future.

Scholars Liu Juan, Xie Qian and Li Dongyang objected mentioning that Zhou was never an empress in her lifetime and therefore does not deserve to be worshipped in the ancestral temples and to be buried with the emperor.

After Zhou had been buried, it was discovered that the tunnel to the tomb of Empress Qian was separated from Emperor Yingzong.

After Zhou's death, the birth mothers of future Ming emperors (even if they never held the rank of empress) were buried together with their husbands.