He inherited the throne after his father Wang Yanjun (Emperor Huizong) was assassinated, possibly at his instigation.
He himself was in turn killed in a coup headed by his uncle Wang Yanxi (Emperor Jingzong), who succeeded him.
[7] (The Spring and Autumn Annals of the Ten Kingdoms listed another younger brother, Wang Jirong (王繼鎔), who might have been born after Lady Liu's death.)
He therefore commissioned Wang Jipeng to temporarily oversee the matters of the state, while he himself formally became a Taoist monk.
He commissioned Li Min and Wang Jipeng to be his chancellors, each carrying the designation of Tong Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi (同中書門下平章事).
Wang Jipeng was additionally given the titles of You Pushe (右僕射, one of the heads of the executive bureau of government (尚書省, Shangshu Sheng), with Li Min serving as the other Pushe), and Zhongshu Shilang (中書侍郎, the deputy head of the legislative bureau (中書省, Zhongshu Sheng)).
However, when Wang Lin then recovered slightly, Empress Chen informed him of what happened, and he decided to investigate Li Keyin's death.
The soldiers gravely injured Wang Lin, whose ladies in waiting then decided to kill him to relieve his suffering.
[1] After taking the throne, Wang Chang nevertheless sent a report to then-Later Tang emperor Li Congke, in the status of a vassal, in which he only claimed to be the acting military governor of Weiwu, although internally, he continued to use imperial style, including issuing a general pardon and bestowing on Li Chunyan the imperial consort title of Xianfei (賢妃), while his wife Lady Li only carried the title of the Lady of Liang.
[1] After Wang Chang took the throne, Li Fang, for some time, dominated the court scene, and gathered a group of elite soldiers under his command.
With all the constructions going on, the treasury was exhausted, so he coerced his deputy minister of civil service affairs, Cai Shoumeng (蔡守蒙), who was otherwise honest, into selling offices for money.
[14] Later in 937, Wang ordered his younger brother Wang Jigong, whom he had given the title of military governor of Weiwu, to submit a petition to Shi Jingtang, the emperor of Later Jin (which had overthrown and replaced Later Tang), reporting his own succession to the throne, and requesting that a liaison office be established at the Later Jin capital Kaifeng.
When Wang Chang heard this, he had his emissary Lin En (林恩) explain to the Later Jin chancellors that, because Wang Chang had claimed imperial title, he did not want to be created a king and did not want Later Jin's imperial emissary to come to his realm.
He nevertheless sent his official Zheng Yuanbi (鄭元弼) to accompany Lu back to Later Jin and to offer tributes to Shi.
Believing in Chen Shouyuan's words, he built a temple dedicated to the Three Pure Ones inside the palace.
[3] Meanwhile, two elite palace guard corps, the Gongchen (拱宸) and the Anhe (按鶴), had been much favored by Wang Lin.
However, after Wang Chang became emperor, he established another elite corps, then Chenwei (宸衛), giving them far greater rewards than the Gongchen and Anhe.
This led to rumors that the Gongchen and Anhe soldiers were angry and wanted to rebel, causing him to consider sending them away to be stationed at Zhang (漳州, in modern Zhangzhou, Fujian) and Quan (泉州, in modern Quanzhou, Fujian) Prefectures, leading them to be fearful and resentful.
After the northern palace was burned, and the arsonist could not be found, Wang Chang had Lian command the imperial guards in cleaning up the site — heavy labor that they were displeased about doing.