and welcomed the proposal immediately. This political marriage secured an alliance between them. They then plotted together to ensure that Emperor Jing became increasingly annoyed at Lady Li. Coupled with Lady Li's own foolishness, it eventually resulted in the deposition of Liu Rong, who was demoted from crown prince to the Prince of Linjiang (臨江王) in 150 BC and exiled out of the capital Chang'an. Lady Li died soon after, and Liu Rong was arrested two years later for illegally seizing imperial shrine lands and committed suicide in custody. But Emperor Jing initially did not approve of the union between Liu Che and Chen Jiao due to their age difference (Chen was at least 8–9 years older than Liu Che). However, according to the Wei-Jin era Hanwu Stories (漢武故事 / 汉武故事), during a royal gathering, Princess Guantao held the young prince in her arms and asked him whether he wanted to marry a girl. After rejecting the choice of dozens of palace maids, Princess Guantao eventually showed her daughter Chen Jiao to Liu Che, who bragged that he would "build a golden house for her" if they were married. This inspired the Chinese idiom "Putting Jiao in a golden house" (), first recorded in Ban Gu's Hanwu Stories. Princess Guantao then used the tale as proof that the marriage was destined to happen to convince Emperor Jing, who finally agreed to the arranged marriage. Liu Che was later created crown prince at the age of 7, and formally married Chen as the empress-designate some years later. When Emperor Jing died in early 141 BC, the 16-year-old heir apparent Liu Che ascended to the throne as Emperor Wu, and formally made his newly-wed wife Empress not long after. As Empress The Han Dynasty up to this point was run according to a Taoist wu wei (無為而治) ideology, championing economic freedom and government decentralization. Foreign policy-wise, periodic heqin was used to maintain a de jure "peace" with the nomadic Xiongnu confederacy to the north. These policies were important in stimulating economic recovery following the post-Qin Dynasty civil war, but not without drawbacks. The non-interventionist policies resulted in loss of monetary regulation and political control by the central government, allowing the feudal vassal states to become dominant and unruly, culminating in the Rebellion of the Seven States during Emperor Jing's reign. Nepotism among the ruling classes also stagnated social mobility, as well as