At the time Cao Huang became emperor, his name was changed to "Cao Huan", because it was difficult to observe naming taboo with the name "Huang" (which was a homonym to many common terms-including "yellow" (黃) and "emperor" (皇)).
For the first few years of Cao Huan's reign, there were constant attacks by forces from the rival Shu Han state, under the command of Jiang Wei.