then-prince zhao was born to emperor zhang and his concubine consort liang in 79. because emperor zhang's favorite, empress dou, had no sons of her own, she adopted prince zhao as her own son; in doing so, she might have been inspired by her mother-in-law, empress ma, who had adopted emperor zhang, born of emperor ming's concubine consort jia. by the time prince zhao was born, his older brother liu qing, born of another concubine, consort song, had already been created crown prince. however, empress dou deeply wanted to make her adopted son crown prince as well as to eliminate consort song and her younger sister, also an imperial consort, as competition for emperor zhang's affection.