To offset criticism that might arise over the change of Empress and heir apparent, the Emperor issued a decree changing the imperial titles to Celestial Empress, thereby surrounding them with a certain aura that made it difficult for adversaries to attack them. At the same time the Emperor and mollify the ‘common people’. He lowered taxes and set up a system for promotions and rewards. He returned to cultivations land from which farmers had been excluded, in keeping with the firm belief that the earth should be carefully ‘nurtured’. Mourning rites were expended and revised to include special observances for mothers-previously only fathers had been accorded them.