During these years, other than the palatial infighting, what plagued Emperor Ai's administration (not unlike how it plagued his uncle Emperor Cheng's administration) was the general situation where good proposals would be made to Emperor Ai, and then he would approve of them personally but not take any actual actions on them. Further, he was harsh in his punishments of officials who disagreed with him—including, but not limited to, the issue of his grandmother and mother's titles. He would often backtrack in these punishments as well after some time, which also made him appear indecisive. He would also quickly promote officials that he saw as capable and honest and then, as soon as that capability or honesty offended him in some way, demote them. His temper might have been related to the fact that he was also constantly ill, although the nature of the illness is not known.