When Emperor Hui acceded to the throne, the government was taken over by the regent, Grand Mentor (taifu 太傅) and Area Commander-in-chief (da dudu 大都督) Yang Jun 楊駿 (d. 291). Yang, in a rather autocratic manner, nominated Sima Jun 司馬遹 (278-300), the Prince of Guangling 廣陵, heir apparent. Empress Jia therefore conspired with Sima Wei 司馬瑋 (271-291), the Prince of Chu 楚, and had Yang Jun and his whole family and partisans arrested and executed. Yang Jun's daughter Yang Zhi 楊芷 (259-292), Empress Dowager Dao 悼皇后 and widow of late Emperor Wu 晉武帝 (r. 265-290), was deprived of her title. Government affairs were taken over by Counsellor-in-chief (taizai 太宰 ) Sima Liang 司馬亮 (d. 291), the Prince of Runan 汝南, and Grand Guardian (taibao 太保) Wei Guan 衛瓘 (220-291). Empress Jia, still not satisfied with this situation, feigned an imperial order to the Prince of Chu to arrest the two ministers. In a parallel attack, she had the Prince of Chu accused of high treason for which he was executed. The power of politics from then on was carried out by the Empress.

Empress Jia's kinsmen (waiqi 外戚) like her maternal uncle Guo Zhang 郭彰 and her cousins Jia Mo 賈模 (d. 299) and Jia Mi 賈謐 (d. 300) obtained important positions. She also gave influential posts to outsiders like Zhang Hua 張華 (232-300), who was made Minister of Works (sikong 司空), Wang Rong 王戎 (234-305), who was appointed Minister of Education (situ 司徒), Pei Kai 裴楷 (237-291), Director of the Palace Secretariat (zhongshu ling 中書令) or Pei Wei (267-300) 裴頠, nominated Vice Director of the Imperial Secretariat (shangshu puye 尚書仆射). The abuse of power by these person is said to have inspired Lu Bao 魯褒 to write his parable Qianshenlun 錢神論 "The spirits of money".

Because the Jia clique was afraid that after the eventual accession of Prince Jun to the throne, the Empress and her partisans would be killed, they forced Empress Jia to declare that Prince Jun had plotted rebellion, and demote him to the status of commoner. He was detained in Xuchang 許昌 (today in Henan) and killed in 300.

This murder was the reason for the secret plot of Sima Lun 司馬倫 (240-301), Prince of Zhao 趙, to stir up rebellion in the imperial guard (suwei jinbing 宿衛禁兵). The Empress was arrested, incarcerated in the Jinyong Fortress 金鏞城 in the northwestern parts of the imperial city, and killed somewhat later, as were most of her partisans. In the first lunar month of 301, Prince Lun forced Emperor Hui to abdicate and made himself emperor. The resistance of the other princes against this usurpation was the beginning of a decade-long internecine war.

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