Zhu Changluo was born in the tenth year of Emperor Wanli’s reign to a common palace girl née Wang (Zh: 王氏) serving on the staff of Wanli's mother, the Dowager Empress Li (Zh: 李太后). Although upon her pregnancy she was bestowed the title of "Consort Gong of the Second Grade" (Zh: 恭妃), the mother of future Emperor Taichang was not one of the favourites of Emperor Wanli. Consequently after he was born, Zhu Changluo was more or less completely ignored by his father Emperor Wanli even though, as the Emperor’s eldest son, he was by Ming law of succession, the heir presumptive. Zhu Changluo spent most of his life as a hapless pawn in the palace power struggle for the title of Crown Prince. His father Emperor Wanli openly preferred naming Zhu Changxun (Zh: 朱常洵), Wanli Emperor's younger son by his favourite consort Lady Zheng (Zh: 鄭貴妃), as Crown Prince over the seniority of Zhu Changluo, but his intention was met with vehement opposition by most of his Confucian educated ministers. Frustrated by the multiple petitions to create Zhu Changluo as Crown Prince, Emperor Wanli decided to stonewall the entire issue. Some historians have suggested that the impasse on the selection of Crown Prince was part of the cause of Emperor Wanli's withdrawal from day to day government administration. Caught in this political limbo, Zhu Changluo was deliberately not assigned a regular tutor nor given any systematic Confucian education even after he started school at thirteen years old — an unusually late age for Ming princes to begin their education. Finally in 1601 Emperor Wanli gave in to pressure from his ministers and more importantly from his mother the Dowager Empress and a nineteen year old Zhu Changluo was formally created Crown Prince and heir apparent to his father. However this formal recognition did not signal the end of court intrigues. Rumours of Emperor Wanli's intend to replace the Crown Prince with his younger son by Lady Zheng continued to resurface through the years.

In 1615 the court was hit by yet another scandal. A man by the name of Zhang Chai (Zh: 张差) armed with no more than a wooden staff managed to chase off eunuchs guarding the gates and broke into Ci-Qing palace (Zh: 慈庆宫), then the Crown Prince’s living quarters. Zhang Chai was eventually subdued and thrown in prison. Initial investigation found him to be a lunatic, but upon further investigation by a more conscientious magistrate named Wang Zhicai (Zh: 王之寀) the man confessed to being party to a plot instigated by two eunuchs working under Lady Zheng. According to Zhang Chai’s confession, the two had promised him rewards for assaulting the Crown Prince thus implicating the Emperor’s favourite concubine in an assassination plot. Presented with the incriminating evidence and the gravity of the accusations, Emperor Wanli in an attempt to spare Lady Zheng personally presided over the case and laid the full blame on the two implicated eunuchs who were executed along with the would-be assassin. Although the case was quickly hushed up, it did not squelch public discussion and eventually became known as the "Case of the Palace Assault" (Zh: 梃击案), one of three notorious 'mysteries' of the Late Ming Dynasty.

Emperor Wanli died on 18 August 1620 and Zhu Chanluo officially ascended the throne on 28 August 1620 taking the era name Tai-Chang, meaning "Magnificent Prosperity". The first few days of his reign started promisingly enough as recorded in official Ming court history. Two million teals of silver was entailed as a gift to the troops guarding the border, important bureaucratic posts left vacant during Wanli’s long periods of administrative inactivity were finally starting to be filled, and many of the deeply unpopular extraordinary taxes and duties imposed by the late Emperor were also revoked at this time. However ten days after his coronation Emperor Taichang was taken ill. So grave was the new Emperor's physical condition his birthday celebration originally planned for the next day was cancelled. According to some non-official primary sources, Taichang’s illness was brought about by excessive sexual indulgence after he was presented with eight beautiful serving girls by his nemesis Lady Zheng as a coronation gift. The Emperor's already serious condition was further compounded by severe diarrhea after taking a dose of laxative recommended by an attending eunuch Cui Wensheng (Zh: 崔文昇) on September 10. Finally on 25 September to counter the effects of the laxative, he asked for and took a red pill presented by a minor court official named Li Kezhuo (Zh: 李可灼) who dabbled in apothecary.

It was recorded in the official Ming court history that Emperor Taichang felt much better after taking the pill, regained his appetite and repeatedly praised Li Kezhou as a "Loyal subject" . That same afternoon the Emperor took a second pill and was found dead the next morning. The death of a second Emperor who was seemingly in good health within the span of a month sent shock waves through the empire and started rumours flying. The much talked about mystery surrounding the Emperor's death became known as the infamous "Case of the Red Pills" (Zh: 红丸案), one of three notorious 'mysteries' of the Late Ming Dynasty. The fate of Li Kezhuo whose pills were at the center of this controversy became a hotly contested subject between competing power factions of officials and eunuchs vying for influence at the Ming Court. Opinions ranged from awarding him money for the Emperor's initial recovery to executing his entire family for murdering the Emperor. The question was finally settled in 1625 when Li Kezhuo was exiled to the border regions on the order of the powerful eunuch Wei Zhongxian (Zh: 魏忠賢) signaling the total dominance of eunuchs during the reign of Taichang’s son Emperor Tianqi.

Taichang’s untimely death threw the Ming Court into some logistical disarray. Firstly, the court was still officially in mourning over the passing of the late Wanli Emperor whose corpse at this point was still lying in state waiting for an auspicious date to be interred. Secondly, all imperial tombs were custom made by the reigning Emperor and there was no proper place to bury Taichang who had only just ascended the throne. A tomb was hastily commissioned over the foundation of the demolished tomb of Emperor Jingtai. The construction was finally completed on the eighth month of 1621 and consecrated Qing Ling (Zh: 庆陵). Finally on the question of naming the Emperor’s reign, although the Emperor had taken the formal era name of ‘Taichang’, it was sandwiched between the Forty-eighth year of Wanli era (1620) and the first year of his son’s Tianqi era (1621). After much discussion it was decided to adopt an official Zuo Guangdou’s (Zh: 左光斗) suggestion that Wanli era ends on the seventh lunar month of 1620, whileTaichang era spans the eighth to twelfth months of the same year. Tianqi era officially starts from the first lunar month of 1621.

From a historical perspective, Taichang’s reign by nature of its short time span amounts to nothing more than a footnote in Ming history. It exposed the constitutional weakness of Ming Dynasty's autocratic system when headed by a weak Emperor as typified by Taichang and his successor. From the limited information gleaned from official Ming court history on the life of the Emperor, he came across as an introverted half-literate alcoholic satirical weakling. Given this dismal track record there is no evidence that had Taichang reign lasted any longer than it did, he could have turned around the fortunes of the beleaguered Ming Dynasty after the long steady decline of the latter years of Wanli's reign.