First-principles calculations were performed to study electronic structures and magnetic properties of transition metal (TM) doped LiZnAs system. V, Mn, Fe and Co doped LiZnAs preferred anti-ferromagnetic states while no magnetisms were found for Cr and Ni-doped LiZnAs system. In contrast, V/Li, Cr/Li, Mn/Li, Fe/Li and Co/Li codoped LiZnAs preferred ferromagnetic couplings between the TM atoms other than the anti-ferromagnetic states. Thus off-stoichiometry of Li is very essential for the preparation of ferromagnetic LiZnAs materials. For Ni/Li-codoped LiZnAs, anti-ferromagnetic is more stable, which is resulted from the through-bond spin polarization mechanism. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.