After Liu Ying became a prince, he actively supported both religions in the hope of finding a drug of longevity or immortality.
The edict, which survives in the Book of the Later Han shows that at the time the Buddha was associated in the opinion of the Chinese imperial court with Daoism.
"[6] Five years later, in c.December 70, Liu Ying's activities were again denounced by high officials and he was accused of plotting against the throne,[7] a crime punishable by death.
Among his supposed crimes was the most heinous of those in Han law: usurping the prerogatives of the emperor, and great impropriety and immorality in his conduct toward the throne (Chinese: 大逆不道).
Nevertheless, Emperor Ming refused to execute Liu Ying, instead demoting him to the rank of a commoner and exiling him to Danyang in the lower Yangtze.
As part of the purges following Liu Ying's downfall, thousands of his supposed adherents were arrested and implicated each other under torture.