The child Ying was soon deposed by Wang Mang who declared the Xin dynasty in place of the Han.
There were 53 great-grandsons of Emperor Xuan then still living by this stage, but they were all adults, and Wang Mang disliked that situation.
While the examination process was proceeding, the mayor of South Chang'an submitted a rock with a mysterious red writing on it -- "Wang Mang, the Duke of Anhan, should be emperor."
(During his regency, Wang, building a personality cult about himself, had made it an open secret that he encouraged the manufacturing of false prophecies that would call for him to have more and more power; this appears to be one of those instances.)
As a grown man, Ying did not even know of such common animals as cattle, horses, sheep, chickens, dogs, and pigs.
However, due to Gengshi Emperor's incompetence, conspiracies and rebellions arose throughout the empire, seeking to displace him.
Two co-conspirators started one of these rebellions in 25 CE—Fang Wang (方望), the former strategist for the local warlord Wei Xiao (隗囂), and a man named Gong Lin (弓林)—and their group of several thousand men, after kidnapping Ying, occupied Linjing (臨涇, in modern Qingyang, Gansu).
In February or March 25, Gengshi Emperor sent his prime minister Li Song (李松) to attack them, and wiped out this rebel force, killing Liu Ying.