Amidst deadly intrigue in the court of the profligate emperor, someone cooked up a false report in 7 BC of a conjunction of Mars and Antares. The emperor took the bait and, feeling threatened by the ominous convergence, accused the minister Zhai Fangjin of bringing on the dire straits though inept government. The minister was forced to commit suicide to ward off the disaster that the heavens supposedly portended.
例如漢成帝綏和二年，由於成帝好色，趙飛燕獨尊後宮，外戚王氏掌權，大臣就假造熒惑守心天象，試圖藉災異之名向皇帝建言，成帝卻反將災禍轉嫁給輔佐朝政的臣子，逼使大臣翟方進自殺。