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.) wang had his political allies force his aunt, grand empress dowager wang zhengjun, to issue an edict granting him the title of "acting emperor" (假皇帝), with the commission to rule as emperor until a great-great-grandson of emperor xuan could be selected and raised.