Rebels decapitate Wang Mang two days after his capital was sacked during a peasant rebellion.

AD 23 (XXIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Pollio and Vetus. The denomination AD 23 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Wang Mang, courtesy name Jujun, officially known as the Shijianguo Emperor (始建國天帝), was the founder and the only emperor of the short-lived Chinese Xin dynasty. He was originally an official and consort kin of the Han dynasty and later seized the throne in 9 CE. The Han dynasty was restored after his overthrow, and his rule marked the separation between the Western Han dynasty and Eastern Han dynasty. Traditional Chinese historiography viewed Wang as a tyrant and usurper, while more recently, some historians have portrayed him as a visionary and selfless social reformer. During his reign, he abolished slavery and initiated a land redistribution program. Though a learned Confucian scholar who sought to implement the harmonious society he saw in the Chinese classics, his efforts ended in chaos.

Lulin was one of two major agrarian rebellion movements against Wang Mang's short-lived Xin dynasty in the modern southern Henan and northern Hubei regions. These two regions banded together to pool their strengths, their collective strength eventually leading to the downfall of the Xin and a temporary reinstatement of the Han dynasty with Liu Xuan as the emperor.