Empress Li (李皇后, personal name unknown; died October 7, 950[1][2]) was a princess of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period state Later Tang (as a daughter of its emperor Li Siyuan) and an empress of the succeeding Later Jin (as the wife of its founding emperor Shi Jingtang).
Shi, initially intending to support Li Conghou, launched his own troops from Hedong Circuit (河東, headquartered in modern Taiyuan, Shanxi) toward Luoyang.
The princess and her mother Empress Dowager Cao, however, pleaded on Shi's behalf, and Li Congke ultimately allowed him to return to Hedong.
After she offered Li Congke wine to wish him long life, she asked to take leave of him and return to Hedong's capital Taiyuan.
Later in the year, when Li Congke tried to transfer him from Hedong to Tianping Circuit (天平, headquartered in modern Tai'an, Shandong), he thus rebelled and sought aid from Khitan's Emperor Taizong.
Emperor Taizong then declared Shi the emperor of a new Later Jin, and subsequently, after the joint Khitan/Later Jin forces accepted the surrender of the Later Tang army (after Zhang's deputy Yang Guangyuan assassinated Zhang and offered to surrender) and headed toward Luoyang, Li Congke committed suicide with his family (including the princess's mother Empress Dowager Cao), ending Later Tang.
[8] At some point, it appeared that the princess was created empress by Shi Jingtang — although traditional histories differ as to timing or even whether it occurred.
However, apparently to spare them further humiliation (at that point), Emperor Taizong declined a formal, public surrender ceremony; he just entered Kaifeng and took over Later Jin's territory.
[12] In spring 947, Emperor Taizong created Shi Chonggui the Marquess of Fuyi (i.e., "the marquess who turned away from righteousness"), and prepared to relocate him and his family deep into Liao territory, to Huanglong (黃龍, in modern Changchun, Jilin).
He informed Empress Dowager Li, "I heard that Shi Chonggui did not listen to you, his mother, and therefore fell to this state.
On the way, their train was poorly supplied, such that even Shi Chonggui and Empress Dowager Li sometimes lacked food.
[13] Around this time, Emperor Taizong's mother Grand Empress Dowager Shulü redirected Shi Chonggui's household, intending to settle them at Huaimi Prefecture (懷密州, said to be 1,500 li northwest of Huanglong).
In the fall, as Emperor Shizong was returning to his capital Linhuang (臨潢, in modern Chifeng, Inner Mongolia), Empress Dowager Li decided to intercept him before he went back to Linhuang, and requested that he resettle their household near a Han city and give them land for agriculture.
The military governor at Jian Prefecture, Zhao Yanhui (趙延暉), yielded his headquarters for them to live in.
[1] Her wishes were that her body be burned and the ashes be delivered to You Prefecture (幽州, in modern Beijing) to be housed at a Buddhist temple — as You, while a Liao possession by that point, traditionally was considered Chinese soil.
However, for reasons unknown, although Shi did burn her body, he buried her ashes right at Jian Prefecture and did not try to deliver them to You.