According to legend, a Daoist priest and matchmaker one day predicted that she was destined to be the mother of the people.

[3] Li was accepted as the consort of Prince Dun, and became Crown Princess when her spouse was elevated to the position of heir to the throne in 1170.

Empress Li Fengniang became notorious in Chinese history for being ruthless and shrewd, and for ruling the state through her husband, who became known a "henpecked weakling" dominated by his wife.

[9] On one occasion, at the sickbed of the emperor, her father-in-law threatened to have her executed for not taking proper care of the monarch.

[10] When her spouse recovered, she told him about the threat, and also that she suspected that the medicine his father had left him was poisoned.