The story of the tanuki cat changing the prince believes that everyone has heard about it to some extent, but the historical facts and deeds inside do not know whether they have been understood. In the work "Three Heroes and Five Righteousness", it is said that in the later years of Zhenzong, Liu and Li were pregnant at the same time, which created a problem of harem competition, so the story of tanuki for prince occurred.
Among the two concubines, In order to compete for favors as the lady of the palace, Concubine Liu secretly exchanged the skinned tanuki cat for Li's child, and framed Li Fei for giving birth to a monster. The superstitious ancient dynasty believed this rumor and beat Concubine Li into the Cold Palace, and Concubine Liu became the empress as she wished. But perhaps because of retribution, although Concubine Liu successfully became empress, the child he gave birth to also died prematurely. The child born to Concubine Li became the crown prince after many twists and turns, until he ascended to the throne, he was Song Renzong. With the assistance of Bao Zheng, Song Renzong learned this truth and recognized his own mother, but at this time, Concubine Li was blind in tears and pain. At this time, as the empress dowager, Liu Shi hanged himself after being exposed by the truth.
After the Song Dynasty, due to the artistic interpretation of literary works and dramas, it has been loved and sought after by the world, and the story about Li Fei has also attracted the attention of the world. However, due to the expression of more plots and rich emotional content, the content of its real deeds has also been added and deleted by posterity, and even fictional content has appeared. However, whether Song Renzong was born to Concubine Liu or Concubine Li, and who was Renzong's biological mother, on this issue, both literary works and operas are determined to be born to Concubine Li, and there is no other controversy.
Concubine Li was originally only Concubine Liu's maid, but was later favored by Emperor Zhenzong as a concubine. The main reason why this incident was so big was that Zhenzong had no descendants. Because Zhenzong still had many children, but there were few sons, in this case, the only five boys had all died prematurely, which was the biggest headache for Renzong. So the most important thing for Emperor Zhenzong in that period was to have children every day, so someone gave him an idea, in order to get boys, not limited to concubines. Instead, they looked for more palace girls so that they could give birth to boys. In this way, Zhenzong began to spoil the palace women, and it is said that there were as many as 270 palace women who were released back to the people without being pregnant.
And Concubine Li was once one of the palace maidens, because she gave birth to a prince, as a Concubine Liu, can she not consider her own interests? So he used the tanuki cat for the prince's trick to deceive Zhenzong, and Zhenzong also took it seriously, and beat Concubine Li into the cold palace. Concubine Li was originally just a maid of Concubine Liu, so the slave system in her bones had not yet faded, and naturally did not dare to do too much resistance, so that she was allowed to be slaughtered by Concubine Liu, and only then did she have a later fate. But what about her? She could only watch her child being taken over by Concubine Liu, and she could not make any resistance and resistance, otherwise not only her own life would be threatened, but even the newborn child would not be able to escape the doom.
However, literary interpretation must have its discrepancies and the existence of false truths, and the real historical facts are not subject to any twists and turns when they were Emperor Renzong or the Prince. Although in his later years, Emperor Zhenzong was somewhat worried about the stability of Emperor Renzong's throne, he summoned his courtiers to instruct his courtiers to assist Emperor Renzong. However, at that time, Empress Liu was in control of the real power of the imperial government, and Empress Liu's power was also increasing, even if Emperor Renzong was not her own child, but as long as Emperor Renzong succeeded to the throne, then her status was supreme. Therefore, Song Renzong had grown up completely under the cover of the power of his adoptive mother Empress Liu, how could he be threatened and twisted under such a big tree.
Song Renzong
Conclusion: Empress Liu did not hang herself in literary interpretation, but before her death, Emperor Renzong did not know the real thing. It was not until empress Liu died of illness and when Emperor Renzong began to pro-government that the true identity of her gradually surfaced, but it was a mystery as to who opened the secret. His birth mother had long since died at the time of his pro-government, and later Emperor Renzong built the Fengci Temple for his birth mother, and finally established his birth mother's status as empress.
Reference: History of the Song Dynasty