Zanhua and became a Buddhist nun. Despite his cruelty, however, Li Zanhua was also said to be highly talented. He understood fortunetelling and music, and was very talented in medicine. He could write in both the Khitan and Han languages, and translated the Huangdi Yinfujing into Khitan. He was particularly well known for his paintings of Khitan people and things, and many of his paintings eventually ended up in the palace collections of the Song Dynasty decades later. In 933, he was recalled from Yicheng and given the completely honorary title of military governor of Zhaoxin Circuit (昭信, headquartered in modern Ganzhou, Jiangxi) (as Zhaoxin's territory was then ruled by Wu). Despite his having fled to Later Tang territory and becoming a Later Tang subject, Li Zanhua continued to maintain communications with his mother and brother, often sending emissaries to them. The communication went the other way around, too, as when his grandmother Grand Empress Dowager Yaonian died in 933, his mother and brother notified him of her death. After Emperor Mingzong's reign Also in 933, Emperor Mingzong died, and was initially succeeded by his biological son Li Conghou the Prince of Song (as Emperor Min). In 934, Emperor Mingzong's adoptive son Li Congke the Prince of Lu overthrew Emperor Min in a rebellion and became emperor. Li Zanhua was said to have secretly communicated to his brother Emperor Taizong the opinion that this was a good opportunity to invade Later Tang, although Emperor Taizong took no actions at that time. Throughout the years, apparently because of Li Zanhus'a presence in Later Tang and the fact that Later Tang had captured a number of important Khitan commanders, Empress Dowager Shulü had repeatedly sought heqin alliances between Khitan and Later Tang. In early 936, Li Congke, apprehensive over the prospect that his brother-in-law Shi Jingtang the military governor of Hedong Circuit (河東, headquartered in modern Taiyuan, Shanxi) might rebel and enlist Khitan aid in doing so, had his officials Li Song and Lü Qi () draft a plan under which such an alliance would occur – but then abandoned the plan. Later in the year, Shi Jingtang did rebel, and Later Tang forces was initially successful in advancing to Hedong's capital Taiyuan Municipality and putting it under siege. However, they were thereafter crushed by aid troops that Emperor Taizong himself commanded and trapped by Khitan forces at Jin'an Base (晉安寨, near