Swapping a Cat for a Prince: Did Poets and Painters Comment on the Birth of Song Emperor Renzong?
Alfreda Murck
This article explores the possibility that two undated Song dynasty paintings—Monkey and Cats and Calico Cat under Peonies—may obliquely refer to the birth story of Emperor Renzong (1010–1063). In her ambitious quest for status, Virtuous Consort Liu 劉德妃 (969–1033) appropriated a baby boy from Lady Li (Li Chenfei 李宸妃) in the palace. By the fourteenth century, a tale evolved that Lady Li had given birth to an undomesticated cat, and “Swapping a Civet Cat for a Prince” (Limao huan taizi 狸貓換太子) became a popular opera in the Ming and Qing dynasties. It was revived in the late twentieth century and became the story line for dozens of movies and TV dramas. It enacts a palace intrigue in which a childless imperial concubine takes a new-born boy from another palace woman and he grows up to be emperor. The story was based on actual events during the early Northern Song. Although I argue that the two above paintings might allude to events in the imperial family, they are unlikely to be official works from the court. Rather, the paintings were more likely commissioned outside the court and probably date to a time after Emperor Renzong’s death.