One thing I was wondering, after the Tang dynasty fell what happened to the Li family? My first instinct was to assume the Southern&Later Tang were both founded by the same Li's as the original dynasty, yet I'm not sure if that's the case. The Later Tang was founded by turks, so were the Later Tang related to the original dynasty or is their name just a coincidence? Then there's the Southern Tang , was Li Bian related to the Li dynasty(unfortunately the only source I have at the moment, wikipedia is vague regarding his parentage, all it says is that he was an orphan) or is this another coincidence? So what happened to them, did they all die? Are there still a few left?

Li Bian claimed to have descended from the line of Li Chun, Emperor Xianzong of Tang (唐憲宗李純) from Li Chun's 8th son, Li Ke (李恪), as a means to raise his prestige and hence the pretext to restore the dynastic name of Tang. However, there was no actual historical evidence of its veracity.

The Li Imperial family of Tang had numerous scions, and some might have survived, though probably unknown for their imperial connections.

Thank you, I admit I couldn't shake the feeling that Li Bian claim to an imperial heritage was dubious, but obviously I wanted confirmation from someone with a stronger knowledge of this period before I passed judgement on the southern Tang's legitamacy. That said, what of the Later Tang, am I to take it that their usage of Tang was just a "political grab" as it were towards claiming the Tang's heritage?