Ma Yuan (Han dynasty)
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Ma Yuan 馬援 | |
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Born | 14 BC |
Died | 49 AD (aged 62) |
Other names | Wenyuan (文淵) Marquis Zhongcheng (忠成侯) |
Occupation(s) | Military general, politician |
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Ma Yuan (
.His military and political achievements included helping
Life and career
Early life
Ma Yuan was a native of what is now
Qiang campaign
He also subjugated the
Though members of the Qiang had escaped across the borders, Ma Yuan's victories in 35 had broken the power of the Xianlian tribe and had made possible a restoration of Chinese positions on the old frontiers.
Trung sisters' rebellion
Ma was placed in command of the campaign to suppress the Trung sisters' rebellion.[1] He was given the title Fubo Jiangjun (伏波將軍; General who Calms the Waves).[1] Ma Yuan and his staff began mobilizing a Han army in southern China.[1] It comprised about 10,000 troops.[3] From Guangdong, Ma Yuan dispatched a fleet of supply ships along the coast.[1] He led the Han army through difficult terrain towards the Red River Delta, where they arrived in early 43 AD.[1] The rebellion was brought under control by April or May.[1]
Death
In 49 while on expedition against the Wulin tribes (in modern eastern Guizhou and northwestern Hunan), Ma died from a plague which also killed a large number of his soldiers.
After his death, Ma's deputy
Ma's daughter became Empress Ma of the Han dynasty in 57,[4] after which his reputation was restored.
Legacy
Memorials
Ma Yuan is worshipped as a deity in numerous temples in China and Vietnam. The Fubo Temples of
Vietnamese temples to the Han dynasty general also existed in
Hanoi Bạch Mã temple
There is evidence that Ma Yuan was worshipped at the Bạch Mã temple in Hanoi in some capacity before the worship of Ma Yuan in Vietnam was largely eliminated after the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War.[7][5][6] A 1956 École française d'Extrême-Orient book by Vũ Đăng Minh and Nguyễn Phú Hợi described the existence of a statue to Ma Yuan in the temple, and the Office of Cultural Affairs of the Administration of Hanoi documented the existence of a statue to Ma Yuan in the temple as recently as 1984.[5][7] By the early 21st century, Vietnamese people of Chinese origin living near the temple said that they had never heard of Ma Yuan being worshipped in the temple before.[5][7]
The original deity worshipped at the temple could have been either Bạch Mã (the spirit-protector of Hanoi who had been merged with the deity Long Đỗ) or Ma Yuan.[5][7] The original deity may have been Bạch Mã before later Chinese immigrants and travelers confused the name for Ma Yuan.[5][7][8][9] Historian Olga Dror suggests two alternative possibilities: that Bạch Mã was originally worshipped by older Chinese and Kinh communities at the temple before newer waves of Chinese settlers from the 17th century onwards merged the two; or that Ma Yuan was originally worshipped at the temple before it fell into obscurity after the Third Era of Northern Domination to be replaced by the cult of Bạch Mã.[7][5][6]
Legends
In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang was inspired by a temple of Ma Yuan en route to overcoming the rebellion of Meng Huo and the Nanman.[10]
Ma Yuan was the source of two Chinese chengyu idioms. One, "wrapping one's body with horse leather" (馬革裹屍), refers to being dedicated to one's responsibilities that one is willing to die on the battlefield and have his body be wrapped in horse leather; Ma had given this phrase while talking to a friend as to why he wished to continue in military service. The other, "drawing a tiger improperly results in a dog" (畫虎不成反類犬), refers to his admonition to his nephews to be careful in their conduct and not to try to imitate a famed heroic figure of the time, Du Bao (杜保) -- in that if one tried to imitate Du but was not as heroic as he was, one would end up becoming a frivolous hoodlum.
References
- ^ ISBN 9780521243278.
- ^ "Ma Yuan". Mountain Songs. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
- ISBN 9780521243278.
- ISBN 9781315702063.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Mã Viện's Memorials in Vietnam" (in Vietnamese). BBC Vietnamese. 29 June 2005.
- ^ JSTOR 20072547.
Bach Mã temple in the heart of the '36 streets' of Hanoi was dedicated to Ma Yuan (Mã Viện), a Chinese general in the first century CE (pp. 144-5) [...] temples for Ma Yuan existed not only in the old capital Hanoi, but also in Cổ Loa, as well as in Thanh Hóa and Phúc Yên provinces. Furthermore, she found that in Bắc Ninh where people worshiped the Trưng sisters, they also worshipped Ma Yuan in the same temple (pp. 46-7). All of these are found in northern Vietnam, which is striking.
- ^ JSTOR 10.7591/j.ctv1fxmh0.
- ISBN 9780190677633.
- ^ Mai, Hồng (1996). "Về vị thần thờ ở đền Bạch Mã phố Hàng Buồm, Hà Nội". Tạp chí Hán Nôm (in Vietnamese). 26. Institute of Hán-Nôm Studies. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
- ^ Luo, Guanzhong. "Chapter 89". Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguo Yanyi).