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Ma Gui
Ming frontier general from a Datong military family who helped crush the Ningxia mutiny and commanded Ming troops in Korea against the second Japanese invasion
At dusk on a hilltop, a large tent stands open with a table holding a map marked with small stones inside, a saddled horse tethered outside, and fire stands burning; campfires dot the river plain below, and one tiny sentry stands on the slope.
Also known as Zi Chongzhi
Ma Gui, courtesy name Chongzhi, came from the Right Guard of Datong, where his father Ma Lu was a regional officer; he joined the army as a cadet and under Longqing and Wanli rose to command at Datong and Ningxia. Banished to a garrison in 1591, he was recalled the next year when Pubei mutinied at Ningxia, fought in the siege until the city fell, and then commanded at Yansui. When Japan invaded Korea again in 1597 he went out as commander against the Japanese, later with full field command, and with the Ming supreme commander Yang Hao besieged Kato Kiyomasa in his fortress at Ulsan, until Japanese relief early in 1598 broke the allied armies. He then led the eastern route and entered Ulsan and Sop'o when the Japanese withdrew after Hideyoshi's death. Posted to Liaodong in 1610, he retired through illness two years later; because his family produced so many generals, people paired the Ma of the west with the Li of Tieling in the east.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; retired on grounds of illness in 1612