Mavericks › Uprising Leaders
Ma Shouying
Hui rebel chief from Suide known as Old Huihui who fought across north and central China and led one of the Five Camps until Li Zicheng took over his army
A mountain camp at night, with a beacon fire burning on a wooden platform at the upper left, several white tents on the slope and a red cloth tied to a rope; a wooden palisade with a gate stands at the right beyond a timber bridge over a rough river, under a clouded moon.
Also known as Hao Laohuihui
- Roles
- Uprising Leaders
Ma Shouying, a Hui Muslim from Suide in Shaanxi, had served as a frontier soldier before he rose in the Shaanxi upheavals of the early Chongzhen years under the name Old Huihui, becoming one of the chiefs of the thirty-six camps gathered by Wang Ziyong. With Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai he raided through Shanxi, the capital region and Henan, regrouping after each defeat by Cao Wenzhao and other government commanders. According to the Ming History (Mingshi), when the rebel bands met at Xingyang in 1635 he wanted to cross the Yellow River northward, was mocked by Zhang Xianzhong, and accepted the plan to divide forces only after Li Zicheng mediated. He later led one of the so-called Five Camps with He Yilong and others, operating in Huguang and north of the Yangtze, and joined Li Zicheng around 1642. In 1643 Li killed Luo Rucai and He Yilong and took over Ma's troops, and Ma died of illness at Jingzhou in the spring of 1644.
Life and times
Dates Birth unknown–1644 CE