Ma Yuan

Also known as Zi Wenyuan · Fubo Jiangjun

Ma Yuan, courtesy name Wenyuan, of Maoling in Fufeng, joined the Longxi warlord Wei Xiao after Wang Mang's fall. Sent by Wei to Luoyang in AD 28, he met Emperor Guangwu and decided to serve the Han; when the emperor marched on Wei in 32, Ma heaped rice into a model of the terrain to show the routes. As governor of Longxi from 35 he defeated the Xianling Qiang. Appointed Wave-Calming General in 41, he marched south to Jiaozhi and in 43 beheaded the rebel sisters Zheng Ce and Zheng Er, for which he was made Marquis of Xinxi. Back at court he said a man should die on the frontier and come home wrapped in a horse hide. At sixty-two he volunteered against the tribes of Wuling in 48 and died of illness in camp at Hutou the next year, after which slander by Liang Song cost him his marquisate. In 78 he was posthumously named Marquis Zhongcheng; his daughter was Empress Ma, consort of Emperor Ming.