Ma chi yuan biography

Chuang chih-yuan ranking

His military and political achievements included helping Emperor Guangwu unite the empire and putting down rebellions of the Trung Sisters in Jiaozhi , modern Vietnam and the Wulin tribes in modern eastern Guizhou and northwestern Hunan. He fell ill during an expedition to modern Hunan in 49 AD, and died soon afterwards. He also subjugated the Qiang.

In 34 A. In 35, the Xianlian tribe were again defeated, first at Lintao in Longxi and then along the Xining river in Jincheng commandery. In the two separate campaigns, Ma Yuan captured more than ten thousand head of horses, cattle and sheep, together with considerable stores of grain. He was wounded in the leg during one of the final engagements, and he did not completely destroy the enemy, but he did drive them away from the valley lands of Jincheng, and he was rewarded with Imperial commendation and several thousand of the animals he had captured.

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. Ma was placed in command of the campaign to suppress the Trung sisters' rebellion. 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.

Two specific accusations that are known are that Ma, by the route he took against the Wulin tribes, was responsible for the plague, and that he had, while on campaigns, embezzled pearls and rhinoceros horns.