Ma Rong

Biography & Historical Record

Ma Rong (马融, Mã Dung), courtesy name Jichang (季长, Quý Trường), was a real Eastern Han classicist and official from Maoling in Youfufeng (扶风茂陵, present Xingping, Shaanxi) — grandnephew in the Ma Yuan (马援, Mã Viện) line, son of the Court Architect Ma Yan (马严, Mã Nghiêm). He lived 79–166 AD (Jianchu 4 to Yanxi 9) and died at eighty-eight, decades before the warlords of the novel take the field. Luo Guanzhong brings him on stage only as a teacher in flashback: Chapter 22, when Chen Deng (陈登, Trần Đăng) reminds Liu Bei (刘备, Lưu Bị) of Zheng Xuan (郑玄, Trịnh Huyền), courtesy Kangcheng, the novel pauses to say that Zheng Xuan studied under Ma Rong, that Ma Rong lectured before a crimson curtain with music-girls behind it, and that Zheng Xuan listened three years without a sideways glance. That crimson-curtain anecdote is taken from the Hou Hanshu biography, not invented for the chapter. The rest of Ma Rong’s life — Deng Zhi’s summons, the Liang Ji disaster, the commentaries, the students Lu Zhi (卢植, Lư Thực) and Zheng Xuan — belongs to history and is the proper subject of this page.

As a young man he studied with the recluse Zhi Xun (挚恂, Chí Tuân) of Jingzhao, who was so struck by him that he gave him his daughter. In Yongchu 2 (108) General-in-Chief Deng Zhi (邓骘, Đặng Trắc) called him as a retainer; Ma Rong first refused and drifted in Wudu and Hanyang until Qiang war and famine made him recant (“a man does not hold the map of the world in one hand and cut his own throat with the other”). He entered Deng’s service, collated books in the Eastern Pavilion as Collating Gentleman, and spent years unpromoted. After Empress Deng’s death he returned as a reader to Emperor An, wrote the Eastern Inspection Hymn when the emperor went to Mount Tai (124), and was made Gentleman of the Palace. Under Huan he rose to Grand Administrator of Nan commandery. He had already offended General-in-Chief Liang Ji (梁冀, Lương Kỳ); Liang’s people impeached him for greed in the commandery, shaved him, and sent him to Shuofang. He stabbed himself and lived; an amnesty brought him back as Gentleman Consultant and again to the Eastern Pavilion. Frightened by the Deng precedent, he later drafted Liang Ji’s memorial against Li Gu (李固, Lý Cố) and wrote a rhapsody on Liang’s western mansion — acts “the upright were ashamed of,” Chen Fan’s generation said. He taught thousands; Lu Zhi of Zhuo and Zheng Xuan of Beihai were the disciples the histories name. He annotated the Classic of Filial Piety, the Analects, the Odes, the Changes, the Three Rites, the Documents, the Biographies of Exemplary Women, the Laozi, the Huainanzi, and the Lisao, and left twenty-one pian of rhapsodies, hymns, and memorials. He ordered a thin burial. A clansman’s grandson, Ma Ridi (马日磾, Mã Nhật Đê), reached Grand Tutor under Emperor Xian.

Role in Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 22 (Yuan and Cao Each Raise Horse and Foot; Guan and Zhang Seize Wang and Liu): Liu Bei, pressed by Cao Cao, is told by Chen Deng to seek Yuan Shao’s help. Liu Bei doubts it — he has just smashed Yuan Shao’s brother. Chen Deng says there is a man whose family has been friends with the Yuan house for three generations. Liu Bei remembers Zheng Kangcheng. The narrator then inserts Ma Rong: Zheng Xuan studied with him; whenever Ma Rong lectured he hung a crimson curtain, pupils in front, female musicians behind; Zheng Xuan listened three years and never looked aside; Ma Rong marvelled, and when the student left said, “The secret of my teaching has gone with Zheng Xuan alone.” A second anecdote — Zheng Xuan’s maids quoting the Odes at each other in the courtyard — belongs to the disciple, not the master. Liu Bei and Chen Deng then go to Zheng Xuan’s house; Zheng writes the letter; Sun Qian (孙乾, Tôn Càn) rides to Yuan Shao; Yuan Shao, unwilling to aid the man who killed his brother but unwilling to refuse “Minister Zheng,” raises the host that will open the Yan Liang / Wen Chou war. Ma Rong himself is long dead; the chapter uses him only to certify Zheng Xuan’s learning.

Chapter 1 (related, not a Ma Rong scene): Liu Bei is said to have studied with Zheng Xuan and Lu Zhi. Lu Zhi was Ma Rong’s other named disciple. The novel never brings the old teacher into the Yellow Turban camps; the link is pedigree only.

Ma Rong (马融) — Historical & Literary Timeline

Official biography: Ma Rong on Wikipedia and Hou Hanshu 60A.

Key Relationships

Family

• Father Ma Yan (马严, Mã Nghiêm), Court Architect (将作大匠). The Maoling Ma are the clan of Ma Yuan (马援, Mã Viện); Ma Rong is of that descent, not a Three Kingdoms general’s son.
• Wife: daughter of his teacher Zhi Xun (挚恂, Chí Tuân).
• Clansman’s grandson Ma Ridi (马日磾, Mã Nhật Đê), Grand Tutor under Emperor Xian — later than the novel’s Chapter 22 present. No children are featured in the Hou Hanshu close.

Friends

• Zheng Xuan (郑玄, Trịnh Huyền), courtesy Kangcheng: The disciple the novel names. Three years under the crimson curtain; Ma Rong’s farewell line is that only Zheng Xuan took the secret of the school. No dedicated post — plain text.
• Lu Zhi (卢植, Lư Thực), courtesy Zigan: The other named disciple; Liu Bei’s teacher in Chapter 1 and the man who later faces the eunuchs at Xiaoping Ford with Min Gong.

Enemies

• Liang Ji (梁冀, Lương Kỳ): The General-in-Chief who had him shaved and exiled, then used him as a brush against Li Gu. Ma Rong’s fear of another Deng-style fall is Chen Fan’s explanation for that shameful draft.

Other

• Deng Zhi (邓骘, Đặng Trắc): First powerful patron; the refused-then-accepted summons of 108.
• Liu Bei (刘备, Lưu Bị), Chen Deng (陈登, Trần Đăng), Yuan Shao (袁绍, Viên Thiệu): Chapter 22 users of Zheng Xuan’s letter — they never meet Ma Rong.
• Do not link to /sima-rong/ (司马肜). Different 汉字, different dynasty branch.