Wife of Ma Teng

Biography & Historical Record

Wife of Ma Teng (马腾之妻, Vợ Mã Đằng) is the site’s label for the unnamed wife of Liang warlord Ma Teng (马腾, Mã Đằng), courtesy Shoucheng (寿成, Thọ Thành), and the mother of his sons including Ma Chao (马超, Mã Siêu), Ma Xiu (马休, Mã Hưu), and Ma Tie (马铁, Mã Thiết). Chen Shou’s Sanguozhi and Fan Ye’s Hou Hanshu record Ma Teng’s campaigns, his feud with Han Sui (韩遂, Hàn Toại), and the rise of Ma Chao, but they never write this woman’s surname or given name. This page uses the descriptive title Wife of Ma Teng so she can sit in the Family wiki beside her husband and children — not a claim that official history called her 马腾之妻 on the page face.

Her one attested tragedy in the chronicles is northwestern, not capital. After Ma Teng and Han Sui swore brotherhood and then warred again, Han Sui struck Ma Teng’s household and killed his wife and children (杀其妻儿). Ma Teng fled, regathered his Liang forces, and continued the vendetta. That slaughter is not the same event as Cao Cao’s 212 purge at Ye, when Ma Teng, Ma Xiu, and Ma Tie — men who had already moved east as hostages — were executed after Ma Chao’s Tong Pass rebellion. The mother belongs to the earlier Liang household; the Ye martyrs are the father and younger sons in a later chapter of the clan’s story.

Do not call her Lady Wang (王氏). Koei Dynasty Warriors and some modern game rosters label Ma Chao’s mother “Lady Wang.” No graph 王 or 王氏 appears in the Ma Teng or Ma Chao biographies of Chen Shou or Pei Songzhi. That Wang is fan invention and is easily confused with unrelated Wang-clan women on this site — and with modern drama figures such as Ma Huodeng (马化龙) traditions that are not Han-history wives of Ma Teng. This article follows Sanguozhi and Hou Hanshu only: unnamed wife, attested only as mother and as Han Sui’s victim.

Also separate: Ma Ping’s Qiang wife is Ma Teng’s mother, not this page. SGZ tradition says Ma Ping lived among the Qiang and married a Qiang woman, making Ma Teng of mixed heritage. The wife of Ma Teng is a later generation in the Maoling household that bore Ma Chao.

Role in Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 10: Ma Teng and Han Sui raise loyalist arms against Li Jue and Guo Si at Chang’an. The novel introduces Ma Chao as a youth who captures Li Meng and slays Wang Fang — proof of the next generation — but never names his mother or gives her a speech. The historical note that Han Sui later killed Ma Teng’s wife and children is not dramatized in a named scene.

Chapters 57–58: Ma Teng, Ma Xiu, and Ma Tie die in the Xuchang plot against Cao Cao. Ma Chao’s vengeance follows the father’s execution in the novel’s timeline. The unnamed northwestern mother is already off-stage in both history and fiction by then, or was never named to begin with.

Wife of Ma Teng (马腾之妻) — Historical & Literary Timeline

See Ma Teng on Wikipedia and Hou Hanshu 75.

Key Relationships

Family

• Husband Ma Teng (马腾, Mã Đằng): Liang warlord; sworn brother then enemy of Han Sui; executed at Ye (212) in history, Xuchang in the novel.
• Son Ma Chao (马超, Mã Siêu): Eldest son; Splendid Ma Chao; later Five Tiger General of Shu.
• Sons Ma Xiu (马休, Mã Hưu) and Ma Tie (马铁, Mã Thiết): Younger sons who went east with Ma Teng and were executed after Tong Pass / in the novel capital plot.
• Daughter Ma Yunlu (马云禄, Mã Vân Lộc): Later novel and game tradition only; not in SGZ core text. Same household in site roster.
• Mother-in-law figure Ma Ping’s Qiang wife: Ma Teng’s mother, not this page. Custom wiki only.

Friends

• No named allies. Her attested circle is the northwestern Ma household before Han Sui’s strike.

Enemies

• Han Sui (韩遂, Hàn Toại): Former oath-brother of Ma Teng who killed this wife and some of her children during their Liang feud.

Other

• Not Lady Wang (王氏) from games. Not Lady Yang (杨氏), who was Ma Chao’s wife, a different person.
• Not Liu Bei’s or Sun Quan’s Wang-clan consorts. Identifying facts: Ma Teng’s wife, mother of Ma Chao, Han Sui’s victim.