Lady Ma of Fufeng

Lady Ma of Fufeng (扶风马氏, d. 190^[1]) was a Chinese noblewoman from the late Eastern Han dynasty. She was referred to as the wife of Huangfu Gui (皇甫规), a military general, in the Book of the Later Han, which records her biography but states that her name and provenance are unknown; however, the Tang dynasty text Shuduan (書斷) identifies her as Lady Ma of Fufeng. She was a skilled student of literature and an accomplished cursive calligrapher, widely admired as a good, beautiful, versatile, and educated woman, skilled at composition, she often helped draft documents in the cabinet of Huangfu family.^[2] She is best known for confronting Dong Zhuo, the warlord who usurped power from the Han dynasty for himself, after he tried to force her to marry him.^[1]

Lady Ma was often celebrated as an example of moral integrity, standing up to the most powerful man of the time and remaining loyal to her family and the Han dynasty even during changes in power. Her case was recorded in Book of the Later Han in volume 84, "Biographies of Exemplary Women" (卷八十四 列女傳 第七十四). She was also immortalized in the historical book History of Love (情史) written by Feng Menglong, where her biography is found in volume 1, "Love and Chastity" (情贞类). ^[3]