Person
Ma Luu
By Yu Yiqi’s letter as quoted in the Thuy kinh chu, the soldiers of Ma Yuan who stayed behind and did not go home, living facing the bronze pillars; all were surnamed Ma and married among themselves, their speech and food still like those of the Chinese, and by the time of the letter they numbered two hundred households.
At a glance
- Also known as
- The people of Giao Chau called them the Ma Luu, the Ma who stayed and settled1
- Role
- More than ten households of Ma Yuan’s soldiers who stayed behind and did not go home; all were surnamed Ma and married among themselves, and their speech and food were still like those of the Chinese; once the bronze pillars lay in the sea, only through them could the old spot be recognised1
- Origin
- Living across the Tho Linh river, facing the two bronze pillars that Yu Yiqi’s letter says Ma Yuan set up north of the shore of Lam Ap1
- Earliest record
- A letter of Yu Yiqi, quoted in the Thuy kinh chu of Li Daoyuan, early sixth century1
Life
The old chronicles say
Yu Yiqi’s letter, quoted in the Thuy kinh chu, records that Ma Yuan set up two bronze pillars north of the shore of Lam Ap, and that more than ten households of his soldiers stayed behind and did not go home, living across the Tho Linh river, facing the pillars. The letter goes on: all were surnamed Ma, and they married among themselves; by the time of the letter they numbered two hundred households. The people of Giao Chau called them the Ma Luu, the Ma who stayed and settled. Their speech, and their food and drink, were still like those of the Chinese.1
Then a sentence worth noticing: mountains and rivers have shifted, and the bronze pillars now lie in the sea; only through those people could the old spot still be recognised. Even in one of the earliest records that survive, nobody could see the pillars any more.1
Mentioned in
Sources for this page
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