Ma Yu (馬郁) | 24 Histories

Overview

Ma Yu was an official and Writer.

PeriodSui and Tang

IdentityHistorical · Male

Roles

Found in

Life and dates

Death

At Taiyuan 太原
Directly stated · Old History of the Five Dynasties 71, passage 24

Attested activity

AD 897 to AD 898 乾寧末
Dated from the passage context · Old History of the Five Dynasties 71, passage 3
AD 883 to AD 908 武皇幕
Dated from the passage context · Old History of the Five Dynasties 71, passage 10
AD 908 to AD 926 莊宗幕
Dated from the passage context · Old History of the Five Dynasties 71, passage 20

Career and standing

Acting Minister of Works 檢校司空
Held
Directly stated · Old History of the Five Dynasties 71, passage 10
Director of the Imperial Library 秘書監
Held
Directly stated · Old History of the Five Dynasties 71, passage 10

Places and affiliations

Polity Jin/Later Tang · Relation Served
Directly stated · Old History of the Five Dynasties 71, passages 10-11
At Fanyang 范陽 · Relation Ancestral
Directly stated · Old History of the Five Dynasties 71, passage 1

Events and relationships

Composed fu
Literary · Author · With Zhuanzhuan (轉轉)
Directly stated · Old History of the Five Dynasties 71, passages 8-9

Assessments and attributes

Assessment quick-witted and gifted · Mode historian-judgment
Directly stated · Old History of the Five Dynasties 71, passages 2, 19

References in the histories

Search passages

History

12 passages

Old History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 71Volume 71 Book of Later Tang 47: Biographies 23: Ma Yu, Si Kongting, Cao Tingyin, Xiao Xifu, Yao Zongzhi, Jia Fu, Ma Gao, Luo Guan, Chun Yuyan, Zhang Ge, Xu Ji, Zhou Xuanbao · 12 passages

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馬郁，其先范陽人。 Ma Yu came from a Fanyang family.

郁少警悟，有俊才智數，言辯縱橫，下筆成文。 From youth he was quick-witted and gifted with rare talent and resourcefulness; his speech was bold and fluent, and essays flowed from his brush as if unbidden.

郁時直記室，即起草，為之條列事狀，雲可疑者十，詞理俊贍，以此知名。 Yu, then serving in the records office, promptly drafted a memorial laying out the circumstances and ten suspicious points in elegant, forceful prose, and with that made his name.

嘗聘王鎔於鎮州，官妓有轉轉者，美麗善歌舞，因宴席，郁累挑之。 On an embassy to Wang Rong at Zhenzhou he took notice of an official courtesan named Zhuanzhuan, renowned for her beauty and dancing; during the feast Yu kept pressing his attentions on her.

郁抽筆操紙，即時成賦，擁妓而去。 Yu seized brush and paper, finished the piece on the spot, and walked off with the girl in his arms.

郁在武皇幕，累官至檢校司空、秘書監。 In Li Keyong's service he rose through the ranks to honorary Minister of Works and Director of the Imperial Library.

郁以滑稽侮狎，其往如歸，有時直造臥內。 Yu treated him with jesting familiarity, coming and going as freely as at home and sometimes walking straight into his bedchamber.

每賓僚宴集，承業出珍果陳列於前，食之必盡。 At every banquet Chengye put out choice fruit before the guests, and Yu always ate every piece.

承業私戒主膳者曰：「他日馬監至，唯以乾藕子置前而已。」 Chengye quietly told the head cook, "When Director Ma comes again, he should be served nothing but dried lotus seeds."

郁至，窺其不可啖； When Yu arrived he saw they were inedible;

郁在莊宗幕，寄寓他土，年老思鄉，每對莊宗欷歔，言家在范陽，乞骸歸國，以葬舊山。 Under Zhuangzong, far from home and advanced in years, he often wept before the throne, pleading to return to Fanyang to die and be buried among his ancestral hills.

郁既無歸路，衷懷嗚咽，竟卒於太原。 With no road home, his grief finally consumed him, and he died at Taiyuan.