MA YAN

born 14 BC, Mou-ling, now in Shensi province, China died AD 49, Hunan Pinyin Ma Yuan, courtesy name (tzu) Wen Yuan Chinese general who helped establish the Eastern Han dynasty (AD 25220) after the usurpation of power by the minister Wang Mang ended the Western Han dynasty (206 BCAD 25). Ma began his career in the service of Wang Mang, but when revolts erupted throughout the countryside in opposition to Wang's policies, Ma joined the minister's enemies. He eventually took service under Kuang-wu ti (reigned AD 2557/58), a member of the Han imperial family, who made himself emperor and reestablished the Han dynasty. In AD 35 Ma was appointed governor of South China, and he reinstituted Chinese rule in the area as far south as present-day northern Vietnam. In 45 Ma was sent to the northern frontier, where he helped subdue the Hsiungnu tribes of Central Asia. After his death he was enshrined as a god and, until modern times, was worshiped as the wave-quelling god of Kwangsi province in South China. Ma Yan was a noted judge of horses and wrote a book on that subject. born c. 1160, /65 died 1225 Pinyin Ma Yuan influential Chinese landscape painter whose work, together with that of Hsia Kuei, formed the basis of the Ma-hsia school of painting. Ma Yan occasionally painted flowers, but his genius lay in landscape painting, his lyrical and romantic interpretation becoming the model for later painters. He was a master of one-corner painting, in which visual interest is focused in a corner of the work. His style was often copied, and it is sometimes difficult to separate genuine works from those of his followers.