Bai Shijing—Ma Dayuan

Bai Shijing—Ma Dayuan refers to the murder of Ma Dayuan by Bai Shijing, carried out after Madam Ma exploited their affair and threatened to expose him. The killing was not an isolated act: it formed part of Madam Ma’s scheme to punish Ma Dayuan and disguise the crime as the work of Gusu Murong.

The Pressure Behind the Murder

Madam Ma said that Ma Dayuan had rebuked her and threatened to confine her, warning that he would kill her if she revealed anything. She described herself as having never cared for or respected him, and said that his harshness gave her reason to retaliate. More than a month later, Bai Shijing visited her home for the Mid-Autumn Festival, on the fourteenth day of the eighth lunar month. She deliberately encouraged his attachment to her and ordered him to kill Ma Dayuan.

Bai Shijing initially refused. Madam Ma then threatened to accuse him of having raped her, a charge that would destroy the reputation of a man known publicly as honest and incorruptible. She offered to remain with him if he killed Ma Dayuan; otherwise, she challenged him to kill her. Unwilling to kill her and facing the threatened exposure, Bai Shijing gave in and murdered Ma Dayuan.

Concealment and Discovery

Madam Ma confirmed that she and Bai Shijing had used Ten Fragrance Bewitching Powder against Ma Dayuan and that Bai Shijing had broken his throat. The method was intended to make the murder appear to have been committed using Gusu Murong’s Throat-Lock Capturing Technique. She attributed the idea of framing Gusu Murong to Bai Shijing, while saying that she herself did not know Gusu Murong.

The truth emerged in Madam Ma’s account to Xiao Feng. He recognized that Bai Shijing, whom he had regarded as a steadfastly good man, had been ruined by her manipulation, and identified the staged appearance of the killing as part of the scheme. The confession thus connected Bai Shijing directly to both Ma Dayuan’s murder and the attempt to divert suspicion toward Gusu Murong.

Significance

The relationship’s defining turn is Bai Shijing’s surrender of his public integrity under private pressure. Madam Ma used his desire for her and his fear of exposure to make him kill a fellow Beggar Clan member; the false attribution to Gusu Murong then widened the consequences beyond the victim and murderer. The episode reveals how the apparent technique of a crime could serve as a deliberate disguise, while the confession exposes the personal coercion behind Ma Dayuan’s death.