Ma Dayuan

Ma Dayuan is the former vice-chief of the Beggar Society whose murder sets in motion a false accusation against Xiao Feng and exposes a conspiracy within the society. Though already dead when the relevant events unfold, Ma’s refusal to betray Xiao Feng, his killing by Bai Shijing at Madam Ma’s instigation, and the use of his family’s distinctive technique make him central to both the plot’s mystery and its moral conflict.

Identity and Position

Ma Dayuan held the office of vice-chief in the Beggar Society. His home was in Xinyang village, Henan, a long journey from Jiangnan; Xiao Feng and A’Zhu travel there because they hope to learn who truly killed him. The distance matters to the investigation: the couple cannot resolve the question in a brief encounter, and their journey gives A’Zhu time to consider how to approach his widow.

Ma was married to Madam Ma, who remained at their household after his death. In the mourning hall, Xiao Feng sees the memorial tablet and several elegiac couplets, including ones presented by Elder Xu and Elder Bai. His own couplet is absent. Dust on the mourning cloth and the presence of an aged maidservant contribute to his impression that Madam Ma has been living in isolation and sorrow. He believes her hostility toward him is understandable because she thinks he killed her husband, and he does not want to threaten a widow who is not a martial artist.

Murder and the False Accusation

The account of Ma’s death is gradually uncovered through A’Zhu’s inquiry and, later, Madam Ma’s confession. When A’Zhu visits the Ma household disguised as a Beggar Society elder, she claims that Zhao Qiansun knows the identity of Ma’s real murderer. The suggestion visibly unsettles Madam Ma: she breaks a teacup, challenges the claim, and faints when A’Zhu begins to recount what Zhao supposedly said. A’Zhu’s ploy exploits the fear that the truth of Ma’s death may come to light.

Madam Ma eventually explains that she had secretly read Chief Wang’s letter, which disclosed Xiao Feng’s Khitan birth. She wanted Ma to reveal that information publicly so Xiao Feng would lose his position as chief and be driven out of the Central Plains. Ma refused. According to her confession, he had long yielded to her wishes, but on this matter he rebuked her and threatened to confine her if she disclosed the secret. His resistance, rather than any proof that Xiao Feng had harmed him, made him an obstacle to her plan.

Madam Ma then used her relationship with Bai Shijing to secure Ma’s death. She says that, after Bai visited the household on the Fourteenth day of the eighth lunar month, she pressured him to kill her husband, threatening to accuse him of having forced himself on her if he refused. Bai ultimately killed Ma. Madam Ma says that she gave Ma Ten Fragrance Bewitching Powder and that Bai broke his throat, arranging the death to suggest the work of Gusu Murong. Thus the murder both removed the husband who would not reveal Xiao Feng’s origins and supplied a false trail for the investigation.

Madam Ma also identifies the broader conspiracy that followed. She says she sought the help of Quan Guanqing and Elder Xu to bring Xiao Feng down. Bai, despite being involved in Ma’s murder, had not stolen Xiao Feng’s fan; Madam Ma identifies Quan Guanqing as the person who persuaded Elder Chen to do so. The confession distinguishes the conspirators’ roles and resolves why Bai was exposed as a traitor while Quan had acted as the principal organizer against Xiao Feng.

Martial Art and Recognition

Ma’s family possessed the Throat-Lock Capturing Technique, a method that Bai Shijing knew well because he and Ma had been friends for a long time. When a mysterious assailant uses the technique against Bai in the dark, Bai recognizes it as a skill that no one outside the Ma family should be able to perform. The attacker’s tall build, resembling Ma’s, and the threat at Bai’s throat lead him to wonder whether the figure is Ma himself.

The scene does not establish that Ma has returned. Xiao Feng recognizes the apparition as a martial artist pretending to be a ghost, using Bai’s fear to force a confession. The technique nevertheless makes Ma’s absent presence powerful: the skill associated with his family turns the murder weapon’s concealment into a clue, while Bai’s knowledge of Ma’s martial tradition exposes the deception behind the frame-up.

Relationships and Consequences

Ma’s relationship with Xiao Feng is defined by a choice made before his death. Although the surviving evidence does not describe a close personal bond between the two, Madam Ma’s account makes clear that Ma would not publicly disclose Xiao Feng’s ancestry. His refusal protected Xiao Feng from the exposure his wife sought, and it cost him his life. That decision makes Ma a posthumous counterpoint to the conspiracy: where others turn private knowledge into leverage, he declines to use it against Xiao Feng.

His marriage to Madam Ma is recast by her confession as a relationship of long-standing contempt and manipulation. She says she did not respect him, and that his sudden opposition enraged her. Her account connects his killing to her resentment of Xiao Feng as well as to her ambition to strip him of status; she had wanted Ma to expose the secret, but when he refused, she arranged for him to be killed instead.

Bai Shijing’s friendship with Ma helps explain how the murder could be committed and disguised. Bai knew the family technique and, after being confronted by the ghostlike figure, finally blames Madam Ma and tells what he knows. His disclosure identifies the pair as responsible and presents Madam Ma as the chief planner. Ma’s murder therefore damages more than one household: it becomes the concealed crime around which the attack on Xiao Feng’s reputation and authority is organized.

Narrative Significance

Ma’s role is built through absence and delayed explanation. At first, he is the dead husband whose widow hates Xiao Feng and whose murder is presumed to confirm the accusation against him. The journey to his house, the memorial tablet, and the uncertain investigation keep that apparent explanation in view; A’Zhu’s feint and the later confession overturn it by revealing that Ma was killed because he refused to expose Xiao Feng’s birth.

The case also turns on the tension between reputation and truth within the Beggar Society. Ma’s office, the conspiracy involving its elders, and the misuse of Gusu Murong’s name show how the institutions and reputations of the martial world can be manipulated. Ma’s distinctive technique makes that manipulation legible: the false attribution depends on a recognized family skill, but the same recognition helps Bai understand that the figure confronting him is invoking Ma’s identity. Ma remains a silent but decisive presence in the story, first as the supposed victim of Xiao Feng and finally as the man whose refusal reveals the cost of loyalty under coercion.