Ma Chu

Overview

Chu (907–951), conventionally known as Ma Chu and also called Southern Chu, was one of the southern Ten Kingdoms during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Founded by Ma Yin with its capital at Changsha (Tanzhou), it was the only historical regime centered on Hunan. The names “Ma Chu” and “Southern Chu” derived respectively from the ruling family's surname and the state's southern location and referred to the same regime. Its contemporaries included the successive Central Plains regimes of Later Liang, Later Tang, Later Jin, Later Han, and Later Zhou, as well as the southern and regional states of Wu, Southern Tang, Wuyue, Min, Southern Han, Jingnan (Nanping), Former Shu, Later Shu, and Northern Han. Ma Yin's power grew from his late-Tang control of Tanzhou. At its height the state governed twenty-four prefectures—Tan, Heng, Yong, Dao, Chen, Shao, Yue, Lang, Li, Chen, Xu, Lian, Zhao, Yi, Quan, Gui, Wu, He, Meng, Fu, Yan, Liu, Xiang, and Rong—and maintained five military circuits including Wuan, Wuping, and Jingjiang. Its territory covered most of present-day Hunan, northern Guangxi, eastern Guizhou, and northern Guangdong. Chu recognized the calendrical legitimacy of Central Plains dynasties such as Later Liang and Later Tang, promoted commerce and tea production, and generally sought to preserve local peace; it became one of the more prosperous of the Ten Kingdoms. After Ma Yin's death, however, rivalry among his sons and fratricidal conflict weakened the state. The internal struggle known as “many colts fighting over the trough” reached its height in 950, and Southern Tang conquered Chu in 951.

Historical Development

Establishment: In the late Tang, Hunan fragmented among competing regional military powers, including Wuan Military Commissioner Deng Chune, Jingjiang Military Commissioner Liu Shizheng, and Wuzhen Military Commissioner Lei Man, while effective Tang authority largely disappeared. Ma Yin had originally served under the late-Tang warlord Sun Ru. After Sun Ru's defeat and death, Ma Yin helped Liu Jianfeng gather the remaining troops and move south through Jiangxi into Hunan, where they killed Deng Chune. Liu Jianfeng then assumed control of Wuan, and after Liu was murdered, Ma Yin was chosen to take over the Wuan forces. In 896, the third year of the Tang Qianning era, Ma Yin reached Changsha and made himself acting head of Wuan; the Tang court appointed him Prefect of Tanzhou and placed him in charge of the Hunan military government. In 897 he became Military Commissioner of Wuan Circuit. He subsequently defeated the competing powers in Hunan and unified the region. In 907, the first year of the Later Liang Kaiping era, Emperor Taizu of Later Liang, Zhu Wen, granted Ma Yin the titles Attendant, Secretariat Director, and Prince of Chu. Chu thus developed from a military governorship into a regional regime, with its capital at Tanzhou (Changsha). In 927, the second year of the Later Tang Tiancheng era, Emperor Mingzong of Later Tang sent Assistant Director of the Department of State Affairs Li Xu with credentials and a bamboo investiture document to enfeoff Ma Yin as “King of Chu.” Ma Yin modeled his government more closely on the imperial court, renamed Tanzhou as Changsha Prefecture and made it his capital, constructed palaces, and established a full body of officials. Chu thereby took the form of a fully independent kingdom.

Height: During Ma Yin's reign, the government followed a policy summarized as “serving the Son of Heaven above and comforting the people below,” suppressing internal disorder and defending against powerful neighboring regimes. This brought a measure of stability to the population. Economically, the state built waterworks, encouraged agriculture and sericulture, developed tea production, promoted textiles, and expanded trade with the Central Plains. Tea and grain were major products, and tea taxation became a principal source of revenue, reportedly yielding income “in the millions” each year. Tanzhou became the largest tea market in the south. Chu expanded to twenty-four prefectures and held southern territories in Lingnan, while maintaining generally stable relations with Wu (later Southern Tang), Southern Han, and other neighboring regimes. This was the state's high point.

Turning point: Ma Yin died in 930, the first year of the Changxing era, leaving instructions that his sons and brothers should succeed one another. Not all of his successors were capable. His son Ma Xisheng succeeded him but became known for extravagant consumption. After Ma Xisheng died in 932, Ma Xifan took power and ruled for a comparatively long period. Suspicion within the ruling family gradually intensified and conflict among the brothers began, marking the start of Chu's decline.

Decline: Ma Xifan died in 947, the twelfth year of the Tianfu era, and the succession passed among the Ma brothers, with Ma Xiguang taking the throne. In 950 Ma Xie led an army against Changsha, defeated and killed Ma Xiguang, and proclaimed himself ruler of Chu. From 947 to 951 the sons of Ma Yin fought repeatedly for the succession in a struggle later called “many colts fighting over the trough.” Years of internal warfare exhausted troops and finances, encouraged local separatism, and rapidly weakened the state.

Fall: In November 951, Southern Tang took advantage of Chu's civil conflict and sent the general Bian Hao to invade. He forced Ma Xichong to surrender and occupied Changsha on the sixteenth day of the month; on 14 December he also forced Ma Xie, then holding Hengshan, to surrender. The Chu regime ended, and its former Lingnan territories were soon absorbed by Southern Han. The Ma family had controlled Chu for about forty-four years (907–951), or fifty-six years if counted from Ma Yin's initial control of Hunan in 896. In the year after Chu's fall, Liu Yan, a former Chu general and Military Commissioner of Wuping based at Langzhou, expelled Southern Tang forces and continued to control former Chu territory under the title Military Commissioner of Wuping. Wang Jinkui, Pan Shusi, and Zhou Xingfeng later killed one another in succession, after which Zhou Xingfeng gained control of Hunan. When Zhou died in 962, his son Zhou Baoquan succeeded him, but the general Zhang Wenbiao rebelled. By then Zhao Kuangyin had founded the Northern Song. In 963 Song forces moved south on the pretext of restoring order, captured Tanzhou, took Zhou Baoquan prisoner, and incorporated Hunan fully into the Song realm.

Politics and Institutions

Chu developed out of the military-governor system of the late Tang and adapted that structure as it became a state. Its rulers continued to use the title Prince or King of Chu, and Changsha Prefecture served as the capital. Central offices combined features of the late-Tang military-governor staff and a royal court, including a Grand Councilor, secretarial officials, privy officials, and military command posts; offices were added or removed according to the practical needs of regional government. Local administration inherited the late-Tang circuit structure, with Tanzhou (Changsha) as the core and Wuan, Wuping, Jingjiang, and other circuits governing subordinate prefectures. Officials were often drawn from the ruling family, military commanders, and local elites, while the government also employed displaced scholars. The legal order broadly followed Tang law, although the disorder of the regional age weakened administrative discipline and many specific legal and supervisory arrangements are difficult to reconstruct.

Military and Diplomacy

Chu defended itself from Changsha, relying on Hunan's terrain. Many commanders came from the Ma family's relatives and long-serving followers, and the state maintained both naval and land forces to control its prefectures and resist neighboring enemies. Diplomatically, early Chu recognized Later Liang, Later Tang, and other Central Plains regimes as legitimate overlords in order to preserve its own position. It alternated between friendly relations and warfare with Wu (later Southern Tang), Min, Southern Han, Jingnan, and other neighboring regimes, generally favoring a strategy of defending its borders rather than undertaking large-scale conquest. Trade with the Central Plains supported state finances, while territorial disputes with Southern Tang and Southern Han never entirely disappeared. In the final period, dynastic infighting gave Southern Tang the opportunity to conquer the state.

Economy and Commerce

Chu benefited from Hunan's resources, and its economy was comparatively developed among the Ten Kingdoms. Agriculture produced abundant rice and fish, while tea became the state's most important commercial product. Following the advice of the minister Gao Yu, Ma Yin adopted relatively liberal policies allowing people to produce tea themselves and sell it to northern merchants. The government established commercial depots, known in the source as huituwu, at various locations and organized merchants to buy tea for sale in the Central Plains in exchange for warhorses and silk textiles. Tea taxation was a major source of state revenue, reportedly bringing in “millions” annually, and tea merchants were known by the special designation “masters of the eight beds.” To promote circulation, Chu issued lead and iron coins within its territory, including lead Kaiyuan Tongbao, iron Qianfeng Quanbao, and copper Tiance Fubao and Qianyuan Zhongbao. Because lead and iron coins were heavy and were prohibited in states such as Southern Tang, merchants leaving Chu often found the currency unusable outside its borders. They therefore frequently sold goods in Chu and then purchased Chu products for export, allowing local products to be exchanged for goods from across the realm. Tea and grain were the chief commodities in regional trade. Textile production also expanded. After the government required taxpayers to submit silk in place of money, “household looms greatly multiplied”; cotton spinning and weaving in Changsha is described as beginning in the Ma Chu period, when cotton was already being grown and woven in Chu. Mining and metallurgy also developed, including cinnabar mining around Tanzhou, much of it used as pigment. These pro-commercial policies made Tanzhou the largest tea market in the south and significantly expanded its urban economy.

Culture and Society

Chu was centered in Hunan, where different population groups and local communities interacted. Although the Ma family rose from the military, it continued to treat scholars with respect, preserving aspects of southern literary culture and the regional tradition associated with the Songs of Chu. Society consisted mainly of Han Chinese military households and registered commoner households, together with migrants and long-established local residents. Under Ma Yin, Hunan enjoyed relative stability and recovered some social vitality, while water-control works and agricultural production improved. The state's short existence and final descent into civil war, however, limited the development of more elaborate cultural and institutional structures.

Rulers and Governing Core

Ma Yin, Ma Xisheng, Ma Xifan, Ma Xiguang, Ma Xie, Ma Xichong.

> This section explains the position of individual rulers within the evolution of the regime; full biographies are provided in the corresponding person entities.

Historical Assessment and Legacy

Contemporary assessment: Ma Yin brought internal military disorder under control, resisted powerful neighbors, promoted commerce and tea production, and maintained trade with the Central Plains. These policies kept Hunan relatively peaceful and filled the state treasury, earning him a measure of respect among the regional rulers of his age. After his death, however, his sons fought bitterly over the succession and spent heavily; contemporaries and later observers criticized their inability to maintain unity, which ultimately brought both the state and the ruling house to ruin.

Later historical assessment: Later histories classify Chu among the regional regimes of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms and emphasize its unique position as the only historical state centered on Hunan. Its unification of Hunan, development of the tea and iron trades, and use of distinctive coinage are often regarded as important achievements in the region's economic history, especially for the study of tea taxation and monetary policy. Historians also note how closely the state's rise and fall depended on the ability of its rulers and the cohesion of the ruling family: prolonged internal conflict allowed Southern Tang to absorb it rapidly, a pattern found elsewhere among the Ten Kingdoms. The tea economy, early growth of cotton textile production, and issue of lead and iron coinage under Ma Chu left a significant legacy in Hunan's later economic development.