Ma Fulu

Ma Fulu (1854–1900) was a Chinese Muslim general of Linxia in Gansu, a middle son of General Ma Qianling and brother of Ma Fuxiang. He took the military jinshi degree, served for a time as a guard of the Guangxu Emperor, and rose to prominence suppressing the Dungan revolt of 1895–1896 under Dong Fuxiang as part of the loyalist Hui forces known as the Kansu Braves. In the Boxer Rebellion he led Hui cavalry at Langfang and was killed in 1900 at the Zhengyang Gate in the Battle of Peking, fighting the Eight-Nation Alliance. ^{1 2}

He was born at Linxia in 1854 — the Chinese article gives Yangwashan in Hanjiaji township, in the same county — and studied at a martial arts hall and military school. In 1880 he went to Peking for the advanced military examinations and had an audience with the Emperor; the Chinese article says he broke three bows by pulling too hard at the palace examination and was graded down for not knowing court etiquette, then kept at the capital as an imperial guard. He was later posted to a Henan command, then resigned on grounds of his parents' age and went home to farm and practise martial arts. ^{1 2}

In 1895 he raised a battalion under the former commander Lei Zhengwan and served under Dong Fuxiang in crushing the Dungan revolt of 1895–1896 in the Hehuang region; in 1897 a military jinshi degree was awarded to him. In 1898 he was transferred with his brother Ma Fuxiang and several cousins to serve under Dong Fuxiang toward Peking, where they helped end the Hundred Days' Reform, and his troops were stationed at Shanhaiguan. During the Boxer Rebellion the Muslim troops came to be known as the "Kansu Braves": Ma Fulu and Ma Fuxiang ambushed the Seymour Expedition's forces at Langfang and drove them back toward Tianjin, Ma Fulu personally leading a cavalry charge. ^{1 2}

When the Alliance forces retook Peking, Ma Fulu held the Zhengyang Gate and attacked the legation quarter; he was killed there in 1900 with four cousins — his paternal cousins Ma Fugui and Ma Fuquan and his nephews Ma Yaotu and Ma Zhaotu — and about a hundred of his fellow Hui and Dongxiang soldiers from his home village. He had commanded a brigade, and his brother Ma Fuxiang took over his position and inherited his army. The Qing court posthumously made him "General Zhenwei" and gave him the posthumous name Zhonglie, "loyal martyr". His son Ma Hongbin later became a general commanding the 84th Army Corps. The two articles disagree about his remains: the English article says they were moved to Yangzhushan in Linxia County in 1995, the Chinese article that his son Ma Hongbin brought them home in 1950 and built a spirit-way stele at Yangwashan, destroyed in the Cultural Revolution; the discrepancy is recorded here unresolved. ^{1 2}

His faith is recorded as unknown. No source read names a school or an order for him: the English and Chinese articles call him a Chinese Muslim general of the Hui, and Wikidata gives Islam in general. His family's Hezhou milieu — his father Ma Qianling marched with the Huasi menhuan's leaders — is background, not an attestation about Ma Fulu himself. ^{1 2 3}

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