Ma Qi

Ma Qi
General Ma Qi
Governor of Qinghai
In office
1929–1931
Preceded by Post Created (the post was Previously Chief Executive Officer of Kokonur)
Succeeded by Ma Lin (warlord)
Personal details
Born 1869
Linxia County, Gansu
Died August 5, 1931 (aged 61–62)
Qinghai
Nationality Salar
Political party Kuomintang
Children Ma Bufang
Ma Buqing
Religion Sunni Wahhabi Islam
Military service
Allegiance Empire of the Great Qing of China 
Republic of China
Years of service 1890s-1931
Rank general
Unit Ninghai Army
Commands General of Xining
Battles/wars Boxer Rebellion, Bai Lang Rebellion, Kuomintang Pacification of Qinghai
This is a Chinese name; the family name is Ma.

Ma Qi (1869– August 5, 1931) (simplified Chinese: 马麒; traditional Chinese: 馬麒; pinyin: Mǎ Qí; Wade–Giles: Ma Ch'i) was a Chinese Muslim warlord in early 20th century China.

Contents

Early life

His grandfather Sa-la Ma (马撒拉), is a Salar. He was born in 1869 in Daohe, now part of Linxia, Gansu, China. His father was Ma Haiyan. He was senior commander in the Qinghai-Gansu region ever since the late Qing times.

Ma Qi lead loyalist Muslim troops to crush Dungan rebels during the Dungan Revolt (1895).[1]

During the Boxer Rebellion, Ma Haiyan defeated the foreign army at the Battle of Langfang, and died in 1900 while protecting the Imperial Family from the western forces. Ma Qi suceeded him in all his posts and capacities. Ma Qi was six feet tall, and maintained the mintuan militia in Xining as his personal army, called the Ninghaijun.[1]

Ma Qi also directly defied his commanding officer, the Muslim General Ma Anliang, when Ma Wanfu, the Muslim brotherhood leader, was being shipped to Gansu from Xinjiang by Yang Zengxin, to Ma Anliang, so Ma Anliang could execute Ma Wanfu, Ma Qi rescued Ma Wanfu by attacking the escort and brought him to Qinghai. Ma Anliang hated Muslim brotherhood, which he banned earlier, and sentenced all its members to death, and wanted to personally execute Ma Wanfu because he was its leader.

During the Xinhai Revolution, Ma Qi easily defeated Gelaohui revolutionaries in Ningxia, sending their heads rolling, but when the Emperor abdicated, Ma Qi declared support for the Republic of China.[2][3] Unlike the Mongols and Tibetans, the Muslims refused to secede from the Republic, and Ma Qi quickly used his diplomatic and military powers to make the Tibetan and Mongol nobles recognize the Republic of China government as their overlord, and sent a message to President Yuan Shikai reaffirming that Qinghai was securely in the Republic. He replaced "Long, Long, Long, Live the reigning Emperor", with "Long live the Republic of China" on inscriptions.[4]

Ma Qi developed relations with Wu Peifu, who tried to turn Gansu military leaders against Feng Yuxiang. Feng's suboordinate, Liu Yufen expelled all the Han Generals who opposed him, which resulted in Hui Generals Ma Hongbin, Ma Lin, Ma Tingxiang, and Han General Bei Jianzhang, the commader of a Hui army, to stop fighting against Feng and seek an agreement.[5]

Republican times

Ma Qi formed the Ninghai Army in Qinghai in 1915.

Ma Qi occupied Labrang monastery in 1917, the first time non Tibetans had seized it.[6]

After ethnic rioting between Muslims and Tibetans emerged in 1918, Ma Qi defeated the Tibetans. He heavily taxed the town for 8 years. In 1925, a Tibetan rebellion broke out, with thousands of Tibetans driving out the Muslims. Ma Qi responded with 3,000 Chinese Muslim troops, who retook Labrang and machine gunned thousands of Tibetan monks as they tried to flee.[7][8] Ma Qi besieged Labrang numerous times, the Tibetans and Mongols fought against his Muslim forces for control of Labrang, until Ma Qi gave it up in 1927.[9]

Ma Qi defeated the Tibetan forces with his Muslim troops.[10] His forces were praised by foreigners who traveled through Qinghai for their fighting abilities.[11]

However, that was not the last Labrang saw of General Ma. Ma Qi launched a genocidal war against the Tibetan Ngoloks, in 1928, inflicting a defeat upon them and seizing the Labrang Buddhist monastery.[12] The Muslim forces looted and ravaged the monastery again.[9]

After the founding of the Republic he was governor of Qinghai from 1915 to 1928 and the first chairman of the government of Qinghai from 1929 to 1931.[13] After Chiang Kai-shek gained control nationwide, he became a brigade commander, and then was promoted to commander of the 26th Division of the National Revolutionary Army in the northwestern region. His civil posts also included director of the Gansu Bureau of Construction. Ma Qi is the father of Ma Bufang and Ma Buqing, uncle of Ma Zhongying and he died on August 5, 1931, in Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Lipman, Jonathan N. (Jul., 1984). "Ethnicity and Politics in Republican China: The Ma Family Warlords of Gansu". Sage Publications, Inc.. p. 298. JSTOR 189017. 
  2. ^ Jonathan Neaman Lipman (2004). Familiar strangers: a history of Muslims in Northwest China. Seattle: University of Washington Press. pp. 182, 183. ISBN 0295976446. http://books.google.com/books?id=90CN0vtxdY0C&pg=PA182&dq=ma+fuxiang+gelaohui&hl=en&ei=14QbTOG_CoGClAeewrW_CQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=ma%20fuxiang%20gelaohui&f=false. Retrieved 2010-06-28. 
  3. ^ Travels Of A Consular Officer In North-West China. CUP Archive. p. 188. http://books.google.com/books?id=fdk8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA188&dq=ma+fu+hsiang++mongol+an-liang&hl=en&ei=hUyxTJPGH8P58AamypyiCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=ma%20fu%20hsiang%20%20mongol%20an-liang&f=false. Retrieved 2010-06-28. 
  4. ^ Uradyn Erden Bulag (2002). Dilemmas The Mongols at China's edge: history and the politics of national unity. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 43. ISBN 0742511448. http://books.google.com/books?id=g3C2B9oXVbQC&pg=PA43&dq=ma+qi+general&hl=en&ei=3C7PTIX4A8H6lweRkonlCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=ma%20qi%20general&f=false. Retrieved 2010-06-28. 
  5. ^ Lipman, Jonathan N. (Jul., 1984). "Ethnicity and Politics in Republican China: The Ma Family Warlords of Gansu". Sage Publications, Inc.. p. 308. JSTOR 189017. 
  6. ^ Charlene E. Makley (2007). The violence of liberation: gender and Tibetan Buddhist revival in post-Mao China. University of California Press. p. 73. ISBN 0520250591. http://books.google.com/books?id=NLSc0gFloAIC&pg=PA73&dq=ma+qi+muslim&hl=en&ei=S3-qTP3bBoKC8gbpgKXhBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEUQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=ma%20qi%20muslim&f=false. Retrieved 2010-06-28. 
  7. ^ James Tyson, Ann Tyson (1995). Chinese awakenings: life stories from the unofficial China. Westview Press. p. 123. ISBN 0813324734. http://books.google.com/books?id=5OHPw6t0BhcC&pg=PA123&dq=ma+qi+muslim&hl=en&ei=pX-qTOXTFMP88AbioMSODQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q=ma%20qi%20muslim&f=false. Retrieved 2010-06-28. (Note, the google book link has gone haywire, but you should still be directed to page 123 when you go to the link, where you should see the paragraph the reference is from)
  8. ^ Paul Kocot Nietupski (1999). Labrang: a Tibetan Buddhist monastery at the crossroads of four civilizations. Snow Lion Publications. p. 87. ISBN 1559390905. http://books.google.com/books?id=xGvECiS-uEgC&pg=PA35&dq=ma+bufang+chinese+nationalism&hl=en&ei=MebJTMDdIoLGlQeZ-rSgAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEIQ6AEwBQ#v=snippet&q=machine%20guns%20mowed%20fleeing%20monks&f=false. Retrieved 2010-06-28. 
  9. ^ a b Paul Kocot Nietupski (1999). Labrang: a Tibetan Buddhist monastery at the crossroads of four civilizations. Snow Lion Publications. p. 90. ISBN 1559390905. http://books.google.com/books?id=xGvECiS-uEgC&pg=PA90&dq=ma+qi+muslim&hl=en&ei=S3-qTP3bBoKC8gbpgKXhBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CEoQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=ma%20qi%20muslim&f=false. Retrieved 2010-06-28. 
  10. ^ University of Cambridge. Mongolia & Inner Asia Studies Unit (2002). Inner Asia, Volume 4, Issues 1-2. The White Horse Press for the Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit at the University of Cambridge. p. 204. http://books.google.com/books?id=m1RuAAAAMAAJ&q=The+Tibetans+were+easily+defeated+by+the+Hui+(Chinese+Muslim)+soldiers+and+Ma+Qi+subsequently+stationed+his+troops&dq=The+Tibetans+were+easily+defeated+by+the+Hui+(Chinese+Muslim)+soldiers+and+Ma+Qi+subsequently+stationed+his+troops&hl=en&ei=Y4GqTMi2FoG88gb-ttWFDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA. Retrieved 2010-06-28. 
  11. ^ Frederick Roelker Wulsin, Mary Ellen Alonso, Joseph Fletcher, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, National Geographic Society (U.S.), Peabody Museum of Salem, Pacific Asia Museum (1979). China's inner Asian frontier: photographs of the Wulsin expedition to northwest China in 1923 : from the archives of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University, and the National Geographic Society. The Museum : distributed by Harvard University Press. p. 43. ISBN 0674119681. http://books.google.com/books?id=WltwAAAAMAAJ&q=Of+Ma+Qi,+the+Hui+commander+at+Xining+who+supplied+the+expedition+with+a+Muslim+interpreter+and+two+Muslim+soldiers+for+its+travels+in+Qinghai,+Wulsin+wrote,+%22His+forces+are+the+sturdiest+and+readiest+to+fight+on+the+whole+border&dq=Of+Ma+Qi,+the+Hui+commander+at+Xining+who+supplied+the+expedition+with+a+Muslim+interpreter+and+two+Muslim+soldiers+for+its+travels+in+Qinghai,+Wulsin+wrote,+%22His+forces+are+the+sturdiest+and+readiest+to+fight+on+the+whole+border&hl=en&ei=TpKqTITIC4H68AaSuryoCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA. Retrieved 2010-06-28. 
  12. ^ Dinesh Lal (2008). Indo-Tibet-China conflict. Gyan Publishing House. p. 58. ISBN 8178357143. http://books.google.com/books?id=rozF-AZgmM8C&pg=PA58&dq=ma+pu-fang+massacre+tibetans&hl=en&ei=NoKnTOj8BISclgfWws31DQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDsQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 2010-06-28. 
  13. ^ Paul Allatson, Jo McCormack (2008). Exile cultures, misplaced identities. Rodopi. p. 65. ISBN 9042024062. http://books.google.com/books?id=DaLkNE_20a0C&pg=PA65&dq=ma+qi+muslim&hl=en&ei=S3-qTP3bBoKC8gbpgKXhBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CE8Q6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=ma%20qi%20muslim&f=false. Retrieved 2010-06-28. 

External links

Warlord era in early Republic of China (1916–1930)
Main events (1916–1920) Main events (1920–1930) Northern Factions Southern Factions