Ma Yu

Ma Yu

Contents

Ma Yu (simplified: 马钰, traditional: 馬鈺, pinyin: Mǎ Yù, jyutping: maa5 juk6), known by his Daoist name Danyangzi (丹阳子 — Dānyángzǐ), was the eldest disciple of Wang Chongyang, the Central Divine of the Five Greats, and after his shifu’s1 death the head of the Quanzhen Order and the senior of the Seven Zis of Quanzhen. Sun Buer, the seventh Zi, had been his wife before he left the world. In the Mongol steppes he secretly taught the young Guo Jing Quanzhen neigong for two years, without taking him as a disciple.

Biography

Head of the Order

As Wang Chongyang’s first disciple, Ma Yu became Head of the Order on his shifu’s death, with Qiu Chuji and the others as his shidi. He kept to his temple in quiet cultivation and seldom went into the jianghu, so that his name was less known than Qiu Chuji’s, and no one knew the depth of his martial arts. Zhou Botong, his shishu, later told Guo Jing that Ma Yu had inherited Wang Chongyang’s orthodox line but was not the equal of Qiu Chuji or Wang Chuyi in martial arts.

Teaching Guo Jing

Ma Yu disapproved of Qiu Chuji’s wager with the Seven Eccentrics of Jiangnan, thinking that a Daoist who loved to compete went against the principles of purity and non-action, and he had rebuked his shidi for it several times. Having come to respect the Eccentrics and learnt from Yin Zhiping that Guo Jing had no neigong foundation, he did not want Qiu Chuji to prevail over them, but neither did he want to quarrel with his shidi. He therefore went to the steppes and helped the boy in secret.

He first showed himself by disarming Guo Jing as he practised, climbing a sheer cliff to rescue a pair of white eaglet chicks and giving them to Guo Jing and Huazheng. When Guo Jing begged to be taught, he told him to come to the cliff-top three nights later, at the full moon, and to tell no one. He would not let Guo Jing call him shifu and taught him no fighting moves, saying that the Eccentrics were no less skilled than he was and that teaching the boy martial arts would wrong them in their wager. Instead he taught him ways of breathing, sitting, walking and sleeping, beginning with four lines:

思定则情忘，体虚则气运，心死则神活，阳盛则阴消。 When thoughts are still, emotions fade; when the body is empty, qi flows; when the mind dies, the spirit lives; when yang flourishes, yin diminishes.

For two years Guo Jing went up the cliff every night to sit and sleep there, and the climbing itself trained him in the Golden Wild Goose Skill. Once Guo Jing’s inner breath began to flow, Ma Yu taught him some of the terms and methods of Quanzhen breath-work, reciting the formulas exactly as they had been handed down without explaining them. Guo Jing learnt Ma Yu’s name only when the Daoist sent him to announce “Ma Yu of the Quanzhen Order” to the Eccentrics.

The bluff on the cliff

When Mei Chaofeng came to the steppes for revenge, Ma Yu persuaded the six Eccentrics to scare her off rather than fight her, by having them pose with him as the Seven Zis on the cliff-top, with Guo Jing playing Yin Zhiping. When Zhu Cong asked him to show off the Twenty-Four Secrets of Golden Gates and Jade Locks, he answered so that every word echoed through the valley, and Mei Chaofeng shrank back. She then asked him the meaning of “Lead and mercury, carefully store”, and he answered without thinking before he realised that she was seeking neigong secrets and drove her off. He blamed himself afterwards, fearing that the one line he had given away would make her more dangerous. He then unsealed the acupoints of Huazheng, whom Mei Chaofeng had carried up the cliff as a captive.

Zhongdu

Ma Yu and Qiu Chuji went to Zhongdu to meet Wang Chuyi and discuss the coming contest. There they came to the aid of Yang Tiexin and fought Prince Zhao’s retainers. Peng Lianhu, under the made-up name “Three Black Cats”, shook his hand with a ring of poisoned needles, and Ma Yu was badly poisoned. Zhu Cong picked Peng Lianhu’s pocket of the antidote, which saved him. Ma Yu was then present when Qiu Chuji conceded the wager to the Eccentrics, and he warned his shidi against pride, citing Zhou Botong, whose love of victory had led to his disappearance.

Niu Family Village

When Yin Zhiping reported that Huang Yaoshi had beaten him, Qiu Chuji wanted to confront Huang Yaoshi at once, but Ma Yu urged caution; in the end all seven Zis met at Niu Family Village. There Huazheng recognised him as the Daoist who had caught her eaglets. Against Mei Chaofeng the seven sat in the Big Dipper Formation, Ma Yu holding Tianshu, the first star of the bowl. In the fight with Huang Yaoshi that followed, Ouyang Feng killed Tan Chuduan, and Ma Yu carried Tan’s body away.

Misty Rain Pavilion and the Iron Spear Temple

Ma Yu fought Huang Yaoshi again at the Misty Rain Pavilion in Jiaxing, and at the Iron Spear Temple he directed the formation in the fog against Ouyang Feng and Qiu Qianren, calling Zhou Botong to take the North Star position. Once Zhou Botong was found alive and Ouyang Feng was known to have killed Tan Chuduan, Ma Yu and the others formally apologised to Huang Yaoshi.

Personality & traits

Ma Yu was honest and unassuming. He disliked contention and recommended mercy even towards Mei Chaofeng, and Qiu Chuji had not seen him fight anyone for more than ten years before Peng Lianhu tricked him. He admitted that he was slow-witted in an emergency: on the cliff-top he could think of no way out until Zhu Cong prompted him.

Martial arts abilities

Neigong

Ma Yu’s Quanzhen neigong (全真派内功 — Quánzhēn Pài nèigōng) was very deep. He could make quiet speech carry and echo through a valley, held off two opponents while his body fought the poison in his hand, and laid the foundation of all of Guo Jing’s later neigong.

Twenty-Four Secrets of Golden Gates and Jade Locks

Zhu Cong spoke of Ma Yu’s diligent practice of the Twenty-Four Secrets of Golden Gates and Jade Locks (金关玉锁二十四诀 — Jīnguān Yùsuǒ Èrshísì Jué), handed down by Wang Chongyang.

Golden Wild Goose Skill

The nightly climbing by which he trained Guo Jing was the Golden Wild Goose Skill (金雁功 — Jīnyàn Gōng), and Ma Yu himself scaled the cliff, several hundred feet high, with ease.

Big Dipper Formation

In the Big Dipper Formation (天罡北斗阵 — Tiāngāng Běidǒu Zhèn) Ma Yu held Tianshu.

Relationships

Sun Buer

Sun Buer had been Ma Yu’s wife before he left the world, and was afterwards his shimei among the Seven Zis.

Guo Jing

Ma Yu was never Guo Jing’s shifu, but the two years on the cliff gave Guo Jing his neigong foundation, which Hong Qigong recognised when Guo Jing learnt the Eighteen Palms of Dragon Subduing so quickly. Guo Jing told Zhou Botong that Ma Yu had taught him neigong for two years without making him a Quanzhen disciple.

Qiu Chuji

Ma Yu thought Qiu Chuji too fond of competing and too rash, and said so, but would not let the difference damage their friendship as fellow disciples.

Behind the scenes

Ma Yu is based on the historical Ma Yu (1123–1183), a native of Ninghai in Shandong, who became Wang Chongyang’s first disciple and the second leader of Quanzhen Daoism. In the 3rd edition’s appendix on the Quanzhen Order, Jin Yong quotes the historical account of Wang Chongyang travelling east to Ninghai, meeting Ma Yu first, and both Ma Yu and his wife, née Sun, accepting him as their teacher. In a note in chapter 29 Jin Yong also mentions that the Quanzhen Daoist Song Defang was a disciple of Ma Yu and Qiu Chuji.

Portrayals

Ma Yu has been portrayed in television adaptations of Jin Yong’s novels:

The Legend of the Condor Heroes

The Return of the Condor Heroes

See also

  • Ma Yu on Wikipedia
  • Ma Yu (Chinese) on Chinese Wikipedia

Footnotes

  1. 师父 — shīfù. Teacher responsible for technical instruction and moral guidance. Shī means teacher. Fù means father. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

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