Posted by Toni Mar on March 25, 2002 at 18:02:32:
In Reply to: Are there any Ma's out there? posted by Nicola Ma on March 30, 1999 at 14:28:09:
: I am very interested in anybody who has the same surname as myself.
: I am 25 years old and my grandfather is Chinese.
: I would love to know some more information on this name for example, where exactly it originates from.
: Please feel free to contact me on [email protected] for info.
Dear Nicola:
How wonderul to have found a "village" sister...
my grandfather was a Mar (the spelling was bastardized when he came over from China) who arrived in California during the Gold Rush. His "papers" say he came over to be a laborer in the Gold Rush but he was actually a professional gambler who later became the leader of the tong of both San Francisco and Seattle (very rare to be head of two). Additionally, according to information in "In Search of Your Asian Roots" authored by Sheau-yueh J. Chao, ma(3) "is one of the most popular surnames among Chinese muslims.
According to Yuan ho hsing tsuan, the surname Ma branched from the surname Ying of the ancestral line of chuan Hsu. Its founder, the feudal prince Chao she was bestowed with the honorary name Ma
Fu-chun (Tamer of Horses) due to his directorship for the calvary during the Warring States (Chan kuo) Period, and his descendants adopted the surname Ma as their common surname. The Ma family initially settled in Fu-feng, shen-his province.
I forgot to add:
Aditional family ancestor: Ma Danyang
A famous Taoist wizard of the song Dynasty (960-1279). Danyang, whose name means Cinnabar Sunlight, was one of the great disciples of Wang Chongyang, the founder ofthe Northern Branch of Complete Reality Taoism, a powerful neo-Taoist movement reviving both contemplative and social elements of Taoism. the austere spirituality of this school is reminiscent of Ch'an (Zen Buddhism). From "Taoist Meditation" translated by thomas Cleary.