Background and Early Career
Ma Sui was born in 726, during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong. His family was from Ru Prefecture (汝州, in modern Pingdingshan, Henan) and claimed to be descended from the royal house of the Warring States Period state Zhao. Its traceable family line came from Ma Sui's great-great-great-grandfather Ma Xiu (馬岫), who served as an official of Northern Zhou. Ma Sui's direct male-line ancestors, including his great-grandfather Ma Juncai (馬君才), grandfather Ma Wen (馬玟), and father Ma Jilong (馬季龍), all served during Tang Dynasty. Ma Wen did not carry a high office, having served only as high as a supply officer for one of the imperial guard corps, but Ma Jilong had passed a special imperial examination for the military strategy works of Sun Tzu and Wu Qi and later served as a prefectural prefect and military commander at You Prefecture (幽州, in modern Beijing). When Ma Sui himself was young, on one occasion, when he was studying with his older brothers, he stated, "There will surely be disturbances in the realm. A real man should have accomplishments that helps the people throughout the realm, and how can he sit idly by to be merely a Confucian scholar?" As he grew, it was said that he had an unusual appearance, was tall, calm, brave, and intelligent. He was well-learned, particularly in the matters of military strategy.
In 755, the general An Lushan rebelled against Emperor Xuanzong's reign at Fanyang (范陽, i.e., You Prefecture), and soon advanced south to capture territory under imperial control and declare himself as emperor of a new state of Yan. He left his subordinate Jia Xun (賈循) in charge of Fanyang. Ma Sui, who was then at Fanyang, tried to persuade Jia to turn against An. Jia was impressed with Ma, but could not make up his mind. The proposal was leaked, however, and An sent his subordinate Han Chaoyang (韓朝陽) back to Fanyang and killed Jia. Ma fled Fanyang and was hidden by the hermit Xu Yu (徐遇) in the mountains to the west of Fanyang. After Ma hid there for a month, he left and joined the Tang resistance army at Pingyuan (平原, roughly modern Dezhou, Shandong) under Yan Zhenqing. After Pingyuan fell to Yan troops, Ma fled to Wei Commandery (魏郡, in modern Handan, Hebei). Nothing in his official biographies indicated what his activities were for the rest of the Anshi Rebellion.
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