Ma Zhongxiu, whose courtesy name is Zhongying, was from Deshengkou Village, Anci County. The ancestor of the Ma family was General Fubo of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and moved to Anci in the early Ming Dynasty. From the middle of the Qing Dynasty to the two years of the Republic of China, his family gradually flourished. Back then, no matter whether he served as county magistrate or wise men from all walks of life, they would visit Ma's house.
Ma Zhongxiu was taught by Mr. Liu Zhongying (Zishan) in Dacheng County since he was a child. He has been fond of ancient literature, read a lot of books, and is familiar with Chinese studies. After years of hard work, in the late Qing Dynasty, he served as the head of the Shandong Department of the Ministry of Justice and the General Exploration Department of the Ministry of Justice. He was elected as a member of the first House of Representatives of the Republic of China government and wrote a memorial tombs of 72 martyrs in Huanghuagang. During the Revolution of 1911, Ma Zhongxiu and Ma Yuanxun of the same clan took the initiative to contact the northern revolutionary Sun Hongyi (from Beicang, Tianjin) to promote the revolution. At the same time, he actively contacted the Tongmenghui led by Sun Yat-sen, and took the lead in preparing for the establishment of the county council in Anci County, founding the county education association, promoting the democratic revolution, advocating new policies, and creating new schools.
In the second year of the Republic of China (1913), Ma Zhongxiu was elected as a member of the first House of Representatives of the Republic of China government and was hired as an adviser to the Presidential Office. In the fourth year of the Republic of China (1915), Yuan Shikai stole the country and proclaimed himself emperor. Ma Zhongxiu was the first to oppose it in China and wrote a text to refute "... In the sixth year of the Republic of China (1917), the Beiyang warlord illegally dissolved the Congress, and Ma Zhongxiu wanted to challenge the Central Committee. The police heard that the emperor had left the palace and no longer sang and received Zen. The people were pitiful now, and the three years of sarcastic revenge were sarcastic. "In the sixth year of the Republic of China (1917), the Beiyang warlord illegally dissolved the parliament, and Ma Zhongxiu joined forces with the members of Congress who were evading Shanghai to oppose it. He and his younger brother Ma Zhongpu went south to Guangzhou to participate in the military government's Congress and law protection movement led by Sun Yat-sen. Ma Zhongxiu wrote a memorial for the "public sacrifice of the tombs of 72 martyrs in Huanghuagang": "In the Qing Dynasty, the country was distorted with blood. The strong energy was blocked from two rooms, and it was not destroyed with the body. The hidden green mountains were hidden, and Huang Hua shone with high moral character. Later generations admired the etiquette and showed their beauty for thousands of years... The same family endured the sword and regained the tragedy for eight years. The mountains and rivers were broken, and when will the construction change? If the heroes were not ignorant, they would be broken under the spring. Before I came to Chonggang, I would worship and sob again." When he was presided over the French Senate and House of Representatives in Guangdong, he led the collection and editing of poems and essays such as "Guoya" and was praised as a compilation of old and new.
At the end of 1920, Sun Yat-sen came to Beijing, and progressive people such as Ma Zhongxiu expressed great hope for Mr. Sun's political situation in Beijing and realized the democratic revolution. He personally went to Beijing to welcome him. Because the Beiyang warlords did not adopt Sun Yat-sen's opinion, Ma Zhongxiu took the lead in refusing to attend the "After-disaster meeting" chaired by Duan Qirui in the spring of 1925. After Sun Yat-sen's death, Ma Zhongxiu resolutely returned home and carried out publicity activities to commemorate Sun Yat-sen in the county to arouse the people's national democratic awareness. In June of the same year, the May 30th Massacre broke out in Shanghai, which aroused an anti-imperialist anger across the country. Ma Zhongxiu was the first to respond to the "three strikes" call from Shanghai citizens in Anci, organized students in the county to fight against imperialism, and organized anti-imperialist marches, propaganda, and speeches in old county towns and Langfang towns to expose the atrocities of imperialism.
With the disappearance of the feudal monarchy, the old scientific research system was replaced by a new educational model, and the Ma family actively advocated new learning. In the name of his father, Ma Zhongxiu personally invested in opening the "Shangshi" Ma family private school in Deshengkou, recruiting children from the village and neighboring villages to enroll, and no public tuition fees were charged. The school attaches great importance to cultivating new knowledge for students. Ma Zhongxiu hired educational celebrities from inside and outside the county with high salaries, such as Guo Runzhi, Wang Dexiu, Sun Jiayan, Wang Yaocheng, etc. as teachers, and used new textbooks such as "Shi Jianjie", "Earth Rhyme", "New Geography", "Ordinary New History", " Chinese ", and "Smart Self-cultivation". In order to run the school well, he led his teachers to Beijing to visit public schools and observe teaching methods. He took the "five-end" education as his purpose, advocated the school motto of "sincerity, righteousness, integrity, diligence, prudence and frugality" and paid attention to students' ideological and moral education. Shangshi School ranked among the top in all aspects in the province's three consecutive years of examinations, and was commended by the Provincial School and the magistrate of Dong'an (Anci). In the first year of Xuantong in the Qing Dynasty (1909), Shangshi School was established as a junior high school and expanded to two levels. With the improvement of the quality of teaching in the school, the children of gentry from Wuqing, Baxian, Yongqing and the county came to the school to study. The school has rigorous academic disciplines and many outstanding talents have emerged.Feng Fuguang, the first graduate, was admitted to Tianjin Political and Legal College and became one of the leaders of Tianjin Student Movement; there were also Rong Gaotang (from Erli, Baxiantang), who was once the director of the State Sports Commission, and Yang Fengyi (female), director of the Study Abroad Department of the Ministry of Higher Education, etc.
In the 17th year of the Republic of China (1928), Ma Huanting, a clan who graduated from Yanjing University in Peking, served as the president. In order to expand the scale of the school, in 1933, Ma Zhongxiu's second son and Ma Yunmin, who graduated from Peking National College, took over as the principal. He invested 1,000 yuan in the ocean, successively purchased wood from the Northeast, and at the same time built kilns and burned bricks in the neighboring village Yushu Garden, re-covered the five-story courtyards in the front and back, becoming a new school with all kinds of classrooms, offices, teachers' dormitories, canteens, auditoriums, etc. The school library purchased "Primary School Student Library" and "Robinson's Story" as well as modern literary books such as Lu Xun and Ding Ling. Its school conditions, teaching quality, and school size are all first-class in the county. The examination score is the best. Most of the students were admitted to the famous Tongzhou Luhe Middle School , Huangcun Middle School, Tongzhou Normal School and other schools that were famous at that time. The children of rich senators who are within a radius of hundreds of miles compete to study at Shangshi School.
Zhili Province and Jingzhao Office commended Ma Zhongxiu for his enthusiasm for running schools, and issued the plaques of "Jigong Promoting School" and "Jiahui Shilin". In the 26th year of the Republic of China (1937), Shangshi School was changed to Anci County Second Complete Primary School. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, it was renamed Deshengkou Primary School. In the 60 years from the 1965 period, Shangshi School has cultivated a group of outstanding talents.
After the July 7 Incident in 1937, the Anci Normal School (School) school established in the old county town of Anci (now Guangrong Village, Qiuzhuang Township) was forced to close. In 1945, the Japanese invaders surrendered. In order to restore and develop the former Anci Normal School, Ma Zhongxiu's second son Ma Yunmin invested 2,000 yuan to rebuild Anci County Normal School (the predecessor of today's Langfang Normal University) in the area of today's Langfang Daily. He personally served as the principal and trained a large number of teachers.
When floods are invaded, take the lead in donating money and grain, reducing rent and exempting taxes, and opening a porridge factory; the political proposition of the gentry jointly governing the village is implemented in the county by Ma Zhongxiu's family in charge of the family, following the ancestral teaching of "fostering the family, studying, and being honest with the countryside", and never stingy in promoting education, disaster relief, poverty alleviation, and public welfare. Deshengkou Village is adjacent to the south of the Daqing River and the Yongding River in the north, and is often invaded by floods. After a flood, many neighbors are flooded, their houses are out of stock, and their people are displaced. In the year of the disaster, Ma Zhongxiu advocated that family help the poor, took the lead in donating money and grain, reduced taxes, opened porridge factories, and provided seeds to help neighbors overcome difficulties.
In the sixth and thirteenth years of the Republic of China, Daqing River suffered two major floods in a row, and dozens of villages in the area of Chuhe Port in the Nanxian County (formerly under the jurisdiction of Anci County) were seriously affected. Ma Zhongxiu and his younger brother Zhong Pu provided funds to lead the people to the embankment for rescue, blocking the mouth and disaster relief. For nearly a year, he insisted on serving porridge and rice every day. The victims of dozens of villages jointly presented the plaque of "Disaster Relief and Neighbors" to the Ma Zhongxiu family.
Deshengkou Village is located on the south side of the former Yongding River Road. Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Yongding River was suffering from frequent floods. During the Republic of China, it was the time when the warlords fought in and the government had no energy and financial resources to govern the river. Before and after the flood season, some villages start from small interests, regardless of the overall flood prevention situation, and fight on their own. Villages and villages often cause group fights to block water and divert. In the 12th year of the Republic of China (1923), Ma Zhongxiu, who had a certain political influence, contacted Zhang Enyou, a gentry in Shiqiao Village, County. In the name of the Beijing Anci Association, he organized gentry in eight counties, including Zhuozhou , Daxing , Wanping , Gu'an , Yongqing, Baxian, Anci, and Wuqing along the Yongding River Plain section, and proposed the initiative of joint investment and joint water control, which was highly praised by the people.
Due to warlords' melee, floods and bandits are rampant, and local social order is very chaotic. In order to stabilize the situation, Ma Zhongxiu contacted the large gentry households and proposed to the Anci County Government that the gentry would come forward to jointly govern the village, and received support from the government. The main measures were: According to the distribution of villages in the county, the nearby gentry was responsible for the social security, education, filial piety, sincerity and kindness in the villages under his jurisdiction, and completed taxation and other daily work.For gentry who have achieved their goals every year, the county government will reward them; for those who fail to achieve their goals for two consecutive years, the village representative will re-recommend and choose the next one. This practice has achieved good results in the county and is also recognized by the Jingzhao Office.
Ma Zhongxiu has always inherited his family tradition through poetry and books. He loved ancient poetry and ancient prose since he was a child, and he also attached great importance to the local history and culture of Anci County. After the North-South peace break advocated by Sun Yat-sen, Ma Zhongxiu resolutely returned to her hometown. At that time, the "Dong'an (Anci) County Chronicles" was continued since the Qianlong period and had not been edited. In the third year of the Republic of China (1914), the Anci County Government and the County Council unanimously recommended Ma Zhongxiu as the editor-in-chief of the County Chronicles. In that year, he formed an editorial institution in the old county town (Guangrong Village) with the participation of celebrities in the county, and set up full-time personnel such as chief editor, sub-compilation, attendance, interview, family recording, drawing, and proofreading. Each person shall take responsibility for his or her own responsibilities according to the division of labor, handle the matters separately, hold regular meetings to study and handle matters related to the revision of the journal. After more than a year of hard work, the book was printed into a book, with a total of 140,000 words. The content started from five generations and the current people were divided into every person. That year, Ma Zhongxiu was elected as the chief editor of the Zhishu, and he gave this position to his mentor Liu Zhongying, who had been in the Ma Family Tutoring Private School in Deshengkou.
Ma Zhongxiu is proficient in all kinds of piano, chess, poetry and books. He was good at poetry, and wrote 120 volumes of "Weigutang Poetry Collection" and "Qing Dynasty Poetry Drafts", 10 volumes of "Jifu Poetry Biography", 5 volumes of "The Last Collection of Ancient Yan Poetry", 12 volumes of "Ancient Yan Poetry Collection", and 2 volumes of "Kun Opera" and "Weigutang Books". Ma Zhongxiu likes to collect books, with a total of 100,000 volumes. Mr. Yan Fansun, a famous modern educator and scholar, said that he "has rich and abundant collections, and can be as close as Zhang Zhidong."
After 1927, due to the warlords' melee and the countryside was unstable, Ma Zhongxiu stayed in Tianjin and was entertained by poetry and books. He also participated in the "Tianjin Chengnan Poetry Society", and studied poetry with Yan Fansun, Liu Gengyao, Zhang Yilao, and Zhang Yilao, as well as " Ta Kung Pao " club Zhang Jiluan , He Xinleng and other social wise men.
1937 "July 7" Incident, Ma Zhongxiu moved from Deshengkou Suiwei Ancient Hall to Beijing due to inconvenience in her leg, and pillowed in her study every day. In January 1949, Ma Zhongxiu died of illness at the age of 72. After Ma Zhongxiu's death, his 100,000 volumes of books and calligraphy and paintings were donated to the Peking Library.
