马公 / Ma Gong (Western Han)

Overview

马公 / Ma Gong enters the wiki through Hanji 624 and Hanji 626 as a Western Han high official whose late rise and later exposure both depend on 王莽’s court position. He is appointed Taishi after Kong Guang dies, then becomes dangerous to Wang Mang’s retrospective Fu Taihou title prosecution because he had participated in the earlier settlement.

Current Profile

Hanji 624 says Ma Gong is appointed Taishi after Kong Guang’s death in 5 CE. In that source, the appointment is part of the high-office background around Wang Mang’s Nine Bestowments sequence rather than a biographical focus.

Hanji 626 then supplies the reversal. Ma Gong had served as Guanglu xun in the Han Aidi period and joined the chancellor and censor in settling Fu Taihou’s posthumous title. When Wang Mang later prosecutes people tied to that decision, Ma Gong is exposed. Because he has a close private relationship with Wang Mang, he avoids death or severe ruin, but he becomes fearful and ashamed enough to request surrender of title, income, and seals.

Wang Mang’s reply keeps Ma Gong’s marquis rank and income while requiring him to return the seals and ribbons of Taishi and Da Situ and go home as a marquis. The profile is therefore neither exoneration nor full purge: Ma Gong loses high office but not noble survival.

Key Characteristics

• Western Han high official implicated by an earlier Fu Taihou title decision.
• Taishi appointee after Kong Guang’s death in 5 CE.
• Protected in part by personal closeness to Wang Mang.
• Self-accusing petitioner who tries to surrender title, income, and high-office symbols.
• Case of removal from top office without loss of marquis status.

Evidence

• Appointment: Hanji 624 says Ma Gong is appointed Taishi after Kong Guang dies.
• Earlier role: Hanji 626 says Ma Gong had participated in settling Fu Taihou’s posthumous title while serving in the Ai period.
• Exposure and protection: Hanji 626 says he is implicated during Wang Mang’s retrospective prosecution but survives because of his private relationship with Wang Mang.
• Final settlement: Hanji 626 says Wang Mang preserves his marquis title and income while removing him from Taishi and Da Situ office.

Qualifications

The sources do not settle Ma Gong’s exact responsibility for the earlier title decision, the full list of other officials punished, or whether his self-accusation was voluntary conscience, survival strategy, or both. Hanji 624 also does not explain why he is chosen to succeed Kong Guang. The wiki records both appointment and limited removal as source-backed while keeping inner motive source-scoped.

What Changed

• Added Hanji 624’s notice that Ma Gong succeeds Kong Guang as Taishi in 5 CE.
• Retained Hanji 626’s limited-protection and office-removal synthesis.

Relationships

• 王莽 - political patron whose personal connection helps Ma Gong survive.
• 孔光 - predecessor whose death opens the Taishi appointment in Hanji 624.
• 傅太后 - posthumous-title case that implicates Ma Gong.
• 汉哀帝 - reign context for Ma Gong’s earlier Guanglu xun service.
• 名望约束下的政治追诉 - adjacent pattern, though Ma Gong’s protection is relationship-based more than purely reputation-based.
• 谥号政治 - title decision that creates the later liability.