Creators of History

His interview with NewsChina was arranged at 9:45 am at a publishing house. Ma arrived at 8:30. He chose a meeting room, opened his laptop and started to write. Outside was a busy main road, full of the rumblings of morning rush hour. Ma was quite content with the hustle and bustle, as such lively sounds help him concentrate. 　

The airport is one of his favorite places to write. Several years ago, his friend invited him to stay at a beautiful villa near the scenic Xixi Wetland in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. Ma failed to write a single word during his three-day stay. But when he left, at the city’s Xiaoshan Airport, he was inspired and wrote 4,000 words. For him, a boarding gate is the perfect place for writing – he has nowhere to go and it is noisy enough. 　

His unusual writing habits were formed over the decade he worked as a project manager for the French company Schneider Electric in Beijing, where he wrote as much as possible during his breaks. “I wrote when my colleagues talked, debated and even quarreled beside me,” Ma said. 

As China’s most commercially successful historical novelist, Ma has penned over 30 books since 2006, mostly historical novels. Ma’s essay “Wind and Rain, the Goddess of the Luo River” won the Best Essay Prize at the 2010 People’s Literature Awards. In June 2025, he published his latest novel, Everything Is Fine. Through seamlessly blending fact and fiction, the author has impressed readers with his virtuosity in carving one story after another out of history. 

The poem alludes to an anecdote about Yang Yuhuan, beloved concubine of Tang Dynasty (618-907) Emperor Xuanzong. Lychees were her favorite fruit. To please Yang, popular legend has it that Emperor Xuanzong ordered fresh lychees, which were only grown in southern China, to be delivered to the imperial capital Chang’an, now Xi’an in Shaanxi Province. This entailed a journey of thousands of kilometers by express horseback to preserve their freshness. 　

Most people regard this gesture as a manifestation of how the Emperor Xuanzong loved Yang. Ma was more concerned about the neglected side of the story: How could fresh lychees be transported nearly 3,000 kilometers from the southern Lingnan region to Chang’an, considering the fruit spoils in three days? 　

Harboring strong curiosity about this question, Ma wrote The Litchi Road (2022), a novel revolving around low-ranking clerk Li Shande who put his life at risk to fulfill this impossible mission. If it failed, Li would forfeit his life, and his wife and daughter would be enslaved. 　

The writer himself also managed a “mission impossible,” finishing the 70,000-word manuscript in just 11 days. The book has been a bestseller since it was published. 　

On June 7, 2025, a 35-episode television adaptation of The Litchi Road was broadcast by China Central Television and streaming platform Tencent Video. 　

The same month, Ma published his latest novel, Everything Is Fine, a story set in a mythological utopian land called Peach Blossom Land, inspired by the tale “Peach Blossom Spring,” written around 421 by poet Tao Yuanming, who lived during a period known as the Six Dynasties (220-589). 　

Tao’s fable tells of a fisherman who found his way to Peach Blossom Land, where inhabitants live peaceful and idyllic lives. The fisherman was welcomed, and after several days, he returned home, telling the governor of his town about his unexpected discovery. When the governor sent people to search for the place, Peach Blossom Land was nowhere to be found. 　

Ma’s work Everything Is Fine revolves around Xuan Qiong, a low-ranking Taoist priest who was appointed by deities to manage Peach Blossom Land, which is inhabited by spirits and monsters. Xuan Qiong has to handle daily matters in the community of monsters just like a real administrator. 　

Ma told NewsChina that the story was inspired by an anecdote a police officer told him in 2013. There was a small restaurant where the fire escape was always stuffed with junk. He repeatedly warned the restaurant owner, but the owner never put it right. One time, a Taoist priest passed by and said the piles of junk had already affected the balance and harmony of the architecture and would bring bad luck. Hearing this, the owner immediately cleared the clutter.　

An idea struck him instantly. “It would be funny to write a story about how a Taoist priest manages a community,” Ma said. Peach Blossom Land in Ma’s book is nothing like the idyllic and peaceful utopia depicted in Tao Yuanming’s prose, but a boisterous community of petty monsters, inspired by Ma’s observations of real life. 　

These reflect real concerns and habits of people in China. Not only do the monsters have to register their households with the local police station, they buy expensive homes in districts with good schools for their children and struggle to make ends meet just like humans in reality. 

When he was a boy, Ma was particularly interested in the Three Kingdoms Period (220-280), a time when China was divided by three regimes: the Wei (north of the Yangtze), Shu (in the southwest) and Wu (in the southeast). This period is known for its intense power struggles, military campaigns, warlords and heroes, and profound cultural development. 　

Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a 14th century classic historical novel by Luo Guanzhong (1330-1400), is an epic retelling of the lives and events of warlords, generals and army advisors of this period. Ma was not only enchanted with the novel, he also loved all of its many adaptations – manga, animations, games, television series and films. 　

Ma studied marketing and communications at the University of Waikato in New Zealand. It was during this period that he devoured many Western historical and suspense novels, including works by British thriller writer Frederick Forsyth, French historical novelist Christian Jacq and American thriller writer Dan Brown. 　

Influenced by novelists at home and abroad, in 2004, Ma started writing his first book, The Wind Blows From Longxi, his Three Kingdoms-set spy thriller. It follows the dangerous missions of two small-fry intelligent agents – Chen Gong and Xun Xu – who blend their destinies together in a war of espionage between the Wei and Shu states. 　

The book was published in 2006. Since his first book, Ma has developed his signature methodology of writing – to explore gaps in history and create fictional stories set against the backdrop of established historical events. He has written over 30 novels, mostly historical stories. 　

His inspiration never dries up. An avid and curious reader, Ma draws endless inspiration from anything he can read in life, even manuals for electronic devices and the instructions on medicines, toothpaste or shampoo. For some writers, doing historical research and fact-checking might be tedious, but Ma describes this early-stage preparation as a “treasure hunt” which is tremendous fun. 　

He describes every story he wants to write as a “hole.” Now there are nearly 30 “holes” already opened in the document folder in his computer, waiting him to fill. “For every dynasty in Chinese history, I do have stories to tell,” Ma told NewsChina. 

As the television series The Litchi Road went viral, many viewers related the protagonist’s suffering to that of the stresses of the modern working class. 　

His decade with the foreign company equipped Ma with a mindset for project management and a strong empathy for stressed working people. “I kept thinking what if this ‘mission impossible’ was given to me. How do you ship fresh lychees? Which route would you take to preserve their freshness? How much money would it cost to deliver,” Ma said. 　

From his perspective, history should not be only about those who tasted the lychees, but more about the unknown people who delivered them. 　

“One cannot truly get to know a particular period in history without understanding the feelings of ordinary individuals – their happiness and sorrows, sufferings and hopes,” Ma told NewsChina. 　

He remembers two inscribed bricks he saw at an exhibition of artifacts from the Three Kingdoms. One brick was carved with a date in 170, 14 years prior to the Yellow Turban Rebellion, a famous peasant revolt in 184 during the late Eastern Han Dynasty. On the brick was inscribed words from a desperate artisan in a chaotic time: “You’ve driven me to despair. Now I wait for the day when the whole world comes to destruction, I will let you pay for what you’ve done.” 　

Another brick was carved after 280, the year when the Wu state was conquered by the Jin, which marked the end of the Three Kingdoms period. On the brick is an inscription from another unknown artisan, “Jin conquered Wu. The world finally came to peace again.” 　

“The inscriptions on the two bricks explained how the chaotic Three Kingdoms Period began and how it ended. It gave me a strong feeling that the countless unknown ordinary people’s carvings would eventually converge and determine the course of history,” Ma said. 　

The protagonist Xuan Qiong in his new book Everything Is Fine is among them. The Taoist priest is cursed to be struck by lightning if he tries to get rich by ill means. Thus, he does not dream of making big money, but he has to make strenuous efforts to maintain order in Peach Blossom Land on a very modest salary. The job has nothing to do with heroism or sublimity. All he does every day is handle trivialities in the community of monsters. 　

Even the book’s title delivers a touch of bitterness. “On what occasions do people say ‘everything’s fine?’ When you fall on the road and someone lifts you up, you say ‘I’m fine.’ When a teenager gets beaten up at school, and his mother asks him what happened, he might answer ‘I’m fine.’ It’s when things really go wrong that people say ‘everything’s fine,’” Ma said. 　

He has observed the recent trend that more Chinese historians and historical novelists are focusing on the lives of ordinary people. They argue that historic narratives, either factual or fictional, should not only revolve around the big pictures of changing dynasties and tales of the elites, but also should adopt the perspective of commoners. 　

Two historians – Luo Xin and Wang Di – have particularly influenced him. Both pay attention to the lives of common people in history and modern times. Luo researches marginal groups such as palace maids in the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534). Wang specializes in the social and cultural histories of the late Qing Dynasty (1616-1911) and modern China through the perspective of commoners. 　

“Nowadays, people have more and more problems, doubts and confusions in real life, and many try to seek answers from history. But traditional historical narratives are mostly about significant figures, which provide no valuable experiences to ordinary people for reference. But people’s needs are still there. Therefore, such growing needs will naturally influence historians and writers,” Ma said. 　

“People don’t just witness history. They are the creators of history,” he added.