Mǎ Róng 馬融 (79–166), zì Jìcháng 季長, native of Mòlíng 茂陵 in Yòufúfēng 右扶風 (modern Xīngpíng 興平, Shǎnxī), was the most influential classical scholar of the late Eastern Hàn. He served briefly under Emperor Ān 安帝 as Yuán shàng 校書郎 in the imperial library, then in various provincial posts under Emperor Shùn 順帝 and Emperor Huán 桓帝, ending his career as Director of Roads (Nánjùn tàishǒu 南郡太守). He is remembered above all as the principal teacher of Zhèng Xuán 鄭玄 (see 鄭玄) and Lú Zhí 盧植, and as the central figure in the late Hàn revival of the gǔwén (Old Text) classical tradition. Genuine commentaries by him on the Yìjīng, Shàngshū, Shī, Lǎozǐ, Zhōuguān, and Xiàojīng are attested in late-Hàn and SuíTáng catalogs but have largely been lost; only fragments survive in citations in Lù Démíng’s Jīngdiǎn shìwén 經典釋文 and in commentary collections. The Zhōngjīng 忠經 (see KR1f0014) is traditionally attributed to him in imitation of the Xiàojīng, but the work is in fact a Táng or early-Sòng pseudepigraphon. Mǎ Róng’s Hòu Hàn shū 後漢書 biography (juàn 60a) describes him as a flamboyant teacher who lectured behind a jiàng zhàng 絳帳 (crimson curtain) with a band of female musicians at his back — an image that became a stock literary motif. He is also reputed to be the first scholar to write commentaries integrating the jīnwén and gǔwén lines.