Ma, Heng (1881 - 1955)

S. P. Ma Heng, (June 20, 1881-March 26, 1955) scholar and archaeologist, became director of the Palace Museum in Beijing in 1933, and would remain in charge until he retired in 1954.

He was a native of Yin County, Zhejiang Province. An epigrapher, a seal carver, and a representative figure of the New Zhejiang School of art. He was a professor at Fu Jen Catholic University and the dean of the Palace Museum. Ma Heng specialized in the research of inscriptions on stone and stone seal inscriptions, inherits the school of Qianjia School of Qing Dynasty in method, and pays attention to the combination of literature research and field investigation.

Born on May 24 (June 20) in the seventh year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty in Yinxian County, Ningbo, he studied at Nanyang Public School. In 1922, he served as the director and tutor of the Archaeological Research Office of Guoxuemen, Peking University Research Institute, and also taught at Tsinghua University, Beijing Normal University and many other universities in Beijing. In November 1924, the Cleanup Committee was established, and Ma Heng was hired to participate in the inventory of the Forbidden City's cultural relics. In 1925, the Palace Museum was established and served as the deputy curator of the Antiquities Museum. Since then, he has been engaged in the management of Chinese cultural relics and historical research in the Palace Museum for 27 years, including 19 years as the president, and made significant contributions to the cause of Chinese cultural relics.

In July 1933, acted as the director of the Palace Museum. In April 1934, he served as the director of the Palace Museum. When Japan invaded China, the cultural relics of the Forbidden City were urgently needed to move south. Ma Heng, then deputy curator of the Museum of Antiquities, personally supervised the transfer of the largest batch of cultural relics (4,635 boxes in total) to Shanghai to ensure the safety of national treasures. Later, when the national treasure moved westward, Ma Heng risked his life to avoid war and bombing by enemy planes. He personally led the staff to travel through mountains and rivers to transfer cultural relics day and night.

After the Communist army occupied Beiping, in order to ensure the safety of the ancient buildings and cultural relics of the Forbidden City, they rushed to call for the protection of the cultural relics of Beiping and continued to serve as the director of the Palace Museum. In 1952, he served as the chairman of the Beijing Cultural Relics Management Committee. In 1952, he resigned from the post of the Dean of the Palace Museum. In March 1955, he died in Beijing at the age of 74. Ma Heng donated a large number of precious cultural relics that he had collected for many years to the country free of charge, and made a will order to donate the collected cultural relics (a total of more than 9,000 pieces) to the Palace Museum.