Ma Zhi
Ma Zhi (馬植) (? - 857), courtesy name Cunzhi (存之), was an official of the Chinese Tang Dynasty, serving as a chancellor during the reign of Emperor Xuānzong. Background and early career It is not known when Ma Zhi was born. It is known that his family was from Fufeng, but nothing else was known about his ancestry other than that his father's name was Ma Xun — with the Old Book of Tang rendering his father's personal name as 曛 and the New Book of Tang rendering it as 勛 — with no connections to the families of the two other Tang chancellors surnamed Ma, Ma Sui and Ma Zhou. Ma Zhi passed the imperial examinations in the Jinshi class in 819, during the reign of Emperor Xianzong, and further passed a special imperial examination for those who were capable in planning. He was thereafter made the deputy military prefect (團練副使, Tuanlian Fushi) of Shou Prefecture (壽州, in modern Lu'an, Anhui). He thereafter served as Xiaoshu Lang (), a copyeditor at the Palace Library, and yet later served as the prefect of Rao Prefecture (饒州, in modern Shangrao, Jiangxi). During Emperor Wenzong's reign Early in the Kaicheng era (836-840)