Empress Ma’s Burning Cake Sacrifice

Empress Ma, born in 1332, came from a poor background long before she became the first empress of China’s Ming dynasty. During a famine, she secretly stole hot cakes to feed her husband, Zhu Yuanzhang, and hid them against her chest. The cakes burned her, but she still brought them to him, and Zhu later rose from rebel commander to the Hongwu Emperor. After he founded the Ming dynasty in 1368, he made Ma his empress and remained deeply devoted to her even from the throne.

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