Ma, empress of Southern Han

Empress Ma was the only known empress of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period state Southern Han. She was the wife of Southern Han's founding emperor Liu Yan, and the daughter of Ma Yin, the prince of Southern Han's northern neighbor Chu.

Southern Han (Chinese: 南漢; pinyin: Nán Hàn; Jyutping: Naam⁴ Hon³; 917–971), officially Han (Chinese: 漢), originally Yue (Chinese: 越; Jyutping: Jyut6), was a dynastic state of China and one of the Ten Kingdoms that existed during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. It was located on China's southern coast, controlling modern Guangdong and Guangxi. The dynasty greatly expanded its capital Xingwang Fu (Chinese: 興王府; pinyin: Xìngwáng Fǔ; Jyutping: Hing¹wong⁴ Fu², present-day Guangzhou). It attempted but failed to annex the autonomous polity of Jinghai, which was controlled by the Vietnamese.