Empress Ma was not afraid of Zhu Yuanzhang's bad temper and dared to turn a blind eye to him confidently. As we all know, Zhu Yuanzhang did not like women to interfere in politics. He believed that "although the concubine is the mother of the world, she cannot be used to do political affairs" because "if you pamper her too much, you will be arrogant and unruly, and your superiors will be out of order." Therefore, he specially ordered someone to compile "Female Women" "Commandment" as a warning. But Queen Ma is an exception.

Once, Empress Ma asked Zhu Yuanzhang: "Are the people living and working in peace and contentment now?" Zhu Yuanzhang replied unhappily: "This is not what you should ask." Empress Ma replied plausibly: "Your Majesty is The father of the world, my concubine is the mother of the world, so why can't I ask about the well-being of the people?" Perhaps it was Queen Ma's high level of education and what she said was reasonable, so Zhu Yuanzhang mostly obeyed her words.

Zhu Yuanzhang had a very bad temper. When holding a state affairs meeting in front of the palace, he would get angry and lose his temper at every turn. When you lose your temper, others often lose their heads. He is too headstrong and does not investigate or study many things. When he is angry, he will go on a killing spree. Although Queen Ma did a lot of educating work, she just couldn't influence him. He is the emperor and can do whatever he wants, never changing his way of thinking and principles of doing things. In this regard, Queen Ma could only do her best and think of ways to persuade him. Fortunately, he could still hear Queen Ma's words, so he saved many lives.

Once, a feudal official named Guo Jingxiang was guarding Hezhou. Someone reported that Guo Jingxiang's son was holding a spear and wanted to kill his father. Zhu Yuanzhang was furious and expressed on the spot that he would execute the traitor. Queen Ma said: "Guo Jingxiang only had one son. The rumors may not be reliable. Killing his son would probably end Guo Jingxiang's descendants." Later, Zhu Yuanzhang sent people to investigate, and it turned out to be true.

Song Lian, a scholar, was a well-known scholar in the early Ming Dynasty. If not for Empress Ma's clever remonstrance, he might have been involved in an unjust case and died under Zhu Yuanzhang's knife.

Another time, scholar Song Lian was implicated in Sun Shen's case. After being arrested and imprisoned, he will be executed according to the seriousness of the case. The queen heard that Qi Xian could not bear to let him die innocently, so she said to the emperor: "Everyone knows that for the sake of their children and grandchildren, they should be lenient to their teachers in order to ensure that the ethics and education continue from beginning to end. You are the emperor, how can you not have such insight and foresight? What's more, Song Lian is only one year old." If you are retired at home, you must not know anything about it." Zhu Yuanzhang was furious and refused to listen. After a while, the queen served him a meal, but no food or wine was served. The emperor asked why. Empress Ma said, "I am doing something good for Mr. Song." The emperor felt moved when he heard this, and he felt so compassionate that he put down his chopsticks and stopped eating. The next day, he finally figured it out, pardoned Song Lian, and resettled him to Maozhou.

Another famous story about Queen Ma’s virtue is related to Shen Wansan, a big businessman in Anhui. At that time, Shen Wansan was extremely wealthy and was known as the "God of Wealth". Zhu Yuanzhang saw that he was rich, so he wanted to defraud him and ask him to contribute some money to build the Nanjing City Wall. Shen Wansan was so wealthy that he contracted one-third of the cost of the city wall project. Later, Shen Wansan was still unfinished, or wanted to flatter Emperor Zhu, so he offered to reward the army for the imperial court. Unexpectedly, the flattery was slapped on the horse's leg. Zhu Yuanzhang was furious when he heard this: "This little man wants to reward the emperor's army. He is very evil. He is a rioter and deserves to be killed!" Empress Ma felt that it was inappropriate. A snobbish businessman, just a little bit. It’s just a matter of not knowing how deep the sky is and how deep the earth is. The sin will not lead to death. So he advised: "If I hear the law, I will punish the lawless ones, not the unlucky ones. The rich people are enemies of the country, and the people themselves are unlucky. If the unlucky people are unlucky, God will bring disaster to them, so why should your majesty punish them!" When the emperor heard this, he felt justified. He changed his mind and sent the unlucky businessman to Yunnan, a place with mountains and rivers far away.

As a female intellectual, Queen Ma has a deeper side besides being kind and generous. After the Ming Dynasty generals captured the capital of the Yuan Dynasty, they sent the captured gold, treasures and jade back to Nanjing. Zhu Yuanzhang was overjoyed when he saw these treasures, but Queen Ma poured cold water on the side: "The Yuan Dynasty had these treasures but could not save the country. I think the real emperors probably had other treasures, right?" Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned, thought for a moment, and said: " I understand, what the Queen means is that talents are treasures." Queen Ma continued: "Your Majesty is right.

Your Majesty and I were born in poverty and became what we are today. I have always worried about being arrogant and indulgent in luxury. In the future, the country's dangers and dangers will arise from small things, so I hope to recruit talents to govern the world together." Empress Ma then said: "Repeated changes in the law will lead to evil, and evil will lead to evil; if the people are disturbed, they will be troubled. "If the people are poor, chaos will arise." When the emperor heard this, he immediately called the female historian to record it in the annals of history.

At the last moment of her life, she still continued to give advice.

In August of the fifteenth year of Hongwu (1382), Queen Ma fell seriously ill and was bedridden. The queen knew about Zhu Yuanzhang's bad temper, and was afraid that the doctor could not be cured if he could not be cured, so she refused to take the medicine. On his deathbed, Zhu Yuanzhang asked her if she had anything else to say. She said: "May your Majesty be as prudent as you have been in asking for virtuous people and accepting advice. Your descendants will all be virtuous, and your subjects will get what they deserve."

Historical books also say that on the day of Empress Ma's funeral, the people of Nanjing almost came out in overwhelming numbers. Funeral for her spontaneously. It was midsummer, and there was sudden lightning and thunder that day, and there was a heavy rain. Thousands of people supporting the old and young were crying in the heavy rain, but no one went home to hide from the rain.

However, since Queen Ma died, Zhu Yuanzhang has become more and more lonely, his temper has become more and more irritable, he spanks his ministers more frequently, and their heads are more likely to fall off. Those unlucky ministers and concubines probably missed Empress Ma more than Zhu Yuanzhang did.

As an ordinary woman, Ma was born in troubled times. She was courageous and knowledgeable, and helped Zhu Yuanzhang achieve great achievements in difficult times. When she was rich and powerful, she was neither extravagant nor arrogant, and never forgot the suffering of the people. He changed his true nature of diligence and thrift, used his words and deeds to persuade and influence Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, and made extraordinary achievements. Empress Ma had a great influence on later generations. Empresses of the Ming and Qing dynasties and even women of the common people took her as a model and rushed to imitate her.