Ma Shitu was born in Shibao Township,
Zhong County,
Sichuan, on 17 January 1915. In July 1936, he entered National Central University, where he majored in the Department of Chemical Engineering. During school days, he joined the underground party organisation of the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In March 1938 he joined the CCP. He founded the
Public Newspaper with
Hu Sheng in
Hankou,
Hubei. In 1939 he was appointed party secretary of Western Hubei District. Because the party organization was destroyed by the
Kuomintang, he fled to Chongqing in 1941 and then was accepted to
National Southwestern Associated University. In 1946 he became the
party secretary of Chuankang District. After founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, he served successively as deputy director of the Organization Department of the CCP Western Sichuan District Committee, director of the Construction Department of Sichuan, director of the Construction Commission, secretary of the party group of the Southwest Branch of the
Chinese Academy of Sciences, deputy director of the Publicity Department of the Southwest Bureau of the CCP Central Committee, and deputy director of the Science and Technology Commission. He joined the
China Writers Association in 1962. In 1972, he was deputy head of the Propaganda Department of CCP Sichuan Provincial Committee, and served until 1978, when he was appointed vice president of the Chengdu Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and its
party secretary. On July 5, 2020, in Chengdu, Sichuan, Ma announced that he would no longer write. Ma was a delegate to the
6th and
7th National People's Congress. ==Personal life and death==