Ma Shi, whose birth and death dates are unknown, styled himself Zhonghua, and was also known by the pseudonym Xuantai. He was a native of Huiji during the Ming Dynasty. He devoted his life to the study of Neijing and gained considerable insights. He authored two books: Huangdi Neijing Suwen Zhuzheng Fawei and Huangdi Neijing Lingshu Zhuzheng Fawei. The former was published in the 14th year of the Wanli era of Emperor Shenzong (1586), containing Suwen 81 chapters, compiled into 9 volumes. Ma Shi annotated the entire Suwen and Lingshu, being the first to provide combined annotations.

Huangdi Neijing Suwen Zhuzheng Fawei in 9 volumes aimed to enhance the understanding of Suwen. Wang Bing divided Suwen into 24 volumes, but Ma disagreed and reorganized it into 9 volumes. Ma provided a comprehensive overview at the beginning of each chapter, followed by detailed annotations section by section and sentence by sentence, offering significant insights, though some interpretations were speculative.

Ma Shi's Huangdi Neijing Lingshu Zhuzheng Fawei is the earliest complete annotated version of Lingshu that exists today. Ma Shi believed that both Lingshu and Suwen should be in 9 volumes, following the original text of the Song Dynasty's Shi Song version. He considered Lingshu to be more important than Suwen, arguing that it should not be viewed merely as a book on acupuncture. He pointed out that the methods of acupuncture described in the book could also be extended to methods of using medicine, and should not be rigidly interpreted as solely about acupuncture. These views are quite reasonable. The structure of this book is similar to the annotations of Suwen, and later scholars believe that the annotations in this book are superior in content to those of Suwen, and being the first of its kind, its contribution is significant.