The Names of the Pirate Queen

You watch the horizon carefully. The South China Sea air is heavy with the smell of salt, wood, and your crew around you. The wind is calm this afternoon, the junk ship rocking slightly with the tide, and nearly 300 other ships follow behind you. After a few hours of sitting and waiting, you spy deep red, fanned sails reaching up above the skyline. Just above it flies a long red flag bearing a bright yellow circle. A merchant ship. Right on time.

You give a sharp whistle and gesture ahead. Your crew stands alert before beginning to rush around below you. They prepare the cannons as you turn around to face the 300 ships scattered across the sea behind you, all waving the same flag that dances above you. Your name is Ching Shih, it’s 1808 and you are sailing the South China Sea. You are the head of your fleet of 300 ships, and the leader of an 800-ship pirate confederation.

You are the Pirate Queen.

Ching Shih was born in 1775 in the south of China. The pirate bore many names throughout her lifetime and history. She was born as Shi Yang. Little about her early life is known, though it can be assumed she lived in poverty. She worked as a prostitute on a floating brothel, already beginning her life at sea. Shi Yang’s next name was Zheng Yi Sao, translating to Zheng Yi’s wife. Shi Yang supposedly met Zheng Yi while she was working as a prostitute, and they married in 1801.

Zheng Yi came from a family of pirates. He worked as a privateer for the Tây Sơn rebellion and later created his pirate crew out of refugees and other privateers, including Cheung Po. The young, kidnapped son of a fisherman would play a significant role in the life of Zheng Yi as his right-hand man, adopted son, and lover. Zheng Yi would spend two years building his forces to include six fleets with roughly 600 ships and 40,000 men. Each fleet had an independent commander that followed the same set of regulations and agreements. Zheng Yi operated the largest of these fleets, the Red Flag Fleet, with 200 ships. These fleets would become the same fleets that sailed under Zheng Yi Sao.

Zheng Yi Sao would become a key part of Zheng Yi’s crew. It was relatively common at the time for women in China to become pirates, as many worked as mariners. Her wit and iron fist helped Zheng Yi keep the pirate confederation together, and they grew it to a total of 800 ships by 1807. Later that same year Zheng Yi Sao took over as captain following the death of her husband.

There are disagreements as to Zheng Yi’s cause of death. Some sources cite a typhoon as his cause of death, while some cite conflicts with other pirates or navies. The captains of the other fleets democratically agreed that Zheng Yi Sao was the rightful and most qualified leader, and thus she took over the confederation as captain, a common practice amongst pirate ships and confederations due to their rather egalitarian nature.

Zheng Yi Sao, now Ching Shih, or Cheng’s Widow, was now the captain of 6 fleets containing 70,000 men and over 800 ships, each carrying 800 tons of cargo. And she would carry that crew to a legendary status, claiming fame and terror across the coast of south China.

Ching Shih watched the crew of the East India Company clipper raise their hands and drop their weapons with a loud clammer of steel and brass colliding with the ship’s deck. The red-striped flag flew limply overhead as Ching Shih’s crew filed across a gangplank carrying goods back and forth. Mountains of silk and spices overflowed from wooden crates and the EIC sailors stood helplessly from the side. They had surrendered the second they saw the fleet turn towards them. The total loss of the goods would be less than the loss of 150 lives.

The captured Europeans would often be forced to assist in attacking villages on the coast, or face being killed. They usually agreed rather quickly, spotting the necklaces made of previous victims' heads adorning the necks of the pirates. Europeans would also be held for ransom, though the process was long and tedious as it involved months of waiting for information to travel across the globe. They would be kept in holds in the depths of the ship, surrounded by rats and surviving off of next to nothing until the ransom was paid.

Zheng Yi Sao as depicted in Pirates: An Illustrated History of Privateers, Buccaneers & Pirates from the Sixteenth Century to the Present (1836)

It wasn’t just commercial and merchant ships that Ching Shih’s crew went against. She was known for facing — and defeating — entire naval fleets. In 1808, between Portuguese Macao and Canton, she fought a battle that lasted 16 hours and ended only after the opposing admiral took his own life.

She fought the Chinese navy again in the same place the next year.

The sea was quiet as the two fleets swayed parallel, yet off-set, and several meters away. The canons’ fire was just out of reach of both groups of ships, and the becalmed fleets had no way of reaching each other. The battle was at a total standstill, the wind and sea frozen in time. Ching Shih murmured something to her second in command, who passed the message down the ship. The crew looked at each other, hesitant and confused, before Ching Shih yelled an order to go. The crew scrambled to the edge of the ship and dived off, beginning to swim. The pirates then climbed up the sides of the navy’s ships. When finished with the navy, Ching Shih ordered them to shore, where they rose from the sea and set fire to the village.

It was now early 1810, her pirate confederation having grown to 1,200 vessels, twice the size of the Spanish Armada. It was one hell of a feat to gain control of the confederation, let alone keep it together. Ching Shih employed strict rules and practices to keep the crew in check. Going to shore without permission led to one’s ears being cut off, or death if it was a repeated offence. Stealing from the funds resulted in beheading. Rape of a female captive was also punishable by death.

Ching Shih held so much power over the South China Seas that merchant ships paid her for licences to sail safely. They charged taxes and set up bases around the sea, regulating, or more accurately, deregulating, a significant part of China’s economy.

What had started as a crew of refugees had grown into an entire army, almost entirely loyal to one woman. The fleets had massive numbers of ships, each with power-hungry captains. The Chinese navy had increased their efforts to end piracy in their seas.

Ching Shih knew her reign was coming to an end.

In April of 1810, a Cantonese port watched as 260 ships sailed in, their flags flying high and proud. Ching Shih alighted from her ship and marched her way to the closest person in charge. She demanded a pardon for her and her crew, and that they could keep all the riches they had gathered. The pardon was granted, as the navy was exhausted by their never-ending game of cat and mouse, and many of her crew went on to become part of the navy, while others crept off to return to piracy. Ching Shih, on the other hand, decided to settle down.

Ching Shih married Chang Pao, her adopted (for the legal purpose of transferring property) son and deceased husband’s former lover. Her new life did, however, continue alongside crime. She and Chang Pao ran a smuggling racket to earn money. She passed away in 1844, but her memory as the world's greatest pirate lives on.

References

Cartwright, Mark. “Zheng Yi Sao.” World History Encyclopedia, November 15, 2021. http://www.worldhistory.org/Zheng_Yi_Sao/.

Cordingly, David. Pirates: An Illustrated History of Privateers, Buccaneers, and Pirates from the Sixteenth Century to the Present. Salamander Books Limited, 1996.

Murray, Dian. “One Woman’s Rise to Power: Cheng I’s Wife and the Pirates.” Historical Reflections / Réflexions Historiques 8, no. 3 (1981): 147–61. https://doi.org/10.2307/41298765.