Pirate queen
How one incredible woman rose from a life of poor prostitution to command a fearsome fleet that ruled the South China Sea
Join Ching Shih’s fearsome fleet, which ruled the South China Sea
Ching Shih is widely considered to be one of the greatest – if not the greatest – pirates of all time. Known as ‘The Terror of South China’, she commanded the infamous Red Fleet and effectively ruled the country’s coastline in the early 19th century. At her peak, China’s navy was too afraid to fight her, while merchants would simply pay her a tithe rather than risk being boarded.
She commanded over 1,800 pirate ships and an estimated 80,000 men. In comparison, the infamous Blackbeard had just four ships and 300 men within the same century. Ching Shih’s incredible success is arguably all the more extraordinary as she started out working aboard a floating brothel.
The so-called ‘flower boats’ of Pearl River, which flows through the city of Guangzhou, also known as Canton, acted as pleasure palaces for the rich and powerful. While they were luxuriously decorated with chandeliers and stained glass windows to attract customers, conditions were not so great for the women that lived and worked on them.
We don’t know much about Ching’s Shih early life, except that she was born around
1775 and possibly given the name Shi Xianggu. While she is popularly known today as Ching Shih, this is a Westernisation of Cheng I Sao, which literally means ‘wife of Cheng I’.
The Cheng I in question was a notorious pirate who changed Shi Xianggu’s life. How the couple met is not known for certain. According to legend, Cheng stormed the flower boats with his crew to find himself a wife. Taking the women hostage, Cheng was captivated by the beautiful Shi Xianggu and proposed to her.
However, Shi Xianggu was not some damsel in distress looking to be rescued. When Cheng untied her restraints, she didn’t just refuse his offer, she tried to claw his eyes out. Regardless – or perhaps because of this – Cheng remained enamoured and insisted on marrying her, offering her all the jewels and silks she could possibly want.
Showing the business acumen that would make her such a successful pirate queen, the future Cheng I Sao promised to accept but only if she was given half of his wealth and joint command of his extensive fleet. Cheng agreed and the couple wed in 1801, marking the start of a formidable partnership.
Piracy in the South China Sea had expanded rapidly in the 1780s, thanks to the Tây Son Rebellion in Vietnam. The rebels let the bucaneers use their many ports, while they in turn provided man power and even financial aid to fuel the insurgency.
Cheng I had made his name by uniting these disparate pirates into a mighty confederation known as the Six Fleets.
While he was the overarching leader of this pack, each fleet was semi-autonomous and identified by a colour: red, black, white, yellow, blue and green. After they married, the Chengs shared control of the most formidable group, the Red Fleet.
Crisis struck in 1802 when the Tây Son rebels fell out of power in Vietnam, leaving the Six Fleets without a safe harbour. The Chengs decided to re-establish their power along the coast of China, choosing to base themselves
“Cheng was captivated by the beautiful Shi Xianggu”
at Macau and Guangzhou. From here, the Chengs ruthlessly grew their confederation while monopolising the salt trade, as the Qing government lost control of the waters with its small, neglected and ineffective navy.
But in 1807, Cheng suddenly died when he was thrown overboard during a typhoon and drowned. With the death of their leader, the remaining squadron leaders decided to elect his replacement – and Cheng I Sao was determined that it would be her.
Her biggest rival was her stepson, Cheung Po Tsai. Back in 1798, Cheng had kidnapped a 15-year-old fisherman. However, Cheng took a liking to him and the pair were said to have a homosexual relationship. The fact Cheng also adopted him might seem unusual, but adoption in China at this time was often practicised between master and apprentice.
After Cheng I Sao joined the team, Cheung Po Tsai was given command of his own junk
and him To it up make was as their clear her own successor. that bid the for couple the top were job, lining
Cheng I Sao gathered the support of the most powerful men in the confederation, pressing on the loyalties and favours owed to her husband from both his family members as well as others in the fleet. Cheng I Sao made her case to the fleet leaders all while supposedly wearing her deceased husband’s uniform, beautifully embroidered with dragons – giving rise to her nickname as ‘the dragon lady’.
To dissuade Cheung Po Tsai from seeking power, she appointed him as the new leader of the Red Fleet to keep him busy and secure the loyalty of the confederation’s most powerful squadron. However, not willing to take the risk that others might sway Cheung Po Tsai, Cheng I Sao entered into a sexual relationship with him to ensure his fidelity to her.
Cheng I Sao was successfully named as her husband’s replacement. She quckly made her mark by creating her own pirate code, which enforced discipline and set rules about how plunder was divided. She also regularised the income of the confederation by taking further control of the salt trade.
Following her orders, Cheng I Sao’s fleets attacked merchant ships and government junks until the majority of them were under her control. These ships were then forced to continue working for her on her terms, with many salt merchants choosing to pre-empt her attacks by paying the confederation large sums of money to guarantee their safety.
Before long, this system encompassed other merchants such as fisherman, who paid extortionately for protection – to the point where nobody was safe unless they had paid Cheng I Sao and her pirates in advance.
With the income of the confederation growing rapidly, Cheng I Sao had financial offices built in coastal villages and harbours, which also acted as tax offices as payments increased. All payments had to be seen by Cheng I Sao while all the treasure that had been plundered by her fleets had to be declared and inspected.
But domination of the waters was not enough for Cheng I Sao, who initiated bloody raids on villages and markets along the Pearl River. The only way the villagers could prevent the attacks was to pay up, with either money or rice. Meanwhile, her spies wheedled their way into government, and local intelligence operations kept her informed of the latest news. The Qing government was at a loss. By
1809, Cheng I Sao’s confederation consisted of around
70,000 pirates, including men, women and children, with around 1,200 junks, far larger than the size of the Chinese navy, and attempts to defeat her had failed spectacularly.
In fact Cheng I Sao was so feared that imperial admirals deliberately stayed ashore in order to avoid confronting her.
It has even been claimed that as far as sabotaging their own ships to prevent them from going out into the sea.
Cheng I Sao was an excellent military strategist and she unleashed crippling defeats upon her enemies. In one incident in 1808, she destroyed almost half of the Guangdong naval fleet by annihilating 63 of its 135 ships, which had been protecting Guangzhou. Capturing the men aboard, Cheng I Sao gave them a choice: join the confederation or die a brutal death. Unsurprisingly, the fearsome leader gained a number of recruits that day.
The situation reached breaking point in August 1809 when she and Cheung Po Tsai launched an attack on Guangzhou, and blocked the arrival of a tribute mission from Siam in just one day. Realising that they could not defeat Cheng I Sao alone, the government reluctantly requested help from the British and the Portuguese in September, borrowing men, ships and firepower.
The government’s chance to defeat Cheng I Sao came two months later, when they trapped her fleet in a bay where it had stopped for repairs. Certain that victory was imminent, Chinese officials flocked to the bay to gleefully watch her demise. For eight days, the Imperial forces bombarded Cheng I Sao and her ships, but they still failed to sink her.
So instead, they sent so-called ‘fire boats’, vessels packed full of explosives, to denotate amongst Cheng I Sao’s ships. The Imperial forces hoped their plan would succeed but fate
“Cheng I Sao was so feared that admirals deliberately stayed ashore in order to avoid confronting her”
intervened, as the wind changed and pushed the fire boats back towards the government ships, breaking the blockade and allowing Cheng I Sao and her people to escape.
Cheng I Sao survived but by now, tensions had surfaced in the confederation – particularly between the Red Fleet and the Black Fleet. In December, the two fleets fought, with the Black Fleet emerging victorious. Realising they were out of options, the government offered the confederation amnesty, which the Black Fleet accepted in January 1810 – with over 5,000 pirates leaving Cheng I Sao’s organisation.
It was not only the Black Fleet who were tempted by the offer. Looking at the state of her confederation, Cheng I Sao could see that the glory days of her pirate empire was slipping away. Choosing to negotiate while she still had the upper hand, Cheng I Sao boldly marched into the governor-general’s headquarters at Guangzhou to discuss amnesty. To show that she was not there to start a fight, she arrived unarmed and accompanied only by women and children.
The Chinese government tried to deny some of her demands but Cheng I Sao was resolute on the terms she wanted in return for relinquishing her life of crime. Not only did she want to keep several of her junks for her own use, plus the treasure she had gained, she also requested pardons for all her men as well as positions in the navy for them.
After weeks of going back and forth, the government finally gave in to her demands. In April 1810, Cheng I Sao and her pirates surrendered with a large proportion of their junks and cannons. At the same time, Cheng I Sao wrote a letter of surrender to the Chinese government, officially marking the end of her days as an outlaw. That year, her adoption of Cheung Po Tsai was dissolved and the couple finally married.
Following the break-up of the confederation, Cheung Po Tsai became an officer in the Imperial navy and enjoyed a successful career. With Cheng I Sao, he had two children and the couple remained together until his death in 1822.
Widowed once again, Cheng I Sao moved to Guangzhou where she ran a lucrative brothel and gambling house, living off the proceeds with her family.
Cheng I Sao, the woman who terrorised the South China sea for almost a decade and got away with it, died peacefully with her family by her side in 1844, aged 69.
Despite her death, Cheng I Sao’s legacy has continued to live on with her tale of riches, lawlessness and glory still captivating people over 150 years later.
“Cheng I Sao could see that the glory days of her pirates were slipping away”