Zheng Yi Sao: The Chinese Pirate Queen

Who Was the Chinese Woman Pirate in History?

The popular image of a pirate is Robert Newton's portrayal of Long John Silver in the 1950 movie Treasure Island—all gravelly voiced, “Arrrrr,” missing a leg, and a parrot on his shoulder.

Zheng Yi Sao wasn't like that. Small, slim, and female, she commanded a massive pirate fleet in the South China Sea in the 19th century.

Early Life

The pirate queen was born a humble outcast in Guangdong, South China in 1775. Her name then was Sek Yeung (pinyin: Shi Yang).* She was presumably a member of the Tanka, an ethnically distinct group of boat-dwelling people who were ostracized by the dominant Han Chinese.

Tanka males were fishermen while many of the females were sold into prostitution. This was the fate of young Sek Yeung who worked in the floating brothels on the South China coast.

From Prostitution to Piracy

Sek Yeung was shrewd and, in addition to servicing common sailors, she also wisely worked to attract the attention of powerful and wealthy men. Their unguarded pillow talk meant that Sek became privy to a lot of valuable information that she was able to trade for advancement.

She soon rose to the rank of madam in a Cantonese floating brothel, adopting aliases such as "Auntie Dragon" and the "Fragrant Lady." In 1801, at the age of 26, she was captured by a band of pirates led by Tzeng Yut (pinyin: Zheng Yi).

Tzeng married Sek, and she became known as Ching-Yi Sao—pinyin Zheng Yi Sao—"Wife of Zheng Yi." By marriage, she not only gained entry to her husband's world of piracy, but the young pirate queen also assumed command over half her husband's fleet.

*Pinyin is the standard system of Romanized spelling for transliterating Mandarin Chinese. It will be used for the rest of this article for ease of reference.

Marriage and Early Pirating

Before his marriage, Zheng Yi had abducted a 15-year-old boy, Cheung Po Tsai, and forced him into piracy. After marriage, the Zhengs adopted the young man and made him heir to their fortune.

The Zheng family and several other pirate groups squabbled over territory, but the powerful Zhengs negotiated peace among the groups and formed a confederacy in 1804 called Hongqibang (the Red Flag Gang), commanded by Zheng Yi.

Zheng Yi died in 1807, just five years after marrying Zheng Yi Sao. Stories say he fell overboard in a typhoon off the Vietnamese coast. An accident? Perhaps. Or maybe he was murdered. Mystery shrouds his demise.

Writing for Atlas Obscura, Urvija Banerji notes that, “Following his death, [his wife] succeeded him and commanded over 1,800 pirate ships and an estimated 80,000 men. In comparison, the famed Blackbeard commanded four ships and 300 pirates.”

The Warrior Widow

With Zheng Yi gone, his widow and adopted son ran the Red Flag Fleet with great efficiency. The two soon became lovers and married within weeks of Zheng Yi's death.

Zheng Yi Sao, under the new title Ching Shih—“The Widow of Zheng"—was not content to sit in the counting house adding up the day's take in her young husband's shadow.

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In fact, Cheung Po Tsai served as second in command as Madame Ching established her place on board their ships, wielding a cutlass with the rest of the crews. Unlike the superstitious sailors of the West, there was no reluctance among Chinese mariners to have women aboard.

Zheng Yi Sao's pirates had a grisly ritual when they attacked coastal communities. They cut off victims' heads, tied the pigtails of two heads together, and wore these around their necks as trophies.

Solo Pirate Career

Ching Shih was a respected leader renowned for possessing great authority and tactical brilliance.

"With a fleet of about 600 ships and 60,000 hands at its peak, the Red Flags maintained strict discipline under [her], and the clan meted out severe punishments to anyone who broke its three 'golden rules': no desertion, no thieving from the clan, and no violence against women," writes Xueting Christine Ni in the Chinese news source, Sixth Tone.

European pirates adopted codes of conduct, without which maintaining discipline among a bunch of unruly cutthroats would have been impossible. Madame Ching Shih followed the example and enforced a code of conduct for the tens of thousands of pirates under her command.

The Red Flag Code

• The penalty for disobeying an order from a superior was immediate beheading.
• Decapitation was also the punishment for any pirate that mistreated a captured woman. If a pirate and a captive woman engaged in consensual sex, they were both executed.
• Pirates were not allowed to go ashore without permission. If they did, their ears were slit. A second offence meant death.
• All bounty was to be shared equally among crew members.

Piracy Was Brutal Business

Lest we harbor some romantic notions about piracy, it's important to remember that Madam Ching oversaw a criminal enterprise that terrorized the south coast of China. Her employees robbed, murdered, and sold into slavery thousands of innocent people.

Coastal towns were charged protection money and, if they refused to pay, communities were pillaged for supplies. Foreign vessels were also required to pay for protection or be boarded and robbed of their cargoes while their sailors were captured and held for ransom.

Richard Glasspoole was an officer on a British merchant ship who was captured and held by Ching Shih's pirates for four months. He later described how kidnapped Chinese sailors were given a blunt choice: Become a pirate or be flogged to death.

Other Women Pirates in History

Zheng Yi Sao was not the only woman active during the Golden Age of Piracy. While she may have been the most successful, others were also bent on a life of scandalous seafaring, including:

• Baroness Christina Anna Skytte is said to have joined her brother Gustav Skytte, who secretly owned a pirate ship, in 1657. They assaulted ships in the Baltic Sea throughout the 1660s.
• Ingela Gathenhielm, the wife of Swedish shipowner and privateer Lars Gathenhielm, was deeply involved in her husband's business and took charge of it after Lars died in 1718.
• Irishwoman Anne Bonny became the lover and fellow pirate of John Rackham, known as “Calico Jack.” In 1720, Bonny and another female pirate named Mary Read plundered shipping along the American eastern seaboard.

The Pirate Queen's Retirement

Ching Shih's pirate fleets were able to inflict several defeats on the Chinese Imperial Navy, which caused displeasure among Qing dynasty officials. They, along with British and Portuguese warships, regularly harassed the pirates.

Eventually, the Chinese government offered all the pirates amnesty just to get rid of them and halt their plundering of maritime commerce. In 1810, the offer to anchor her ships in harbors proved attractive to Madame Ching, as internecine conflict among the pirates was making the business less lucrative and increasingly dangerous.

The End of an Era

The government took possession of 226 ships, 1,315 cannons, and an assortment of weapons totaling almost 2,800. More than 17,000 pirates went free—sent on their way with money, wine, and pork. Many of these men, including pirate king Cheung Po Tsai, were then enlisted into the Imperial Navy where they joined in the effort to stamp out remaining pirates.

A Rebel Till Death

Rest assured, Ching Shih did not settle down to a quiet, law-abiding retirement. After her husband Cheung Po Tsai died at sea in 1822 at age 39, Ching Shih moved to Macau with their one son. There, she ran a gambling house from which she operated a smuggling ring, dealt in opium, and engaged in the salt trade. Unlike most pirates, though, she died a peaceful death in 1844 at the age of 69.

Did Ching Shih Have Treasure?

While there is no record of Ching Shih hoarding a treasure, her husband Cheung Po Tsai is rumored to have cached spoils of his pirate raids in a cave on Hong Kong's outlying island of Cheung Chau—now a popular tourist attraction.

According to legend, Cheung used the cave as a hiding place to evade captors and stashed loot within its walls as well. To date, no traces of treasure have been found in the cave.

Bonus Factoids

• Zheng Yi Sao is portrayed by Crystal Yu in the 2022 Doctor Who special "Legend of the Sea Devils."
• The Flower Boat Girl (2021) by Larry Feign is a fictional novel based closely on the life of Zheng Yi Sao, incorporating historical research.
• In the 2007 movie Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, there is a character named Mistress Ching who is based on Zheng Yi Sao.
• The song "Bloody Rose of China" by The Jolly Rogers tells of Madame Ching's life.

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Sources and Further Reading

• “Zheng Yi Sao: The Most Successful Pirate in History.” Emma Nagouse, BBC, undated.
• “Zheng Yi Sao–Pirate Queen of the Qing Dynasty.” Sarah Pusteblume, HistoryHeroines.com, April 4, 2018.
• “Zheng Yi Sao.” Mark Cartwright, World History Encyclopedia, November 15, 2021.
• “The Greatest Pirate of All Time Was a Widow from China.” Supreeta Balasubramanian, TheTempest.co, September 19, 2021.
• "Cheung Po Tsai And Ching Shih, Pirate Monarchs." Headstuff., August 16, 2017.

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This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.

© 2022 Rupert Taylor