Zheng Yi Sao: The Pirate Queen

We don't know of many pirates that got to legally retire from the life of piracy. However, to your surprise the pirate that had many countries after them and had the world's largest fleet, was a woman! Join us and listen to a short historical account of Zheng Yi Sao!

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Sources:

https://youtu.be/Bx4PGlasQBo?si=OT51aPNC-WJHkJpZ

https://youtu.be/74-lScOzIxk?si=hsdbKqigRt8eGWas

https://youtu.be/wcYhgzfI7PA?si=LhQ-HvcksHLFYQN3

Transcript

You may have heard of Blackbeard for his cruelty, Henry Every for creating the first global manhunt after nearly crippling the East India Trading Company. Or perhaps even the tales of Captain Morgan whom you can now drink. However, none of these men had more than 50 ships in their fleet. Yo hoo hooo, but one woman created a unified fleet of estimated ranges of 400 to 1,800 ships whaaaa. The sea was her kingdom, and not even the (Ching) Qing Dynasty, the Portuguese, or the British Empire could stop her during her reign. Arguably the most successful pirate ever, aye. Avast friends, gather and listen. We will be telling the tale of Zheng Yi Sao.

Hello, hello. Welcome to my show. It is a podcast where I, a man, talk about influential women. This week is especially fun, because yes it is about pirates, which is already a cool topic, but also because she’s arguably, the most successful pirate! I think there are few ways we think of pirates.

One of the ways we see them are these swashbuckling anti-order raiders with their black hats, peg legs. and eyepatches. Those big-bearded men with cutlasses that are searching for treasure! Or maybe we think of them as the modern-day pirates, the opportunistic scallywags who yield machine guns and take on cargo ships either by infiltration or taking hostages. Yup they still exist, and they are either small-timers or part of some criminal organization. Or maybe you know them as the people who burn CDs (not that anybody is still doing this on a large scale) or have cryptic flash drives that contain the Spanish copy of movies like Shrek 2 before it even hits theaters. There was even the Pirate Bay, the digital decentralized playground website to get your movies and music torrented. All of these are illegal of course, and our current woman of the week wasn’t operating legally, but nonetheless she is influential, which is what this podcast is about!

Zheng Yi Sao, born Shih Yang by some scholars (and she would later be identified in many ways but I will try to stick to Zheng Yi Sao for the rest of the episode).I ALSO want to add that I may get pronunciations wrong, I tried my best to find the best way to say names or areas but it seems to differ with dialect and other things, and as a non-chinese person or scholar, I will get it wrong regardless…(Forgive me side effect) Anyways, she likely born in 1775 in Xinhui, Guangdong. Some sources say she may have been born to the Tanka people, also known as ‘boat people’. Today, that term is now considered derogatory, and while the ethnic group isn’t as prominent today, they are still out there and in English are preferred to be called the “On-Water People”, or the “Boat People”. who were an ethnic group that were prohibited from settling on land. In 1775 she would live in a time in China during the Baoji system, which tracked populations for taxation and conscription purposes, but her exact birth date remains shrouded in mystery. Maybe they were lost, or maybe record-keeping efforts did not make it to her. If she was from the “On-Water People”, she would not be registered into the national census as they were of outcast status. What we do know was that she began her life far from the pirate fleets she would one day command. Born likely impoverished, Zheng Yi Sao was a woman who according to some accounts, worked as a prostitute in Guangzhou’s floating brothels. But there isn’t any solid proof of this, so don’t go assuming she is! I just wanted to add it in because it is a popular belief. 

Her life however, would take a dramatic turn when she was captured by pirates. Kidnapping might be a better way of saying it, captured sounds a little romanticized. Pirates in history are not generally the nicest bunch. But one of those pirates must have seen something in her, because he ended up marrying her. I don’t know if it was her looks or her wits but he locked in. His name was Zheng Yi. To tradition, this is where her name will then become Zheng Yi Sao, which translates to “Zheng Yi’s wife”. Now most stories with capturers marrying their victims end horribly, and often abusive. I don’t think there is any way of knowing if that happened to Zheng Yi Sao, but considering their upcoming mutualism and respect for one another, I would say she probably got the better treatment. It was this relationship that would begin her life at sea as a pirate. Her now husband Zheng Yi's family business was piracy from way back to the Ming Dynasty, which officially ended in 1644. Talk about inheriting the career of great great great great grandparents. Her husband would fight alongside his cousin’s fleet, Zheng Qi (chi) which translates to steam (pretty cool), under the patronage of the vietnamese Tay Son dynasty. However, in 1802, that cousin would be captured and executed. 

After a long and relentless battle with the Vietnamese patrons, they have come atop victorious. Zheng Yi would take control of the family fleet and sail back to China. It was around this time that after a lot of unrest amongst pirates, thus a unification of the pirates would occur. While Zheng Yi led the fleet, Zheng Yi Sao managed all the business operations. Because of her, merchants paid her for safe passage across the seas. A lot of money was being made because of her. Even Zheng Yi’s fleet knew that she was always the second in command and strategy was discussed between the two. So Zheng Yi Sao proposed that she should be involved in running the fleet. To note: In China under the Confusian law, women were always expected to be subordinates to their father, husband, etc. But many of these people were already likely outcasts, many of which live in floating villages, or were boat people. And if a husband was to die, then the woman just doesn’t die too. It was known that widows would pick up where her husband left off! And piracy isn’t exactly legal, so while the culture says she is overstepping her assigned role, the fleet agreed it was a good idea. And in 1805, local pirates unified into the Guangdong Pirate Confederation also known as the Red Fleet. And fun fact, according to the Guinness World Records, this was the largest pirate fleet ever with more than 70,000 pirates. For example, the average cruise ship accommodates 3,000 passengers. Another example,  the invasion force on D-Day of Normandy had 195,000 naval personnel from eight allied countries. The pirates had 1/3 of that. They were a pirate superpower. 

Now these weren’t a bunch of disorderly pirates either. Zheng Yi Sao was an effective negotiator and played a major role in the unification. Pirate leaders would sacrifice some autonomy for the greater good as they saw it. In order to join the Guangdong Pirate Confederation, you had to follow the code, known as the Articles of Agreement signed in July of 1805. Now I will post this pirate's code in the show notes that you will be able to find on my website under transcripts and notes, but I am going to share a few here now. 

[clear throat]

Only Zheng Yi Sao can authorize an attack. Any unauthorized attacks were punished by beheading. Any forms of rape meant beheading, and pirates had to marry their female prisoners before they engaged in any sexual conduct. Cheating on your new spouse also meant beheading. Loot is to be gathered by superiors and distributed equally. I read somewhere that an individual kept 20% of the loot and had to give 80% to the fleet funds. Now there’s more, but I’d like to get on with the show!

Ransom was another way they made money, and one of the reasons we know about her operation today is because of a British prisoner who was held for ransom named Richard Glasspoole. He would eventually write “Narrative of his captivity and treatment among the ladrones”. Chinese pirates were usually referred to as “ladrones” in the early 19th century. Being her prisoner for ransom was definitely no fairy tale. They often had forced labor and poor living conditions. She would also have two sons with Zheng Yi: Zheng Yingshi was born in 1803 and Zheng Xiongshi, who was born in 1807. Unfortunately, also in 1807, at the age of 42 her husband would fall overboard (Wilhelm scream) and die. She would quickly take over operations and inherit the command of the entire fleet. She was able to unify even more leaders and had the support of Zheng Yi’s nephew Zheng Baoyang and adopted son Zhang Bao. It was actually the adopted son Zhang Bao that would later become the new co-leader of the fleet after agreeing to serve her. 

[Side step for one moment: A little bit about Zhang Bao was that he was actually abducted in his teens by Zheng Yi. Zheng Yi would teach him the ropes and whistles of piracy and would seem to enjoy it. He was naturally gifted and had a beautiful vessel with a pagoda and become a powerful pirate leader himself] 

Okay now we're back. This co-leading agreement would soon end in love between Zheng Yi Sao and Zhang Bao. Now we don’t exactly know the age gap, but she was 26 at the time of her first husband's death, making Zhang Bao at least in his late teens or early twenties. Zheng Yi Sao repeatedly clashed with the Qing Dynasty, even managing to obliterate one admiral who would commit suicide after a devastating defeat. The East India Trading Company would be targeted for cargo such as opium, silk, and tea. And lastly, the Portuguese, who had a lot of influence in Macau, near the South China Sea. She would constantly attack to cripple their influence on the sea. All these people under attack would eventually cause a huge stir for her. The government appointed a new leader who was tired of all this lollygagging - Bai Ling. They would unify with the Portuguese to try and stop her. They blockaded her in Tung Chung Bay in 1809, but the pirates broke through and escaped. However, Zheng Yi Sao knew she could not keep this up. Bai Ling was training villagers as a local militia, and even offering riches for pirates to defect. And at first, this didn’t work, but eventually several thousand pirates would switch to the side of the Qing Dynasty in return for rewards and amnesties. The British would also join with 60 warships near Pearl River. Though she may have been at the pinnacle of her power, she recognized the shifting tides. 

She would begin negotiations for surrender, asking for Zhang Bao to retain command of 80 vessels and maintain influence in the salt trade. Bai Ling was not cool with this but negotiations kept on, rather than perish. On April 8, 1810 she boldly led a procession of women and children to Bai Ling’s office and proposed a surrender, but not without conditions. Zhang Bao would be awarded the rank of lieutenant and was allowed to retain a private fleet of 20-30 ships. Zheng Yi Sao was also granted governmental permission to marry Zhang Bao. And on top of all that, Zheng Yi Sao and her crews were all pardoned, and the men would receive gifts of pork, wine, and money. Government official Wen Chengzhi, who spearheaded the negotiations, reported that Zhang Bao diligently sought her counsel and was awaiting her approval before taking any action. Not only did she have the biggest pirate fleet in the world, she also got away with it! We do know that Zhang Bao would become distinguished, defeating the Blue Flag Fleet under Wu Shi’er near the Leizhou Peninsula with his wife accompanying him. Zheng Yi Sao would also give birth to two more children, Zhang Yulin in 1813 and a daughter but there isn’t any record of her name or birthdate. In 1822, at age 39, Zhang Bao would die while serving as a colonel.

Zheng Yi Sao would return to Guangdong with her children and would actually file charges against a government official who embezzled money that Zhang Bao handed over for the purchase of an estate, but the viceroy Lin Zexu, famous for his role in the First Opium War, got the case dismissed. We don’t know all the deets but we do know she died around the age of 68 or 69 peacefully and did not remarry after her second husband. We also know she was a proprietor of an infamous gambling house somewhere near Guangdong. Not many pirates get to retire, and only one woman got to die peacefully for her largest pirate fleet in the world. Zheng Yi Sao is such an anomaly, but it just goes to show how women can be such influential figures in history, even in these culturally male dominant fields. She engaged in many battles and won, and when she knew to draw back she did, giving herself, husband, children, and entire crew the best retirement a criminal can have. Thank you for listening. I hope you enjoyed today’s episode.

Sources: 

https://www.military.com/history/chinese-woman-led-largest-and-most-successful-pirate-fleet-history.html

http://www.thewayofthepirates.com/famous-pirates/ching-shih/#google_vignette

(warning: The above link says “not secure” for me, ironic for a pirate website)

Music Sources:

https://youtu.be/Bx4PGlasQBo?si=OT51aPNC-WJHkJpZ

https://youtu.be/74-lScOzIxk?si=hsdbKqigRt8eGWas

https://youtu.be/wcYhgzfI7PA?si=LhQ-HvcksHLFYQN3