Ching Shih

Ching Shih was a powerful woman at a time when women in positions of power were a rarity. Especially in the world of crime in Asia, it was impossible for a woman to rise to the top given the various social and religious restrictions on women. Hence, Ching Shih can be said to be a pioneer of her times, though in a negative way, as an outlaw and a ruthless pirate queen who had no hesitation at all in indulging in torture and murder to achieve her ambitions.

She was born in 1775 in the Guangdong province of China in the period of the Qing dynasty. Her birth name was Shi Yang. Some other accounts list her birth name as Shil Xiang Gu or Shil Gang Xu.

She was a prostitute in a floating brothel in the city of Canton (Guangzhou) in China. Her nickname as a prostitute was Shi Xianggu. She became famous in the region for her intelligence, business acumen, capacity for intrigues, and trading in confidential information.

In 1801, at the age of twenty-six, she married notorious pirate lord Cheng I (also known as Zheng Yi), who belonged to a powerful pirate family that was in the business of piracy for many generations. It is said that Zheng Yi noticed Ching Shih’s beauty and was infatuated with her, subsequently proposing to her for marriage. Other accounts say that Zheng Yi was impressed by the intelligence and business acumen of Ching Shih and wanted to marry her to have a companion to run his vast piracy empire.

She agreed to Zheng Yi’s marriage proposal under the condition that she would have half of the control and share over her husband’s piracy business. At the time of their marriage, Zheng Yi had about two hundred pirate ships and was one of the major pirates of the region.

Due to Zheng Yi’s tact and military acumen, other pirate lords of the Guangdong province formed an alliance with him which became a major pirate force by 1804. Zheng Yi’s pirate force was known as the ‘Red Flag Fleet’. On 16th November, 1807, Zheng Yi died in Vietnam at the age of thirty-nine years (according to some accounts he was aged forty-two at the time of his death).

After her husband’s death, Ching Shih rapidly manoeuvred herself at the helm of her husband’s pirate force and became its undisputed head. She formed an alliance with her husband’s step son Cheung Po Tsai with whom she quickly developed an intimate relationship

She then sought the support of the most powerful members of her late husband’s family. Her husband’s powerful nephews Ching Pao-yang and Ching Ch’i became her allies which helped her in gaining the full loyalty of her husband’s family.

She then took steps to gain the loyalty of the coalition of pirates formed by her late husband. She gained the trust of the fleet captains most loyal to her husband and also expanded her influence on other captains as well.

She made her lover and her late husband’s second-in-command, Cheung Po Tsai, as the official captain of the Red Flag Fleet. Although he was officially the captain, Cheung Po Tsai remained loyal to her and therefore the overall control of the Red Flag Fleet was in her hands.

She began her piracy career as the head of the largest pirate fleet of her times. Her fleet consisted of approximately eighteen hundred ships of varying sizes and about eighty thousand men.

The name Ching Shih means ‘widow of Cheng’. Her descendants are said to be still living in and around Macau and involved in the casino business. In Disney’s ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ franchise, she is the inspiration behind the character ‘Mistress Ching’, who is one of the nine pirate lords.