China and Piracy

When people think of pirates, typically they do not think of the chinese or even women for that matter. But Mrs. Cheng or Cheng I Sao ruled the South China Sea in the early nineteenth century. She is even compared to the great female military leaders Boadicea and Joan of Arc by David Cordingly.

Mrs. Cheng and her husband created a pirate confederation that at its height included 50,000 pirates! By 1805, they completely dominated the coast of southern China. In 1807, Mrs. Cheng took over sole command after the death of her husband. She laid down a strict code of conduct for the pirates:

• The punishment for disobeying an order or for stealing from the common treasure was death by beheading.
• For deserting or going AWOL a pirate would have his/her ears cut off.
• For concealing plundered goods the offender would be whipped.
• The rape of a female captive was punsihable by death. If it was found that the woman had agreed to have sex, the man was beheaded and the woman was thrown overboard with a weight attached to her legs.

As you can tell these were not your typical loot, pillage, and rape pirates. They were much more strict, but also much more successful. Every naval force sent out by the Chinese government to intercept the pirates was defeated and by the end of 1808 the authorities had lost 63 vessels.

Some villages formed militias to protect themselves from pirate raids, but often the pirates swept aside the amateur forces and took a terrible revenge. At the village of Sanshan in August 1809, the pirates burned the place to the ground, beheaded 80 villagers, and hung heir heads on a tree. When the pirates attacked the island of Tao-chiao, they killed a thousand of the islanders.

During the height of the pirates power in 1809, the confederation's fleet was larger than the navy of many countries. There were about 200 oceangoing junks and between 600 and 800 coastal junks. There were also many small river junks used to raid villages that failed to pay protection money.

In 1810, the Chinese government offered amnesty. Also, if the pirates surrendered their weapons and junks, they would be allowed to keep their plunder. And thus ended the reign of one of the largest pirate communites there has ever been.