Zheng Yi (pirate)
Template:Short description Template:Family name hatnote Template:Infobox pirate Template:Infobox Chinese Zheng Yi (also romanised as Cheng Yud or Cheng I; born Zheng Wenxian, courtesy name Youyi; 1765 – 16 November 1807)<ref>Dian H. Murray 1987, p.64.:Template:Cite book</ref> was a powerful Chinese pirate operating from Guangdong and throughout the South China Sea in the late 1700s.
HistoryEdit
According to Antony, "From 1802 until his death in a typhoon in the Southern Ocean in 1807, the most formidable pirate leader in Guandong was Zheng Yi, a cousin of Zheng Qi. Both Zhengs belonged to a notorious family of professional pirates, which for nearly a century and a half were the predominant pirates in the Canton delta. They traced their beginnings to the mid-seventeenth century with Zheng Jian, who hailed from Fujian and was subordinate of Zheng Chenggong. Two descendants, the brothers Zheng Lianfu and Zheng Lianchang, carried on the family tradition as sea bandits. They in turn were followed by their sons, Zheng Qi and Zheng Yi...After the death of Zheng Qi in 1802, Zheng Yi took command of his cousin's forces."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
He was born Zheng Wenxian in 1765 in Xin'an County, Guangdong, Qing China. His family, including his father Zheng Lianchang and his younger brother Zheng San had been pirates for generations, he and other pirates were recruited as mercenaries by Tây Sơn dynasty up until 1801. In the year of about 1798, Zheng Yi kidnapped Cheung Po (Template:Zh), a 15-year-old son of a Tankan fisherman and pressed him into piracy.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Cheung Po's natural talent helped him adapt well to his unplanned new career, and he rose swiftly through the ranks.
In 1801, the nefarious intrigues of the 26 year old Cantonese floating brothel madame or prostitute known as Shi Xianggu (Template:Zh), known for her shrewd business savvy and trade in secrets through the pillow talk of her wealthy and political clientele, caught his attention. Either he became infatuated with her or purely as a business move, Zheng Yi made a proposal of marriage to Shi Xianggu to consolidate the powers of intrigue, as it were, which she is said to have agreed to by formal contract granting her a 50% control and share. Shi Xianggu was known as "Zheng Yi Sao" (Template:Zh. They adopted Cheung Po as their step-son, making him Zheng's legal heir. She also bore him two sons; Zheng Ying Shi (Template:Zh) and Zheng Xiong Shi (Template:Zh).
Around 1805, Zheng Yi rose to become the leader of a group of six Asian pirate chiefs.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This coalition was a formidable force, and one of the most powerful pirate fleets in all of China. They were known as the Red Flag Fleet. Most of his fleet, which numbered over 200 ships, consisted of junks. These were sizable ships capable of holding 800 tons of cargo and armed with as many as 40 cannons. Those ships were manned by at least 20,000 sailers, and the total number of men under his leadership could have reached as many as 40,000.<ref name=":0" />
The pirate coalition besieged Macau for several weeks in 1804. In September 1805, a Chinese attack consisting of 80 gunboats in Guangzhou Bay captured or destroyed only 26 pirate vessels. The general who had led the attack subsequently offered pardons to those who surrendered; perhaps 3000 accepted this offer before it was withdrawn in December 1805.<ref name=Rogozinski>Template:Cite book</ref>
By 1806, virtually every Chinese vessel along the coast paid the pirates for ostensible protection.<ref name=Rogozinski/>
One notable member of Zheng Yi’s crew was Chang Pao, the son of a fisherman, who was captured by pirates around 1801. He then appointed him as a captain of one of his Red Flag ships, and the young man eventually became both his lover and adopted son.<ref name=":0" />
DeathEdit
Zheng Yi died suddenly in Nguyễn Vietnam on 16 November 1807, sources varied on whether he died in a typhoon, falling overboard in an accident, or if he was killed by his wife, or his new heir. Soon after his death, his widow Ching Shih (Template:Zh; meaning "widow of Zheng") acted quickly to solidify the partnership with her step-son Cheung Po Tsai. The two soon became intimate. Their first success came when they are able to secure the loyalty of Zheng's relatives. Cheung Po Tsai, would act as Ching Shih's second-in-command of the Red Flag Fleet.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
BibliographyEdit
- Dian H. Murray, Pirates of the South China Coast, 1790-1810 (Stanford University Press, 1987)
- Robert J. Antony, Like Froth Floating on the Sea: The World of Pirates and Seafarers in Late Imperial South China (Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, 2003)
- Urvija Banerji, The Chinese Female Pirate Who Commanded 80,000 Outlaws (Atlas Obscura 2016)
- Rogozinski Jan, Dictionary of Pirates ( Wordsworth Editions Ltd, 1999)
- Ciaran Conliffe, Cheung Po Tsai and Ching Shih, Pirate Monarchs (Head Stuff, August 2017)