Zheng Yi (also romanised as Cheng Yud or Cheng I ; born Zheng Wenxian,

courtesy name A courtesy name (), also known as a style name, is a name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one's given name. This practice is a tradition in the East Asian cultural sphere, including China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.Ulrich Theobald ...

Youyi; 1765 – 16 November 1807) was a powerful Chinese

pirate Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

operating from

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

and throughout the

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phil ...

in the late 1700s.

History

He was born Zheng Wenxian in 1765 in

Xin'an County Xin'an County () is a county in the west of Henan Province, bordering Shanxi Province to the north across the Yellow River. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Luoyang, and contains its northernmost point. History In an ...

Qing China The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu people, Manchu-led Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin (1616–1636), La ...

. 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 The Tây Sơn dynasty (, vi, Nhà Tây Sơn (Chữ Nôm: 茹西山); vi, Tây Sơn triều ( Hán tự: 西山朝) was a ruling dynasty of Vietnam, founded in the wake of a rebellion against both the Nguyễn lords and the Trịnh lords befor ...

up until 1801. In the year of about 1798, Zheng Yi kidnapped Cheung Po (), a 15-year-old son of a

Tankan Tankan (短観), a shorthand for ''kigyō tanki keizai kansoku chōsa'' (企業短期経済観測調査, literally Business Short-Term Economic Sentiment Survey), is a quarterly poll of business confidence reported by the Bank of Japan showing the ...

fisherman and pressed him into piracy. 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 Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding are ...

floating

brothel A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub par ...

madame Madame may refer to: * Madam, civility title or form of address for women, derived from the French * Madam (prostitution), a term for a woman who is engaged in the business of procuring prostitutes, usually the manager of a brothel * ''Madame'' ...

prostitute Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-penet ...

known as

Shi Xianggu Zheng Yi Sao (1775–1844; born Shi Yang, a.k.a. Shi Xianggu), also known as Ching Shih, was a Chinese pirate leader who was active in the South China Sea from 1801 to 1810. Born as Shi Yang in 1775 to humble origins, she married a pirate name ...

(), known for her shrewd business savvy and trade in secrets through the

pillow talk Pillow talk is the relaxed, intimate conversation that often occurs between two sexual partners, sometimes after sexual activity, usually accompanied by cuddling, caresses, kissing, and other physical intimacy. It is associated with honesty, sex ...

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" (. They adopted Cheung Po as their step-son, making him Zheng's legal heir. She also bore him two sons; Zheng Ying Shi () and Zheng Xiong Shi (). Zheng Yi used military assertion and his reputation to consolidate a coalition of competing Cantonese pirate fleets of uncertain numbers into an alliance. By 1804, 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. The pirate coalition besieged

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

for several weeks in 1804. In September 1805, a Chinese attack consisting of 80 gunboats in

Guangzhou Bay The Leased Territory of Guangzhouwan, officially the , was a territory on the coast of Zhanjiang in China leased to France and administered by French Indochina. The capital of the territory was Fort-Bayard, present-day Zhanjiang. The Japan ...

captured or destroyed only 26 pirate vessels. The general who had led the attack subsequently offered

pardons A pardon is a government decision to allow a person to be relieved of some or all of the legal consequences resulting from a criminal conviction. A pardon may be granted before or after conviction for the crime, depending on the laws of the ju ...

to those who surrendered; perhaps 3000 accepted this offer before it was withdrawn in December 1805. By 1806, virtually every Chinese vessel along the coast paid the pirates for ostensible protection.

Death

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 (; 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.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zheng, Yi Chinese pirates 1765 births 1807 deaths 19th-century pirates

History

Death

See also

References