Her birth and childhood

This story begins more than 200 years ago with a woman named Shi Yang, who was born in Guangzhou, China around 1775 to a poverty-stricken family. It is suspected that Yang was of a boat dwelling people who mainly occupied Shanghai, Macau, and Hong Kong. Not much else is known about her childhood and early years– until she was forced into her life as a sex worker.

How she came to rule

Yang worked on a floating brothel in her twenties, and was known to be a shrewd business woman and the Madame of the establishment she worked in. She is said to have traded secrets from loose-lipped patrons for coin as well— though she seemed to have her sights on something bigger for herself.

One fateful morning a successful pirate by the name of Zheng Yi visited her bordello. After their various encounters it is said that one of two things happened: either Zheng Yi asked Yang to marry him, or the cunning Madame persuaded him to marry her.

For some background, piracy was lucrative and pirates were often successful in evading and defeating Asian and European naval forces. Apparently, piracy was common among fishermen when monsoon season came and fishing wouldn’t be reliable enough to sustain families.

If Yang was to marry Zheng Yi, she could profit greatly. Whether she was the one to propose the engagement or not, the two of them did get married in 1801 when she was 26 years old. Marriage to him bought her freedom, and she was brought along with him on his pirate escapades. After her marriage she took on the name Zheng Yi Sao (Wife of Zheng Yi), and had two sons with him.

Her life as a pirate and retirement

Sao’s influence was active in the South China sea from 1801-1810. At this time, the pirates of the region were fractured and there was constant infighting as they competed for resources. Zheng Yi and Sao began working on an agreement that eventually led to the confederation of 6 leaders that commanded a total of 1800 ships and over 70,000 pirates – that’s over a hundred times the size of Blackbeard’s fleet.

In 1807, Zheng Yi was thrown overboard during a monsoon and drowned. This left an empty role to be filled, one that Sao quickly took up. Before they were married, Zheng Yi had kidnapped a boy that became his “adopted son.” At the time of Zheng Yi’s death, this son was one of the fleet’s leaders. Sao married him to get his support for her takeover of the supreme leadership. Nothing like a borderline incestuous relationship to secure your role as pirate queen.

At the height of this pirate empire, they were responsible for the terrorizing of the Southern Chinese coast— murdering, robbing, and selling civilians into slavery. Besides doing pirate things, they also provided expensive paid protection services to the ships that needed to maneuver pirate-infested waters. To escape their wrath, merchant ships had to purchase a sort of passport from Sao. If a ship didn’t have a passport, they were fair game for raiding– and they saved particularly brutal treatment for the navy soldiers they came across. They also targeted salt ships, which became so successful that only 4 out of over 200 of the imperial navy’s salt merchant ships remained outside of her control

Sao maintained an odd kind of code though— she created systems to divide up stolen treasure in a welfare-like system among the fleets. She became so cunning and powerful that the Chinese, British, and Portuguese navies couldn’t do anything to outman or outspend her.

The Chinese navy’s saving grace was when infighting began amongst the fleets around 1810. Sao struck a bargain with the Imperial Navy — she’d surrender if she could keep a small fleet of about 30 ships, and was allowed to keep most of the treasure they collected (or stole).

After the death of her adopted-son-turned-husband, she returned to her home town to raise the son they had together. She died a peaceful death at the age of 69, surrounded by the wealth she amassed from her reign.

Lessons to take away

So, what can we learn from Zheng Yi Sao? A woman who was thrust into a life of poverty, a life where she had no choice as to who she could be, and had to make the best of her situation as a poor woman in southern China?

Her crimes of robbery and murder should not be overlooked, but it’s not often that we get to hear about female villains in history. One thing I realized was that, because I hadn’t heard of her until my mid-twenties, she must have been truly unstoppable. Our world likes to dim the light of powerful women, and she was so powerful that she made the Imperial Navy bend their knee to her. If that doesn’t get you excited, I don’t know what does! What I’ve decided to take away from my learnings about Zheng Yi Sao is that I am capable of being powerful, even in a world that is reluctant to acknowledge a woman’s success.

Artistic rendering of Zheng Yi Sao by author Enzie Riddle. The print is available at We R Angry, in Riddle’s Forgotten Women collection.

Zheng Yi Sao is a Nasty Woman Entrepreneur.

© Enzie Riddle 2025

Works Cited

Carter, James. “China’s pirate queen Zheng Yi Sao’s final success: retirement – The China Project.” The China Project, 13 April 2022, https://thechinaproject.com/2022/04/13/chinas-pirate-queen-zheng-yi-saos-final-success-retirement/. Accessed 9 August 2025.

Cartwright, Mark. “Zheng Yi Sao.” World History Encyclopedia, 15 November 2021, https://www.worldhistory.org/Zheng_Yi_Sao/. Accessed 12 August 2025.

Chang, Rita. “Zheng Yi Sao.” Zheng Yi Sao – Wikipedia, Wikipedia, 14 December 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zheng_Yi_Sao. Accessed 9 August 2025.

Cyphers, Stephanie. “Zheng Yi Sao: The Most Successful Pirate You’ve Never Heard Of.” ANDASIAN, 23 April 2024, https://andasian.com/zheng-yi-sao-the-most-successful-pirate-youve-never-heard-of/. Accessed 11 August 2025.

“Zheng Yi Sao: The most successful pirate in history.” BBC, 15 August 2022, https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p0cgfmwn/zheng-yi-sao-the-most-successful-pirate-in-hi story. Accessed 11 August 2025.

Images

“Pirates: An Illustrated History of Privateers, Buccaneers & Pirates from the Sixteenth Century to
the Present.” Wikpedia, 1836,
http://book.ifeng.com/psl/dzsp/200907/0727_3553_1270289.shtml. Accessed 18 August
2025.

Pusteblume, Sarah. “Zheng Yi Sao – Pirate Queen of the Qing Dynasty.” HistoryHeroines, 4
April 2018, http://historyheroines.com/2018/04/04/zheng-yi-sao/. Accessed 18 August
2025.