SAO ZHENG YI (aka Ching Shih, born Shi Yang, c. 1775 – 1844), Chinese pirate leader whose band terrorized the South China Sea between 1801 and 1810. She evaded capture by the British, Portuguese, and Chinese navies and was never brought to justice, making her arguably the most successful pirate of all time.
Zheng Yi Sao was born in the canton of Guangdong and may or may not have worked in a brothel. In 1801 she married the pirate Zheng Yi and joined him in his depredations. The new couple promptly went about consolidating the six disparate pirate fleets in the region under Zheng Yi’s command, and the new arrangement was formalized in 1805.
Not long after assuming command of the pirate confederation, however, Zheng Yi fell overboard in a storm and died. It was left to Zheng Yi Sao to take control of all six fleets—estimated to have consisted of up to eighty thousand pirates manning nearly two thousand vessels (by way of comparison, the famous pirate Blackbeard was said to have had only a few ships and several hundred pirates under his command). The pirate confederation became much more active after Zheng Yi Sao took over, engaging in frequent battles with Chinese, Portuguese, and British fleets and marauding coastal villages— one raiding campaign along the Pearl River reportedly led to the deaths of as many as ten thousand people.
So successful were Zheng Yi Sao’s campaigns and so feared were her vessels that the Qing government, desperate to end her reign of terror over the seas, eventually offered her and her pirates amnesty as long as they agreed to cease operations.
In 1810 Zheng Yi Sao surrendered to the authorities under the condition that she retain her freedom, a small fleet for her personal use, and her considerable booty. She lived out her days peacefully as the mistress of a gambling house in Guangdong. In Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, the character of Mistress Ching, “pirate lord” of the Pacific, was inspired by Zheng Yi Sao.