Ching Shih

Mistress of the Red Flag

Ching Shih, also known as Zheng Yi Sao, was a Chinese pirate who commanded one of the most powerful fleets in history during the early nineteenth century. Beginning as a Cantonese woman who married a pirate captain, she took command of the Red Flag Fleet after his death, ruling tens of thousands of pirates and hundreds of ships under a strict code of law. Undefeated by the Qing navy and foreign powers alike, she negotiated an amnesty and retired with her plunder intact.