Pirate, Prostitute, Badass.
Ching Shih’s, born Shil Xiang Gu, early life in china remains a mystery. We do know that she was born in the Guangdong province of china in 1775. She became a prostitute who worked in a floating brothel in Canton. In 1801 pirate captain Zheng Yi, leader of the Red Flag Fleet, was at her brothel and noticed her beauty and the two went on to get married.
The Red Flag Fleet was a very, very powerful group of ships. Starting at around 200 ships , it eventually grew to a whopping 1800 ships with 50,000-70,000 pirates all together. in 1807, only 8 years of being married, Zheng Yi died and passed the flet on to his wife: Ching Shih.
Ching Shih stepped up to the plate to lead the Red Flag Fleet. She was a great leader for a pirate. She attempted to set up a form of government for her fleet even. Some of the rules that she made were that all the ships in the fleet must pool their money together for the better of the fleet as a whole. If a sip plundered something they were entitled to 20% of the loot and the rest of it was used put in the community fund.
Other rules she enacted were that women prisoners should remain safe and unharmed by their captures. However, If a pirate wished to marry a captive, they were allowed to but were bound to the code that they remain faithful to their spouse. Ching Shih became so powerful that she eventually began to rule over coastal towns and cities. Levying taxes from them among other things.
Ching Shih eventually gave up the life of privateer by striking a deal with the Chinese government for amnesty. She was eventually allowed to keep all her riches so long as she stopped being a pirate and so she did. She lived happily ever after running a brothel in Canton where she started.
Now don’t get me wrong, although Ching Shih was not a good person. Perhaps she was even a bad person. But one thing is for sure, If you can be a prostitute one year and not even a decade later you are running the largest pirate fleet in history you are a damn badass.
http://www.thewayofthepirates.com/famous-pirates/ching-shih/