Ching shih biography of mahatma
Meet Ching Shih: the prostitute-turned-pirate who banned rape in her 50,000-man fleet
Mrs. Cheng: The Most Successful Pirate in History
Perhaps most astonishingly, she survived and lived out her years peacefully at the invitation of the Chinese Qing government – with all of her riches intact. In the mother of all rags-to-riches tales, we’ll map her ascent from humble prostitute to the head of the Red Flag Fleet: a 50,000-strong pirate army.
Obscure beginnings
Like so many politically influential women before (and after) her, Ching Shih went undocumented by history for a shockingly long time.In fact, her legacy was only first explored in depth in 1987, when Dian Murray published Pirates of the South China Coast, 1790-1810 – 143 years after the pirate lord died. Records call her Ching Shih, Madam Ching or Zheng Shi, all meaning ‘widow of Zheng Yi’; though she was born Shil Gang Xu, a girl from the Guangdong (Canton) province of south east China.
The Chinese Female Pirate Who Commanded 80,000 Outlaws
At one point, it seems she worked as a prostitute on a floating brothel; though there is scant documentation of her life before 1801.