WOMEN OF HISTORY | CHING SHIH (1775–1844) (Gong Li)

For ten years, Ching Shih commanded a pirate armada of around four hundred ships and several thousand men. She’d been brought on board by the captain as little more than a spoil but soon married him and with her wits and fearlessness they rarely lost a battle and terrorised the China Sea. She was as strict and ruthless on her own crew as she was on other ships, with punishments of death for looting towns that already provided tribute, for stealing from the pirate treasury, or for raping prisoners.

The Chinese government sent the Imperial fleet to stop her and Ching Shih sailed to meet them head on, not only winning but capture sixty-three of their ships as well. After that, the government gave up on trying to defeat her and instead offered all pirates amnesty if they would give up their ships and arms. Instead Ching Shih brokered her own deal: on top of amnesty they got to keep all their loot and any one of them that wanted to join the navy would be allowed to do so.

She retired at the age of thirty-five, opened a casino/brothel, and lived out the rest of her life in comfort and luxury.