Zheng Yi Sao

Dead Funny History: Zheng Yi Sao. She ruled the South China Sea, terrified navies, and ran her pirate empire with ruthless efficiency – meet Zheng Yi Sao, the Pirate Queen of Admin. In this family friendly episode of Dead Funny History, historian Greg Jenner dives into the extraordinary life of Zheng Yi Sao, one of the most powerful pirates who ever lived. Born around 1775 in Guangdong, China, Shi Yang (as she was first known) rose from poverty to command a fleet of 70,000 pirates. Her journey began with a job on a boat where she sold secrets to powerful men, and took a dramatic turn when she married the notorious pirate Zheng Yi. After her husband’s death in 1807 – either by cannon or storm – Zheng Yi Sao took command of the pirate confederation. She wasn’t just a fearsome fighter; she was a master of organisation. She split her fleet into colour-coded squadrons, enforced strict rules (including ear removal for slackers), and offered perks like pensions and healthcare. Her pirates even had a retirement home. Greg reveals how Zheng Yi Sao’s empire grew through clever business tactics. She sold protection certificates to merchants, hijacked salt shipments, and outnumbered the Qing navy three to one. Her pirates wielded massive 8-foot guns called jingals and swam into battle with machete-tipped poles. At one point, the city of Canton panicked just from a polite warning of attack. Despite efforts by the Chinese government – and help from the Portuguese and British navies – Zheng Yi Sao remained undefeated. Eventually, she retired in luxury after being paid off by the empire. She may have run an illegal gambling house in her later years, but she died rich and respected in 1844. With jokes, sound effects, and a quiz to test your memory, this episode is a swashbuckling, spreadsheet-wielding celebration of a pirate legend. Writers: Gabby Hutchinson Crouch, Athena Kugblenu and Dr Emma Nagouse Host: Greg Jenner Performers: Mali Ann Rees and Richard David-Caine Producer: Dr Emma Nagouse Associate Producer: Gabby Hutchinson Crouch Audio Producer: Emma Weatherill Script Consultant: Dr Ron Po Production Coordinator: Liz Tuohy Production Manager: Jo Kyle Sound Designer: Peregrine Andrews A BBC Studios Production

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Greg Jenner?

  This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.

• 0:06Speaker 01

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• 0:34Speaker 02

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• 1:09Greg Jenner?

  Hello and welcome to Dead Funny History. I'm Greg Jenner and I'm a historian and I want to tell you about someone cool. Do you have a favourite pirate? Long John Silver? Blackbeard?

• 1:24Greg Jenner?

  The stereotypical pirate is a man with a Bristol accent. But one of the most fearsome pirates of all was a woman from 19th century China, pirate queen Zhongyi Siao.

• 1:38Greg Jenner?

  Now, we don't know much about Zhongyi Siao's early life, but her birth name was probably Shi Yang and she was born around the year 1775. She was quite poor and lived in a part of China called Guangdong, right by the sea.

• 1:54Greg Jenner?

  It wasn't very nice. There was lots of fighting and a terrible cost of living crisis. Fishermen and boatmen in her neighbourhood often had to make up the extra money by getting second jobs as part-time pirates. So what attracted you to the role of weekend pirate?

• 2:14Speaker 03

  Honestly, I just really need the money.

• 2:17Greg Jenner?

  Fair enough, you're hired. Grab a sword and don't get too attached to your limbs.

• 2:24Greg Jenner?

  Xue Yang lived under the rule of the Qing Empire, and women did not have a lot of power. By 1801, in her mid twenties, she had a job on a boat where men would pay ladies for their company. She also made extra money by selling secret information that her important clients would tell her in confidence. While doing this work, Xue Yang met a well-known pirate named Chung Yi, and they got married. She was now known as Chung Yi Sao, which basically means "the wife of Chung". She was going up in the world. Sure, the Qing government didn't let women get jobs in admin... Stop that! But Chung Yi Sao was incredible at admin.

• 3:06Speaker 04

  I'll show you.

• 3:09Greg Jenner?

  Yep, the one thing you need to be a really good pirate isn't singing shanties or keeping a parrot. It's actually management skills and paperwork.

• 3:20Speaker 03

  Watch out! There's the most fearsome pirate of all!

• 3:24Speaker 04

  What's she packing? A cutlass? A rifle?

• 3:28Speaker 03

  Worse! It's a... spreadsheet! Oh, Lord, no!

• 3:36Greg Jenner?

  Mr. and Mrs. Chung Yi got all the part-time pirates and smugglers to join a unified pirate confederation. At one point, they had a workforce of seventy thousand pirates. Imagine the queue in the canteen at lunchtime. To help organise the massive pirate fleet, the ships were split into six squadrons: black, white, green, blue, and yellow. I mean, that's how you identify Power Rangers, not pirates. I suppose sometimes simpler is better.

• 4:06Speaker 03

  Any ideas for squadron names? Oh, body parts, shapes, emotions, body parts! You already said body parts. Types of cloud, body parts, colours! That's it! Body parts? Colours! Do you just really want to chop someone up? Yeah. Go on, then. Oh, thanks, boss!

• 4:29Greg Jenner?

  The pirate confederation dominated the South China Sea, which was 3.5 million square kilometres of sea. A lot of sea. And it bordered eight different countries. Bit bigger than your usual pirate treasure.

• 4:44Speaker 03

  Yar! Welcome to Pirate Show and Tell. Here be a shiny doubloon from my summer holidays.

• 4:53Speaker 04

  That was nothing. I got all of the South China Sea.

• 4:58Speaker 03

  Yar! A show-off TV, Chong Yi Sao.

• 5:04Greg Jenner?

  Things were going great for the Chongs. Yar! Until 1807, when Mr. Chung did what pirates did best: get blown up by a cannon. Well, it was either that, or he got blown off the deck by a storm. Either way, it was a very piraty way to die.

• 5:21Speaker 03

  Um, Mrs. Boss, the bad news is your husband is dead.

• 5:26Speaker 04

  No! The love of my life, my Pookie Boo, is the worst day ever!

• 5:33Speaker 03

  Yeah, I know. The good news is, it looked really cool and piraty.

• 5:37Speaker 04

  Oh, phew! I was worried it was that mouldy egg he ate.

• 5:42Greg Jenner?

  Chong Yi Sao was now a widow. Yar! Which was actually a brilliant opportunity for her. Yar? She ensured she was made the big boss by getting the support of the other powerful pirates. She also filled her husband's empty slot as head of the powerful Red Squadron with a young man called Chong Pao. Now, Chong Pao is where our story goes from savvy business dealings... ...to full-on soap opera. Chong Pao was very loyal to Chong Yi Sao because after being abducted by pirates when he was just 15, he sort of became her adopted son. Ooh! Yeah, bit complicated. And the newly widowed Chong Yi Sao made it even more complicated.

• 6:25Greg Jenner?

  To ensure he was even more loyal to her, she married Chong Pao. Ooh! Weird marriage aside, Chong Yi Sao had a management style that was incredibly effective.

• 6:38Speaker 04

  Hi, I'm Chong Yi Sao, CEO of Pirates. What are my top tips for keeping staff motivated at work? One: If they don't do what they're told, kill 'em! Two: If they steal, kill 'em! Three: If they bunk off work, issue a stern warning by cutting off their ears! Four: Dress down Fridays!

• 7:04Greg Jenner?

  Under Chongyi Sao's new laws, pirates also received perks like medical care and a pension. Nice.

• 7:12Speaker 04

  Jailing in debt? Free yourself from spiraling costs by jacking it all in and taking up piracy. I'm Chongyi Sao, CEO of Pirates. For the small fee of your absolute loyalty, I offer competitive pay, healthcare and a pension fund. Your ears and head could be at risk if you do not keep up loyalty to your boss. The pirate can tell that she takes no responsibility if you are blown up. There is a small chance they'll adopt and then marry you.

• 7:38Greg Jenner?

  Chongyi Sao still wanted to expand her empire and luckily, there was a great source of wealth she could go after.

• 7:45Speaker 03

  Salt by Chongyi Sao.

• 7:58Speaker 03

  Exotic. Expensive.

• 8:03Speaker 03

  Mmm, great on crisps.

• 8:06Greg Jenner?

  Yeah, salt was really valuable. So whenever one of the government's salt shipments tried to sail off to do trade...

• 8:14Speaker 03

  Stick 'em out! Your salt or your land?

• 8:17Greg Jenner?

  She'd nick it. And not just the cargo, actually. The whole ship and crew. And she kept doing this until she controlled almost all of the Qing government's salt trade, leaving them with only four salt ships.

• 8:32Speaker 03

  Governor, she took another ship! There's only four left! Oh, the emperor's gonna kill me! Oh, well, I'd take that with a pinch of salt. I can't! She stole it all!

• 8:43Greg Jenner?

  And it wasn't just salt ships. Pretty soon, Chongyi Sao targeted all kinds of merchant ships. And flexing her admin skills again, she started selling protection certificates that allowed people to sail past her ships without being attacked.

• 8:57Speaker 04

  Are you sick and tired of this happening?

• 9:02Speaker 03

  So, we're being boarded! Ow, my ears!

• 9:06Speaker 04

  I'm Chongyi Sao, CEO of Pirates, and I have the solution for a small fee. We will give you this delightful certificate promising you safe passage, either as a pay-as-you-go one-off or an annual subscription. Just visit one of our many offices on the coast and we'll find the right package for you to travel with a peace of mind that we won't tack you to bits. Pirate passes? Why go to the trouble of me sealing from you when you can simply give me the money? Ha ha, it's just dead business.

• 9:38Greg Jenner?

  Yep, she was the pirate queen of admin.

• 9:40Speaker 04

  Mighty admin smash!

• 9:44Greg Jenner?

  Not just admin, mind.

• 9:46Speaker 04

  And also violence!

• 9:50Greg Jenner?

  By 1805, Chongyi Sao's pirate fleet outnumbered the Qing Empire's whole navy three times over, and they were great at fighting. They would scare their enemies with a massive eight-foot gun called a jingao that needed two people to carry it and a third person to perch it on their shoulder.

• 10:09Speaker 04

  Stay back, pirate, or I'll shoot!

• 10:12Speaker 03

  Ha! You call that a gun? This!

• 10:20Speaker 03

  Hang on a sec, I need a couple of mates to help me here.

• 10:25Speaker 03

  This is a gun! Hello? Oh, he's gone.

• 10:30Greg Jenner?

  Chongyi Sao's pirates also swam up to their enemies while carrying 50 to 30 feet-long poles that had machetes stuck on the end, a bit harder than diving for a brick at the bottom of the swimming pool. The pirates were so feared that in 1809, the city of Canton went into a total panic just because Chong Pao, her young husband/son, posted notices saying that he intended to attack them. Very polite of him to warn them, though.

• 10:57Speaker 04

  Dear people of Canton, just a little note to say that we would simply love to invade you with our massive guns, so you might want to think about surrendering. No worries if not. Love and kisses, Chong Pao.

• 11:10Speaker 03

  He's being considerate. Run away!

• 11:14Greg Jenner?

  Eventually, the Chinese government realised they couldn't deal with Chongyi Sao alone. After trying a coastal blockade to cut off her supplies, they got help from other countries with massive fleets.

• 11:29Speaker 04

  Ships getting stolen called pirate control, aka the Portuguese navy.

• 11:34Greg Jenner?

  And the British. But even with outside help, some of China's navy were so scared of the pirates that they would destroy their own ships rather than fight them.

• 11:45Speaker 03

  Sir, the pirates are coming. Men, draw your blades and help me cut a massive hole in this ship's hull.

• 11:57Greg Jenner?

  So how do you stop someone so savvy and ferocious? Well, by 1810, Zhongyi Sao had stolen so much stuff that the Chinese government basically said,

• 12:07Speaker 03

  Oh, please pack it in, we'll give you loads of money.

• 12:11Greg Jenner?

  So she and her pirates retired in luxury. Fair play. Stealing ships, ruining international trade and running your own shadow empire must have got tiring.

• 12:21Speaker 04

  I'm Zhongyi Sao, the CEO of Pirates. Is it time for you to slow down? Been offered a huge bribe by the Empire's Stop Thieving. Why not book yourself into Pirate Haven Retirement Home for Pirates? Relax in the height of luxury as we're all absolutely loaded now. Activities include pillagerobics, digging for treasure and pirate bingo.

• 12:48Speaker 03

  Bingo! Oh lovely, I won the ears of my enemy.

• 12:52Speaker 04

  Pirate's Haven Retirement, because if you do it on a big enough scale, crime does pay.

• 13:01Greg Jenner?

  We don't know much about what happened to Zhongyi Sao after that. She may have run a very illegal gambling house. I suppose she might have wanted to keep her hand in with a bit of crime as a retirement hobby. I mean, I can't really see her doing watercolours.

• 13:17Speaker 03

  Oh, that's a nice picture, Zhongyi Sao. What is it?

• 13:22Speaker 04

  Just me and some mates boarding a ship with eight-foot jingles and dismembering a Portuguese captain.

• 13:29Speaker 03

  Right, we're supposed to be painting flowers, but that's fine. Gold star, carry on.

• 13:38Greg Jenner?

  Having gone big and then gone home, Chung Isao died in 1844 as a rich old lady, possibly aged about 69. She was one of the most successful and powerful pirates that ever lived. So, how much do you remember from today's speedy history lesson? Let's find out. Pencils are the ready. Question one: How were Chung Isao's pirate squadron separated out?

• 14:04Greg Jenner?

  By colour. Question two: How could merchant ships avoid pirate attack from Chung Isao?

• 14:13Greg Jenner?

  By paying the pirates for a certificate. And question three: What is the name of the massive eight-foot gun that Chung Isao's pirates used? Jinga.

• 14:26Greg Jenner?

  Well done. Join us next time for another snappy history lesson. And if you're a grown-up and want to learn more about Chung Isao, listen to our episode of You're Dead to Me with Dr Ron Poe. Thank you for listening. Bye. This was a BBC Studios audio production for Radio 4. Dead Funny History was written by Gabby Hutchinson-Crouch, Athena Kugblenu and Dr Emma Nagouse. It was hosted by me, Greg Jenner, and performed by Malian Rees and Richard David Caine. The script consultant was Dr Ron Poe.

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