Who were the pirates of China?

 

To answer that question, we will look at two major Chinese pirate groups: Koxinga's and Cheng Shih's. Koxinga was the son of a merchant and saw the Chinese Ming empire fall to the Manchus in his youth. The Manchus introduced policies that made international, maritime trade virtually illegal. As a result, many Chinese pirate groups were comprised of former merchants, who were forced into participating in the black market. Koxinga would later ally himself with the remnants of the Ming to unsuccessfully take arms against the Qing in an attempt to retake southern China. Koxinga’s pirate crew was highly diverse and their ranks held a handful of Europeans, Tartars, and Africans who joined to escape marginalization and serve their economic interests. His ships and technology were often called “barbarian” by the Qing and were comprised of large, European-style ships and cannons. On the other hand, Cheng Shih was a former prostitute who inherited her husband’s pirate confederation after his death. She significantly improved the group’s organization and economic efficiency during her time as leader and eventually commanded 70,000 men. Her pirates largely came from marginalized groups like the coastal Kwangtung water peoples. They, due to a lack of governmental aid, abandoned their traditional fisherman jobs for piracy to survive. Reflecting their background of poverty, most of Cheng Shih’s ships were small junks without advanced weaponry like cannons. Her pirates often relied on trickery and brutality to overtake ships and used muskets called jingals and pikes to attack adversaries.

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How Did They Make Their Money?

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To transition into whether the term pirate accurately represents Chinese pirates, many factors from how they made their money, their internal structures, and even their ambitions suggest that some had far more complex positions in the region than the term pirate would entail. To start, for supposed pirates, Koxinga’s regime relied very little on stealing to make money. Instead, he gained success establishing a trade network that “was responsible for purchasing indigenous products (silks, porcelain, etc.). The goods were then shipped to the other branch located at Xiamen…They, in turn, sold the goods at the Japanese and Southeast Asian markets respectively” (Hung, Maritime Cap...). This network was highly lucrative and brought annually nearly five times more profit than the Dutch East India Company gained from its entire operations in East Asia in a year. It seems that most of his money came from building and negotiating not stealing or violence, so it appears that his pirates acted more like illegal merchants than pillagers. While Cheng Shih, did base more of her pirate economy off of pillaging ships, she quickly realized that she could make more by creating a passport system where ships passing through the South China Sea had to pay her regime for safety from robbery from her pirates and others. This could be seen as criminal racketeering, however, it could also be viewed as a form of taxation for crossing the “borders” of the most prominent naval power in the region. Also, it was not uncommon for the Dutch to pillage Chinese ships even when they had permission from Dutch leadership to sail. So, while she did act more like a pirate than Koxinga, many other legitimate states committed similar crimes and are not remembered as pirates which contributes to the subjectivity of the term.

 

What was their internal organization like?

 

Chinese pirates’ internal organizations also resembled those of legitimate governments at the time. Under Cheng Shih’s leadership, pirates had to follow a strict set of laws that required that they pay an 80% tax on all goods pillaged, not take shore leave without permission, not steal from neighboring islands that provided supplies, and not rape female prisoners without marrying them. In fact, “nothing could be done without a written application. Anything that was taken… was regularly entered into the storehouse” (Neumann, pg. 15). These laws were strictly enforced with severe consequences like death or bodily mutilation and reveal that Chinese pirates were highly organized and disciplined. So, instead of being a ragtag group of thieves and rejects, these codes of conduct indicate that they may have functioned more like soldiers in an army. Koxinga’s regime was very diplomatically oriented. He had years of written correspondence with his rivals the Dutch that he used to peacefully resolve disagreements. However, when he eventually did conquer Taiwan from the Dutch, he maintained a strict code of diplomacy with them. As per their agreement, he allowed the Dutch to leave with their weapons, valuables and lives intact. This demonstrates that his intentions in taking over the island were not to steal from the wealthy Dutch but rather to get land to make a legitimate country he could rule. So, his motivations appear to be more aligned with a ruler trying to establish a kingdom than a pirate. 

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What were their goals?

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This idea is further compounded when looking at Koxinga’s goals as a leader. Instead of finding contentment as a successful black market crime lord, he had ambitions to wrestle power from the Qing and rule parts of mainland China. As the Qing’s power was too limited to govern all of the mainland, Koxinga took over, began ruling, and even taxed 24 prefectures in Fujian, Guangdong, and Zhejiang. He set up a headquarters or capital in Xiamen where he not only ruled his unofficial kingdom but also created a ship and weapons building industrial center. He even tried to invade with the ambition to reinstate himself and the Ming as the rulers of Southern China. Although he eventually lost control of this land, his regime was able to hold Taiwan for three generations where they worked to improve agricultural infrastructure, collected taxes, and even established a bureaucratic system by instituting a civil service exam. Koxinga’s ultimate dream appeared to have been establishing a stable and legitimate state. Cheng Shih in this regard aligns more closely with the common perception of a pirate. While she did invade areas of mainland China, this was largely to strongarm settlements into paying for passports. However, their differences demonstrate the subjectivity of the term pirate as the pair had entirely different motivations but are still categorized as the same type of criminal. So while not all Chinese pirates shared the same ambitions to rule, it is clear that some acted more like political rivals to the state than just criminals.

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What was their longevity?

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One of the most significant factors challenging the idea that Chinese pirates were more than isolated criminal groups is the longevity of their success. Koxinga’s control over Taiwan only lasted two generations after his death before the island was taken by the Qing. Also, Cheng Shih’s pirate empire ended when she incorporated her group into the Qing navy in exchange for a pardon for her criminal activity. Even though they were some of the most successful pirates in history, they were unable to achieve much longevity. However, it is possible to separate the long-term success of their regimes from their intentions and actions, and it is clear that the term pirate hardly encompasses what Koxinga and Cheng Shih built during the peaks of their rules.