“I never planted wheat and never will, so long as there are other harvests to be reaped with the sword.” —Robert E. Howard (from ‘Beyond the Black River’)

“In the rough and violent world of seafaring, mariners could not afford to always abide by the niceties of the law or proper etiquette.” —Robert J Anthony

“There is no greater calamity than not knowing what is enough”. —Tao Te Ching

At the very beginning of the 1800s, a Chinese woman went from being employed as a prostitute in the floating brothels close to Canton to becoming the leader of the biggest pirate confederacy in modern history. Despite ending up as one of the most successful pirates ever, little is known about her. Today, we dive into the mystery and explore her story.

In this episode:

The three waves of piracy

Piracy as a family business

The boat people

“People are not born sea bandits, but drift into brigandage because they can no longer support themselves.” Wang Zhiyin governor of Fujian

The Tay-Son rebellion

Death by a thousand cuts

The seven pirate bosses and the creation of the biggest pirate confederacy in modern history

When pirates invite you to join their crew, saying ‘no’ is not an option

A pirate’s life for me: opium, prostitutes, gambling, fights

The rise of Cheng I Sao, and her saving the Confederacy

Chang Pao

Cheng I Sao’s law: “Off with his head!”

Former prostitute, full time pirate leader and part time shaman

Straight out of Game of Thrones: fireboats

Cheng I Sao and the Taoist talent of knowing when to stop

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My lady (and author of History on Fire logo, plus producer and editor of History on Fire) has a FB public page about her art & fighting: https://www.facebook.com/NahryEm/. Thank you to Onnit, Datsusara, Float Clinic, Shaman’s Simple Solutions, War Fuel, Proven Nutrition, and Fight Chix for sponsoring her for her first MMA fight. If you’d like to check out Fight Chix merchandise, you can get a 20% discount by going to http://www.fightchix.com/ and entering the code Fire20 upon checkout.

This is my public FB page: https://www.facebook.com/danielebolelli1/

Here is a link to the audiobook of my “Not Afraid”: http://www.danielebolelli.com/downloads/not-afraid-audiobook/

For those of you who may be interested, here is a lecture series I created about Taoist philosophy: http://www.danielebolelli.com/downloads/taoist-lectures/

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