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She loved opium, handsome pirates, and spoke English... plus she allegedly (it's almost certainly not true) sometimes went into battle topless! He was a pirate warlord who, at one point, had hundreds of ships and tens of thousands of men under his control. Meet the Tsais (Cais): 蔡牽 and 蔡牽媽 a crazy couple who deservedly became absolute legends. This story's English information comes mostly from Maritime Taiwan: Historical Encounters with the East and the West (East Gate Books) by Prof. Henry Tsai.
Cover shows an example from a Western painting (artist unknown) of the Guangdong Red Flag Gang pirate ship. While not from the same group as Cai Qian and Cai Qian Ma, it gives you an example of the scale of these large pirate vessels that were considerably more powerful than ships from the Qing dynasty navy. In the top left corner is a fictional Chinese pirate flag idea created by a Synthetic-platypus/Reddit.
蔡牽 Tsai Ch’ien / Cai Qian - Wiki info.
蔡牽媽 Tsai Ch’ien Ma / Cai Qian Ma: Original name - Lu Shi 呂氏, best known by her nickname Cai Qian Ma "wife of Cai Qian". She was said to be fluent in English and an expert in Western weaponry. She doesn't have her own English Wiki page but is mentioned HERE.
STORIES / LEGENDS / FACTS
* A PIRATE MAFIA: The Qing government tried to counter the pirates by assigning local militias to protect salt ships, but this proved ineffective. Merchants realized that negotiating directly with pirates and paying protection fees was safer and more efficient than relying on the government. This led to a strange arrangement where pirates, acting as a mafia-like organization, provided a sort of protection service, demanding payment for safe passage. SOURCE
* WANTED FROM 1798: Cai Qian first gained notoriety in 1798, when the Qing Emperor mentioned him by name in imperial decrees. This catapulted him from an ordinary citizen to a wanted criminal, marking his entry onto the historical stage. SOURCE
* DEVOTION TO MAZU: Legend has it that the Mazu temples on Nan’gan Island, in Mazu'ao, Tieban, Jinsha, and Dongyin, were ALL built by Cai Qian. SOURCE
* HIDDEN TREASURE? Cai Qian possessed immense wealth, but it was inconvenient to carry it on board his ships, so he hid it on an island. After his death, the location of the treasure remained unknown. Years later, a merchant ship’s stove broke down. The captain anchored near an island and took his crew ashore. They found a derelict well and took a few bricks from it to repair their stove. To their surprise, the bricks were heavier than usual. Scraping off the mud, they found small gold nuggets inside. SOURCE
* SMALL ISLAND NEAR KINMEN BASE: In June 1802 (Year 7 of Jiaqing), Cai Qian led a force of 500 men, aboard 30 "wu" ships, to launch a surprise attack on the Dandan islands, both large and small, located off the coast of Kinmen. They easily defeated the Qing troops defending the islands and captured 13 cannons, a move that shocked the Qing government. SOURCE
* "GOING INTO BATTLE TOPLESS" STORY IS, UNFORTUNATELY, ALMOST CERTAINLY FICTIONAL: The story about Cai Qian Ma stripping naked to confuse the Qing soldiers is thought to be fictional, an added element likely added for dramatic effect and to showcase the resourcefulness of female pirates. SOURCE
* CHINESE PIRATES HAD SAME-SEX RELATIONSHIPS: In the unforgiving environment of the open seas, "intimate release" served as a major stress reliever. However, due to the volatile nature of the sea and the physical limitations of women, pirates often resorted to male companions for companionship and labor. Historical records reveal that many pirates used male companions for sexual gratification, often giving them feminine names. SOURCE
* NO RAPE POLICY: Powerful women like Cai Qian's wife, "Cai Qian Ma," Zhu Pun's wife, and Zheng Yi's wife, Zheng Yi's wife, enforced strict rules against sexual violence against women within their pirate crews. SOURCE
Maritime Taiwan: Historical Encounters with the East and the West (East Gate Books) by Prof. Henry Tsai.
Below: Not only did the boat bandits have advanced ships, but they also had cannons capable of suppressing the Qing navy. (First image source: triotriotrio / CC BY-SA 3.0)
Below: A real photo of a ship not that far removed from many of the vessels discussed in this story. "Mercantile Junks at Canton" - photograph by John Thomson. Albumen silver print from glass negative, circa 1869.
Below: An image from the webpage for the Cai Qian Pirate Village - or Xianghe Leisure Fishing Ground in Chiayi County.
Below: Read about CHING SHIH, the greatest pirate ever?
Wiki link HERE. Article below link HERE.
Below: An artist's idea of what Ching Shih (鄭氏) may have looked like... but we're gonna say it's a rather unlikely visage.
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Check our very first episode, the story of a very white man who showed up in London in 1703... and claimed to be from Formosa. Or try a foodie episode from Season 3. Or, for those who want some harder-core history, hear the tale of the Lockheed U-2 pilot Wang Hsi-chueh 王錫爵, who became famous for defecting to the PRC by hijacking China Airlines Flight 334 on May 3, 1986.
