Zheng Zhilong

• Chinese: 鄭芝龍 (Zhèng zhīlóng)

Zheng Zhilong was a prominent Chinese pirate (wakô leader) of the early 17th century, Ming loyalist, and father to Zheng Chenggong (aka Coxinga).

Zheng spent time in Macao in his youth, learning European languages and about Christianity, and eventually becoming a translator for the Dutch East India Company (VOC), while also becoming a member of a pirate gang led by Yan Siqi.

He became head of Yan's gang sometime after 1625, and began harrying wealthy merchants and government officials, as well as other Ming government targets. According to some accounts, he deliberately avoided bothering peasant villages, in order to develop a reputation of "robbing from the rich in order to champion the poor." As a result, he gained considerable followings among the common people. Failing to stop Zheng on their own, or to organize an alliance with the Dutch to stop him, Ming officials instead appointed him to an imperial position in 1628, assigning him to patrol the seas and to attack (other) pirates. He reveled in the task, destroying many of his rival pirates, and began selling silks and other goods to the Dutch for silver. By 1637, he was a major power in the region, controlling extensive maritime trade networks and protection rackets. By this point, he had eliminated most if not all of his pirate competitors, connecting up trade routes from Korea down to the Straits of Malacca, and established bases of power in and around Taiwan, where he continued to harass the VOC.

Following his death, his son Zheng Chenggong inherited control of his operations, power, and networks.

References

• Matt Matsuda, Pacific Worlds, University of Cambridge Press (2012), 108-109.