The Taiping Rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a massive rebellion or civil war in China that was waged from 1850 to 1864 between the established Manchu-led Qing dynasty and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Hong Xiuquan, born Hong Huoxiu and with the courtesy name Renkun, was a Hakka Chinese revolutionary who was the leader of the Taiping Rebellion against the Qing Dynasty. He established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom over varying portions of southern China, with himself as the "Heavenly King" and self-proclaimed brother of Jesus Christ.
The Third Battle of Nanking was the last major engagement of the Taiping Rebellion, occurring in 1864 after the death of the king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Hong Xiuquan. There were probably more than a million troops in the battle and the Taiping army sustained 100,000 dead in the three-day clash. Following the defeat of the Taiping army the Imperial troops, commanded by Zeng Guofan, slaughtered much of the city's population. Nanking had been the capital of the Heavenly Kingdom and was known by the Taipings as Tianjing. This battle was the effective end of the Taiping army and Nanking was the last major Taiping city to fall back under Imperial control.
Yang Xiuqing, was an organizer and commander-in-chief of the Taiping Rebellion.
The Jintian Uprising was an armed revolt formally declared by Hong Xiuquan on 11 January 1851 during the late Qing Dynasty. The uprising was named after the rebel base in Jintian, a town in Guangxi within present-day Guiping. It marked the beginning of the Taiping Rebellion.
Chen Yucheng, born Chen Picheng, was a Chinese general during the Taiping Rebellion and later served as the Heroic (Ying) Prince of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the later stages of the rebellion, his famous nickname was "Four-eyed Dog" because of two prominent moles below his eyes. His two moles resembled eyes from afar, and it spooked some Qing soldiers.
Li Xubin, courtesy name Di'an (迪庵) or Kehui (克惠), was a Chinese military general who lived in the Qing dynasty. He was a commander of the Xiang Army, a military force raised by the Qing government to help the imperial forces in suppressing the Taiping Rebellion. His younger brother, Li Xuyi, was also a commander in the Xiang Army.
Xiao Chaogui was an important leader during the early years of the Taiping Rebellion against the Qing dynasty of China. He was a sworn brother to Hong Xiuquan, the leader of the Taipings, and claimed to serve as a mouthpiece for Jesus Christ. Because of his importance to the rebellion, he was awarded the title of the "West King."
Feng Yunshan was the South King of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, a distant cousin and early accomplice of Hong Xiuquan, and an important leader during the Taiping Rebellion against the Qing government. He was one of the first Taipings to be baptized and established the first group of God Worshippers during the 1840s. He was killed during the initial stages of the rebellion, prior to the establishment of the Taiping's capital of Tianjing at Nanjing.
The Battle of Jiangnan (1860), also known as the Second rout of the Jiangnan Battalion was a battle between the Qing government's Green Standard Army and the army of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom during the Taiping Rebellion. The Green Standard Army twice attempted to besiege Nanjing, capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but was unable to break through. To break the siege of Nanjing, the Taiping forces maneuvered to divert Qing forces by sacking Hangzhou, before quickly moving back to Nanjing to counter-encircle the Qing siege forces and routing the Green Standard Army garrison completely, breaking the siege of Nanjing.
The Battle of Shanghai (太平軍二攻上海) was a major engagement of the Taiping Rebellion that occurred from June 1861 to July 1862. British and French troops used modern artillery on a large scale for the first time in China. Cannon fire inflicted heavy casualties on the Taiping forces, whose commander Li Xiucheng was wounded in the left leg by a shot fired from a cannon.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, officially the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace, was an oppositional state in China from 1851 to 1864, supporting the overthrow of the Qing dynasty by Hong Xiuquan and his followers. The unsuccessful war it waged against the Qing is known as the Taiping Rebellion. Its capital was at Tianjing.
The God Worshipping Society (拜上帝教) was a religious movement founded and led by Hong Xiuquan which drew on his own unique interpretation of Christianity and combined it with Chinese folk religion, faith in Shangdi, and other religious traditions. According to historical evidence, his first contact with Christian pamphlets occurred in 1836 when he directly received American Congregationalist missionary Edwin Stevens' personal copy of the Good Words to Admonish the Age . He only briefly looked over and did not carefully examine it. Subsequently, Hong had supposedly experienced mystical visions in the wake of his third failure of the imperial examinations in 1837 and after failing for a fourth time in 1843, he sat down to carefully examine the tracts with his distant cousin Feng Yunshan, believing that they were "the key to interpreting his visions" coming to the conclusion that he was "the son of God the Father and the younger brother of Jesus Christ who had been directed to rid the world of demon worship."
Franz H. Michael (1907–1992) was a German-born American scholar of China, whose teaching career was spent at University of Washington, Seattle, and at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Michael's research began with publications concerning the Manchus in China, the Qing dynasty and the Taiping Rebellion against it. He also studied Tibet and Inner Asia, and the tradition of authoritarian government in China, including the People's Republic of China. The themes of despotism, cultural synthesis or assimilation, and the modern fate of Confucian humanism shaped the choice of topics in Michaels' academic work and public advocacy, and his experience in 1930s Germany directly influenced his anti-totalitarian and anti-communist stance.
The Northern Expedition was a failed campaign by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom against the Qing dynasty during the Taiping Rebellion. Its purpose was to capture Beijing and then complete an encirclement of northern and western China. Launched in May 1853, the Northern Expedition would travel from Jiangsu to Zhili before being destroyed in early 1855.
Li Kaifang was from Luchuan, Guangxi, China. In 1851, he was promoted to the rank of corps superintendent. While campaigning in Hunan in 1852, he was promoted three times, rising to the rank of commander. After helping to capture Wuchang and Hanyang in Hubei, he was ultimately named chief chancellor of the Earth Department. Along with Lin Fengxiang, Li lead the Taiping vanguard during the march toward Nanking and occupied Yangzhou in April 1853. Both would also lead the ill-fated Northern Expedition. Li was captured on March 31, 1855 in Fengguantun, Shandong.
Jiang Zhongyuan, courtesy name Changrui, (常孺) was a scholar and soldier from Hunan who fought for the Qing and against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom during the Taiping Rebellion.
The Western Expedition was a campaign by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom against the Qing dynasty during the Taiping Rebellion.
Events from the year 1848 in China.
Events from the year 1847 in China.
