TAIPINGS, the name given by for eigners to the followers of Hung ch'wan (S'eiw-tseuen), who raised the standard of rebellion in China in 1851, and whose enterprise was finally sup pressed in 1865.
The leader Hung was born in 1813 in a poor agricultural village of the dis trict of Hwa, in Canton province. His only chance of rising in the world being by literary distinction, he became a diligent student, but he never succeeded in taking the first degree at the provin cial capital. Returning home from an other disappointing competition in 1837, he fell into a long illness in which he saw visions, and conceived the idea of changing the religion of the empire and subverting the ruling DrIanchau dynasty.
In 1844 in company with the elder of the two converts, Hung went into the adjacent province of Kwang-hsi, where they made many converts, and gathered them into communities which they called "Churches of God." Hung began also to give forth arrangements and decrees as revelations communicated to him by "the Heavenly Father," and the "Heavenly Elder Brother." After some years of uncertain struggle with the official authorities, the insur gents (for such they were now) took possession of the district city of Yung an. There they hailed their leader as emperor of the dynasty of Taiping (Grand Peace), and adopted Tien Kwo (Kingdom of Heaven) as the name of his reign. After being kept for some time in a state of siege in the city by their opponents, on the night of April 7, 1852, they burst forth, scattered their besiegers, and commenced their march to the N. They passed from Kwang-hsi into HU-nan, got command of the Hsiang river, and before the end of the year had reached the great Yang-tsze river. Launching forth on it, and taking on the way the capitals of Hil-pei and An hui, they encamped before Nanking on March 8, 1853. Within 10 days it had fallen into their power, and every man of the Manchau garrison been put to the sword.
Their host, grown in the 12 months from under 10,000 probably to more than 100,000, proclaimed the Taiping dynasty anew, and swore fealty to the heavenly king. In a few months a large force was dispatched N. to terminate the contest by the capture of Peking. This expedi tion did wonders, traversed the two prov inces of An-hui and Honan, then marched W. to Shan-shi, from which, turning E. again, it penetrated into Chihli and finally occupied an en trenched position only about 20 miles from Tientsin. But the rebellion had there reached the limit of its advance. Though the expedition met with no great defeat, sufficient re-enforcements did not reach them and the leaders were obliged to retreat toward Nanking in 1855.
From this time the rebel cause began to decay. The moral enthusiasm which had distinguished it in Kwang-hsi dis appeared. The imperial government, moreover, rallied its forces, and a desperate struggle ensued between them and the rebels.
How the struggle would have ended was still uncertain, when the imperialists began to call in the assistance of for eigners. A body of men of different nationalities entered their service under an American, Frederick T. Ward. He was a very capable man, and did the imperialists good service till he was killed in 1862. Then the British authori ties at Shanghai were prevailed on to organize a more effective force, and to put the whole auxiliary movement under the direction of Col. Charles ("Chinese") Gordon. The Taipings fought with the courage of despair. Nanking was in vested by the imperialists and taken at last on July 19, 1864. Hung, the leader of the rebels, was not found. It is sup posed that he killed himself by poison a few weeks before rather than become a captive. See GORDON, CHARLES.