Also Taë-ping. [Chinese T‘ai-p‘ing, i.e., t‘ai great, p‘ing peace.] The name given to the adherents of a great rebellion which arose in Southern China in 1850, under the leadership of Hung-siu-tsuen, styled Tien-wang, Heavenly Prince, and T‘ai-p‘ing-wang, Prince of great peace, who claimed a divine commission to overthrow the Manchu dynasty and establish one of native origin, to be called the T‘ai-p‘ing Chao or Great Peace Dynasty. Also attrib. Hence Taipingdom, Taipingism.
The war which ensued devastated some of the most fertile provinces of China for a number of years; partly by means of English help the Tai-pings were finally routed and dispersed in 1865.
1860. All Year Round, No. 71. 504. A Taiping’s head is paid for, at the rate of one tael. Ibid. He succeeded in forcing back the Taipings when they menaced the Pekin Canal. Ibid. Of these alternatives, piracy pays the best, Taipingism being decidedly the least lucrative.
1883. Chambers’s Encycl., IX. 274/1. The confusion and expense of the Tae-ping rebellion.
1884. A. Forbes, Chinese Gordon, xi. The Imperialist generals had hemmed Tai-pingdom within certain limits in the lower valley of the Yantsze.
