taiping

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. One of those who took part in the great rebellion inaugurated in southern China in 1850 by one Hung-siu-tsuen, who, calling himself the “Heavenly Prince,” pretended that he had a divine mission to overturn the Manchu dynasty and set up a purely native dynasty, to be styled the T'ai-p'ing Chao, or ‘Great-peace Dynasty.’ As the cue had been imposed (about 1644) upon the Chinese by the Manchus as an outward expression of loyalty to the Tatar dynasty, the Tai-pings discarded the cue, and hence were styled by the Chinese Ch'ang-mao-tseh. or ‘long-haired rebels.’ Hung-siu-tsuen also promulgated a kind of spurious Christianity, in which God (Shangti) was known as the “Heavenly Father,” and Jesus Christ as the “Heavenly Elder Brother.” The insurrection was suppressed about 1864, largely with the aid of the “Ever-victorious Army” under Colonel Gordon, who from that time became known as “Chinese Gordon.”

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. (Chinese Hist.) Pertaining to or designating a dynasty with which one Hung-Siu-Chuen, a half-religious, half-political enthusiast, attempted to supplant the Manchu dynasty by the Taiping rebellion, incited by him in 1850 and suppressed by General Gordon about 1864.