Total Dead~20,000,000 including civilians and soldiers (best estimate)[source?]
TheTaiping Rebellion was acivil war inChina from 1850 to 1864. It was led by Hong Xiuquan. The Taiping Rebellion was against the rulingQing Dynasty. About 20 million people died.[source?] Most of them werecivilians.
Hong established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (太平天囯).[1] When it was most powerful, it had about 30 million people joining in it. The rebels tried to change society. Troops were nicknamed the Long hair (長毛, cháng máo).
Hong Xiuquan was a clever student. He wanted to go into government service. He studied hard and would probably have passed the government tests.[2] However, he discovered that the officials in charge expectedbribes.[2] Hong's family was poor at this time and did not have any money.Their family was loyal to the oldMing dynasty, and decided that his failure was because of the corrupt ManchuQing dynasty.[2] Soon after, Hong became seriously ill. In afever, he saw himself in the "Thirty-third Heaven".[2] He said that he saw a man called the Venerable (Respected) in Years. The Venerable in Years gave Hong asword and told him to destroy thedemon-worshipers who had rebelled against the Venerable in Years. With the help of the Venerable in Years's son, Hong saw himself doing battle against the demon forces.
Shortly after he became healthy again, Hong read theOld Testament and believed it showed hisvision was right. He felt that he had met with God and that God had chosen him for a son/prophet/messiah.[2]
Nimade wanted to know more aboutChristianity. Themissionaries he met disagreed with Hong's vision. They did not agree that he was the brother ofJesus.[2] Hong left them and decided to make his own cult. In Hong's cult, God was the Father, Christ was the Son and Elder (Older) Brother, and Hong was the Younger Brother.[2] He called theNew Testament the "Former Testament". He called his own ideas the New Testament.[2] Hong's friend Yang Xiuqing used to sell firewood.[3] Yang claimed to be able to act as a voice ofGod, to direct the people and gainpolitical power.[3]
China was very weak at this time, and the people were hungry. People began to join Hong's new religion. By 1851 he had a ten-thousand-man army. The rebels cut off their pigtails and made their hair loose. This showed that they were in rebellion to the Manchu.
The Taiping Rebellion lasted from 1851 to 1864. It has been guessed that in the fighting, 20 to 30 million people died.[2] At last, corruption of the rebellion's leaders made people angry. Hong committedsuicide in June 1864.[2] The Ever-Victorious Army led byCharles George Gordon joined the war. The Taiping capital,Nanjing, became controlled by the Imperial Army.
↑note that the uncommon variant character 囯 is used. This is different from the more common variants 國 and 国. The variant is different because it does not have a dot stroke, like 国. This was the variant used by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in its name. The character for 天 also uses an uncommon variant. However, it is not present in Unicode. The upper stroke going sideways in 天 is longer than the lower one in this case.
