Quasi-Christian millenarian state proclaimed by Hong Xiuquan, who believed himself the younger brother of Jesus Christ, after his God Worshipping Society rose against the Qing in Guangxi; at its height it ruled much of the middle and lower Yangzi from its capital Tianjing (Nanjing), enacting radical land, gender, and social reforms.
Crushed by a Qing counteroffensive (Zeng Guofan's Xiang Army and Li Hongzhang's Huai Army, aided by foreign-officered forces like Frederick Townsend Ward's/Charles Gordon's 'Ever Victorious Army') that retook Nanjing in July 1864; Hong Xiuquan died weeks before the city fell, and scattered remnant Taiping forces were suppressed by 1866. The Taiping Rebellion is among the deadliest conflicts in history, with estimates of 20-30 million dead.
The standard accessible narrative history of Hong Xiuquan and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, from a leading China historian.