After June 1856, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom reached an unprecedented peak of power, yet internal crises began to stir beneath the surface. At this time, among the five kings enfeoffed during the Yong'an establishment, two had already died in battle, leaving the remaining three, with the Eastern King Yang Xiuqing wielding the greatest authority. The Eastern King originally held the power to oversee the other four kings, and with the deaths of the Southern and Western Kings, Yang Xiuqing's influence swelled even further, to the point where even the Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan was constrained by him. In reality, although Hong Xiuquan held the title of Heavenly King, he did not possess actual power during the early stages of the Taiping Rebellion.
During this period, Yang Xiuqing frequently claimed to be possessed by the Heavenly Father descending to earth, using this as a pretext to coerce Hong Xiuquan into obeying his orders. On one occasion, Yang Xiuqing repeated the same trick, again claiming that the Heavenly Father had possessed him and summoning Hong Xiuquan to the Eastern King's residence immediately. After Hong Xiuquan arrived, Yang Xiuqing, under the guise of the Heavenly Father's authority, questioned him: why could the Eastern King, who had rendered outstanding service to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, not be called the "Ten Thousand Years"? Hong Xiuquan had no choice but to concede that the Eastern King was absolutely worthy of the title "Ten Thousand Years."
During this period, relatives and close associates of the Northern King Wei Changhui and the Wing King Shi Dakai were severely punished by Yang Xiuqing for their mistakes. Although Wei Changhui and Shi Dakai dared not voice their grievances openly, they harbored deep resentment toward Yang Xiuqing in private. Wei Changhui even pleaded with Hong Xiuquan to execute Yang Xiuqing, but his request was rejected. At that time, Hong Xiuquan had not yet developed the intention to kill Yang Xiuqing, though he had already formed a deep-seated grudge against him.
Afterward, Yang Xiuqing, citing the urgency of the frontline war, transferred both Wei Changhui and Shi Dakai away from Tianjing. As a result, only Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing remained in Tianjing to oversee affairs. During this period, the Taiping general Chen Chengrong began sowing discord between the two, as both men deeply trusted him. When Chen Chengrong secretly reported to Hong Xiuquan that Yang Xiuqing was plotting to kill the Heavenly King and usurp his position, Hong immediately took the news very seriously.
Hong Xiuquan issued secret orders to Wei Changhui, Shi Dakai, and Qin Rigang, commanding them to lead their troops back to Tianjing City, launch a surprise attack on the Eastern King's residence, and kill Yang Xiuqing. Chen Chengyong voluntarily acted as an inside agent, welcoming Wei Changhui and his three thousand Taiping soldiers into the city. After Yang Xiuqing was killed, his family members and servants were also implicated and were completely slaughtered by the Taiping forces led by Wei Changhui, Qin Rigang, and Chen Chengyong. Moreover, under the pretext of purging the Eastern King's followers, Wei Changhui went on a killing spree within Tianjing City, resulting in over twenty thousand deaths, the vast majority of whom were innocent soldiers or even ordinary civilians.
After Shi Dakai returned to the city, he was extremely dissatisfied with Wei Changhui's indiscriminate killing of innocent people and clashed with him. In a fit of rage, Wei Changhui went on a killing spree against Shi Dakai's family and subordinates. Under the cover of night, Shi Dakai escaped to the outskirts of Tianjing, but the others left behind in the Wing King's Mansion in Tianjing were all slaughtered by Wei Changhui.
In extreme grief and indignation, Shi Dakai submitted a memorial to the Heavenly King, requesting the execution of the Northern King to appease public anger. At the same time, Shi Dakai also organized the Taiping Army outside Tianjing to launch an attack against Wei Changhui in Anqing, Anhui. By then, Wei Changhui had completely lost popular support, so he led his troops to attack the Heavenly King's Palace. Soon, Wei Changhui was defeated and killed, while Qin Rigang and Chen Chengrong were also executed by order of Hong Xiuquan. This is the full account of the Tianjing Incident.
The Tianjing Incident was the turning point where the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom shifted from prosperity to decline, and although the incident was eventually quelled, many soldiers in the Taiping army became disheartened as a result. After the Tianjing Incident, most of the five kings appointed during the "Yong'an Establishment" had died, leaving only the Wing King, Shi Dakai, as the sole survivor. In November of that year, Shi Dakai was recalled to Tianjing by Hong Xiuquan, and when ordered to hunt down the remnants of Wei Changhui's faction, he acted with benevolence and magnanimity. He ordered that only the chief culprits guilty of heinous crimes be severely punished, while those who were forced to participate under Wei Changhui's command were not to be prosecuted. Shi Dakai also went out of his way to protect Wei Changhui's relatives, ensuring they suffered no repercussions. Thanks to Shi Dakai's efforts, the situation in Tianjing was quickly stabilized.
During the Tianjing Incident, the Qing army gradually gained the upper hand in battles against the Taiping forces. After Shi Dakai returned to the capital, he commanded the Taiping army to first stabilize the situation, then sought opportunities to launch a counterattack against the Qing forces. In addition, Shi Dakai promoted young generals such as Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng, who became the backbone of the later Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement.
These efforts by Shi Dakai earned him immense prestige among the soldiers and civilians of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, leading Hong Xiuquan to become deeply suspicious of him and cease entrusting him with important roles. During this period, Hong Xiuquan began to favor his younger clansman Hong Rengan, who became a key leader in the later stages of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and proposed the reform plan known as the New Administration of Governance.
As Hong Xiuquan's suspicion of Shi Dakai grew increasingly intense, even to the point of plotting his murder, Shi Dakai found himself with no way out and led his troops away from the Heavenly King, hoping to avoid a repeat of the Tianjing Incident within the court. After this, Shi Dakai led the Taiping Army to multiple victories in Zhejiang, Fujian, and other regions, making significant contributions to the development of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement. However, starting in 1859, Shi Dakai began to lose ground in his confrontations with the Qing army. In May 1863, during the Battle of the Dadu River, Shi Dakai's forces were defeated by the Qing army, with two thousand Taiping soldiers killed. Commander Shi Dakai was captured alive and later executed by slow slicing.
As early as the suppression of the Tianjing Incident, Tianjing was once again besieged by Qing forces. With its own strength severely weakened, the Taiping Army began to cooperate with the Nian Army and incorporated famine-stricken people north of the Yangtze River into its ranks to bolster its power against the Qing forces. In August 1858, Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng jointly led the Taiping Army to break the Jiangbei Camp stationed north of Tianjing. Two months later, they annihilated an elite unit of the Hunan Army at the Battle of Sanhe Town in Luzhou. The victories in these two battles successfully thwarted the Qing government's attempt to capture Tianjing and thereby crush the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement.
After the situation stabilized, Hong Rengan, with the support of Hong Xiuquan, proposed the "New Treatise on Administration and Governance." This was the earliest reform plan with capitalist overtones put forward by a Chinese person, with its core being to learn from Western countries and implement a series of political, economic, and cultural reforms. The "New Treatise" was intended to revitalize the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but after its release, it was never truly implemented. The reason was that it was not a product of the peasant class's revolutionary struggle, and its content did not address the land issues that most concerned peasants. Therefore, it failed to motivate peasants in revolution and production. Additionally, due to the turbulent situation at the time, it was simply impossible to put into practice.
Shortly after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom stabilized, it resumed its conflict with the Qing army. By the end of 1859, the Qing's Jiangnan Camp had regrouped and besieged Tianjing (present-day Nanjing). In March of the following year, the Taiping forces broke through the Jiangnan Camp, lifting the siege of Tianjing. Seizing the momentum, they decided to first advance eastward, then head west. The Taiping army quickly captured Changzhou, Suzhou, and Jiaxing, establishing the Sufu Province with Suzhou as its capital, which served as a southeastern stronghold for Tianjing and supplied it with resources. That year, 1860, marked the most brilliant period of military achievements in the later stages of the Taiping Rebellion.
In the winter of that same year, Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng launched another campaign, advancing in two separate routes toward Wuchang. However, because the British navy intervened to assist the Qing forces, Chen Yucheng grew cautious and changed his plans, abandoning Wuchang to attack Macheng and other areas instead. At the same time, Li Xiucheng also withdrew from Hubei and shifted his operations to Zhejiang. In July 1861, the Xiang Army led by Zeng Guofan captured Anqing and used it as a base to launch an assault on Tianjing (Nanjing). After the fall of Anqing, Chen Yucheng led the Taiping forces to retreat to Luzhou, where they were isolated and without support. In April of the following year, Chen Yucheng was captured and subsequently executed.
In 1862, Zeng Guofan ordered his troops to advance along three routes: Li Hongzhang led his forces to Shanghai, Zeng Guoquan marched to attack Tianjing (Nanjing), and Zuo Zongtang headed to Zhejiang. After Tianjing came under siege by the Xiang Army commanded by Zeng Guoquan, Hong Xiuquan immediately ordered the recall of the Taiping forces from Shanghai, forcing the main Taiping armies in Jiangsu and Zhejiang to return to Tianjing. Taking advantage of this, the Qing government, in coordination with Western powers, launched a fierce assault on the local Taiping troops. Caught between resisting the Qing army on one side and facing the Westerners' advanced firearms and artillery on the other, the Taiping forces found themselves in an extremely difficult situation during this period.
At that time, Li Xiucheng, following Hong Xiuquan's orders, led his army northward, but ran out of food and supplies in northern Anhui. Meanwhile, the Qing army advanced triumphantly, capturing Taicang, Kunshan, Fuyang, Suzhou, and other places. In this situation, Li Xiucheng suggested to Hong Xiuquan that they abandon Tianjing (Nanjing) to preserve the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's strength, but Hong Xiuquan stubbornly insisted on holding Tianjing at all costs. In November 1863, Hong Xiuquan ordered Hong Rengan to gather local Taiping troops in Danyang and other areas and rush them to Tianjing. By early 1864, Tianjing was surrounded by Qing forces, with severe food shortages and insufficient troops. In June of that year, Hong Xiuquan died of illness, and his son succeeded him as the Heavenly King. In July, the Qing army breached Tianjing; Li Xiucheng fled with the young Heavenly King but became separated from him during the escape. On July 22, Li Xiucheng was captured and executed a few days later. In October, the Qing army captured the young Heavenly King in Jiangxi and executed him. Thus, the Taiping Rebellion ended in failure.
After this, Taiping general Tan Tiyuan led the remaining Taiping forces on the southern bank of the Yangtze River to continue fighting against the Qing army, and they were not completely wiped out until 1866. Meanwhile, Lai Wenguang led the remaining Taiping forces on the northern bank of the Yangtze River to join the Nian Army, and they were not defeated until the failure of the Nian Army uprising in 1868. In 1869, Zuo Zongtang annihilated the rebel forces led by Yuan Dakui in northern Shaanxi, which was the last rebel army to use the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's reign title.
From 1851 to 1864, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement lasted a total of 14 years. As an anti-imperialist and anti-feudal peasant movement, it was the largest, most populous, and longest-lasting peasant uprising in Chinese history, delivering a heavy blow to the Qing government. Under its influence, people across the country launched uprisings to resist the corrupt feudal rule.