Meanings
alternative T'ien-ching
- historicalSynonym of Nanjing.
After a fierce battle, Hong and his men established control over the city of Nanjing, which they promptly renamed Tianjing, or Heavenly Capital.
2011, Liel Leibovitz, Matthew Miller, “The Qing”, in Fortunate Sons: The 120 Chinese Boys Who Came to America, Went to School, and Revolutionized an Ancient Civilization (History), New York; London: W. W. Norton & Company, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 503 more examples
On February 18, 1853, Chiu-chiang fell to the rebels, who went on to take Anking. Less than a month later, on March 19, the Taiping forces captured the beautiful city of Nanking, which was renamed T'ien-ching (Heavenly Capital) to commemorate the occasion.
[1975, Federic Wakeman, Jr., The Fall of Imperial China, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 152Toward the end of 1860, as told in his book, Lindley, together with his Portuguese fiancée Marie, a British friend he called “L.”, and a Greek friend B. Philip, joined the Taiping Army at Tianjing (Nanjing) — the capital of the Taiping Kingdom.
1980 July, Zhang Haipeng, “An English Fighter in a Chinese Peasant War”, in China Reconstructs, volume XXIX, number 7, Peking, →OCLC, page 30, column 3By 1851 the Taiping army had captured large areas in the southern half of the empire, and two years later it took Nanjing, which was renamed Tianjing [T'ien-ching] ("Heavenly Capital").
1986, Madge Huntington, “The Qing Dynasty and the Continued Western Presence, 1644–1911”, in A Traveler's Guide to Chinese History, 1st edition (Travel/History), New York: Henry Holt and Company, published 1987, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 122Synonyms: Nanjing
Synonyms & antonyms
proper nounSynonym of Nanjing.
Origin
- Mandarin天京
- EnglishTianjing
From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin 天京 (Tiānjīng).
More words from Mandarin
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Chinese Mandarin 天京
- 天京 (Tiānjīng)capital of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom
Polish Tianjing
- Tianjingcapital of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom
Cite this entry
Tianjing. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Tianjing
“Tianjing.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Tianjing. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Tianjing,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Tianjing.
Source: Tianjing on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.