Lin Qing

Lin Qing (林淸, ? – 1813) was a leader of the Tianli Jiao in the mid-Qing dynasty of China. He was from Songjiazhuang in Huangcun, Daxing County, Shuntian Prefecture (present-day Daxing District, Beijing).

In his youth he sold medicine or worked as a boatman for a government yamen. In 1806 he joined the Eight Trigrams Sect (八卦敎), and soon began creating a religion derived from the Eight Trigrams Sect to draw in followers. Among them were peasants and merchants, as well as lower-ranking officials. In 1812 he met Li Wencheng (李文成), who was preaching with a similar doctrine (Hanmyu), and they resolved to act the following year.

In 1813, while the Jiaqing Emperor left the Forbidden City for the Mountain Resort at Jehol to escape the heat, Li Wencheng and more than 200 others raised the banner "Obey Heaven to Protect the People, Obey Heaven to Open the Way" (順天保民, 順天開道) and invaded the Forbidden City. With internal support from palace eunuchs, they seized the inner palace, but along the way the Second Imperial Son, Mianning, led troops and succeeded in driving them back out of the Forbidden City. Lin Qing was then arrested and executed by death by slicing.