Sun Yat-sen

Sun Yat-sen (November 12, 1866 – March 12, 1925) was a Chinese revolutionary leader who had a significant role in the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty. A founder of the Kuomintang, Sun was the first provisional president when the Republic of China was founded in 1912. He developed a political philosophy known as the Three Principles of the People which still heavily influences Chinese governments today.

Biography

Early years

On November 12, 1866, Sun Yat-sen was born to a Hakka peasant family in the village of Cuiheng, Xiangshan county, Guangzhou prefecture, Guangdong province — though it is said he spoke the Zhongshan dialect of Cantonese. In 1925, when Sun Yat-sen died, the name of Xiangshan county was changed into Zhongshan county to honor his memory. Then in 1983 it was turned into the county-level city of Zhongshan, and in 1988 it was elevated and made the prefecture-level city of Zhongshan, probably again to honor the home region of Sun Yat-sen. The village of Cuiheng is located 20 km (12 miles) southeast of downtown Zhongshan, and only 26 km (16 miles) north of Macao.

Related Topics:
November 12 - 1866 - Hakka - Cuiheng - Xiangshan - Guangzhou - Guangdong - Zhongshan - 1925 - 1983 - County-level city - 1988 - Prefecture-level city - Macao

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Sun Yat-sen's father, Sun Dacheng (???), was a farmer by day and a midnight watchman by night. His mother was surnamed Yang. Sun was the fifth of six children. His eldest brother, Sun Mei (Zi: Dezhang), was born in 1854. Sun also had an elder sister, Jinxing (??) who died at age four, a brother, Deyou (??) who died at age six, a sister, Miaoxi (??), and a younger sister, Qiuqi (??).

Related Topics:
Sun Dacheng - Sun Mei - Zi - 1854

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After receiving a few years of local schooling, at age thirteen, Sun went to live with his elder brother Sun Mei, twelve years Sun Yat-sen's senior, who had immigrated to Honolulu, Hawaii, as a laborer and had become a prosperous merchant. Sun studied at the Iolani School where he learnt English, mathematics and science. From absolutely no knowledge of English, Sun Yat-sen picked up the language so quickly that he was awarded a prize for outstanding achievement in English by King David Kalakaua. Sun then enrolled in Oahu College for further studies but he was soon sent home to China as his brother, Sun Mei, was afraid that Sun Yat-sen was about to embrace Christianity.

Related Topics:
Honolulu, Hawaii - Merchant - Iolani School - English - Mathematics - Science - King David Kalakaua - Oahu College - Christianity

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When he returned home in 1883, he was greatly troubled by what he saw as a backward China that demanded exorbitant taxes and levies from its people. The people were conservative, and the schools maintained their ancient methods leaving no opportunity for expression of thought or opinions. Under the influence of Christian missionaries in Hawaii, Sun had developed a disdain for superstition. One day, Sun and his childhood friend Lu Hao-tung passed by Beijidian, a temple in Cuiheng Village, where they saw many villagers worshipping the Beiji (lit. North Pole) Emperor-God in the temple and they broke off the hand of the statue. For this act the pair incurred the wrath of fellow villagers and escaped to Hong Kong.

Related Topics:
1883 - Conservative - Lu Hao-tung - Beijidian - North Pole - Hong Kong

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In Hong Kong, Sun studied English at the Anglican Diocesan Home and Orphanage (later renamed Diocesan Boys' School in 1913). In April 1884, Sun was transferred to the Central School of Hong Kong, later renamed Queen's College in 1894. True to his brother's earlier concern, Sun was later baptised in Hong Kong by Hickley, an American missionary of the Congressional Church of the United States. Sun believed that the salvation mission of the Christian church was similar to that of a revolution. His conversion to Christianity was related to his revolutionary ideals and push for advancement. His baptismal name, Rixin, means getting rid of the old to welcome the new, and accepting new thoughts and ideas.

Related Topics:
Diocesan Boys' School - 1913 - 1884 - Queen's College - 1894 - Revolution

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Ultimately, he earned a degree as a medical doctor from the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese (the forerunner of The University of Hong Kong) in 1892, of which he was one of the first two graduates. He subsequently practiced medicine in that city briefly in 1893. He had an arranged marriage with fellow villager Lu Muzhen at age twenty; she bore him a son Sun Ke, who would grow up to become a high ranking official in the government, and two daughters, Sun Yan and Sun Wan.

Related Topics:
Medical doctor - Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese - The University of Hong Kong - 1892 - 1893 - Arranged marriage - Lu Muzhen - Sun Ke

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Western ideology and Sun Yat-sen

Sun attached particular importance to the ideas of Alexander Hamilton and Abraham Lincoln. Sun often said that the formulation from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, "government of the people, by the people, for the people," had been the inspiration for the Three Principles of the People. He incorporated these ideas, later in life, in two highly influential books. One, The Vital Problem of China (1917), analyzed some of the problems of colonialism: Sun warned that "…the British treat nations as the silkworm farmer treats his worms; as long as they produce silk, he cares for them well; when they stop, he feeds them to the fish." The second book, International Development of China (1921), presented detailed proposals for the development of infrastructure in China, and attacked the ideology of laissez-faire, as well as that of Marxism adhering more to the ideas of Henry George's, particularly land value taxation.

Related Topics:
Alexander Hamilton - Abraham Lincoln - Gettysburg Address - Colonialism - British - Silkworm - Silk - Infrastructure - Laissez-faire - Marxism - Henry George

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Sun's admiration for these ideas filled him with dissatisfaction with the Qing government of China, and he began his political career by attempting to organize reform groups of Chinese exiles in Hong Kong. In October 1894 he founded the Revive China Society to unveil the goal of a prospering China and as the platform for future revolutionary activities.

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From exile to Wuchang Uprising

In 1895 a coup he plotted failed, and for the next sixteen years Sun was an exile in Europe, the United States, Canada, and Japan, raising money for his revolutionary party and bankrolling uprisings in China. In Japan, where he was known as Nakayama Sh? (Kanji: ???, lit. The Woodcutter of Middle Mountain), he joined dissident Chinese groups (which later became the Tongmenghui) and soon became their leader. He was expelled from Japan and went to the United States.

Related Topics:
1895 - Coup - Exile - Europe - United States - Canada - Japan - Kanji - Dissident - Tongmenghui

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On October 10, 1911, a military uprising at Wuchang in which Sun had no direct involvement, began a process that ended over two thousand years of imperial rule in China. When he learned of the successful rebellion against the Qing emperor from press reports, Sun immediately returned to China from the United States. Later, on December 29, a meeting of representatives from provinces in Nanjing elected Sun as the provisional President of the Republic of China and set the January 1 of 1912 as the first day of the First Year of the Republic. This republic calendar system is still used in Taiwan today.

Related Topics:
October 10 - 1911 - Uprising at Wuchang - Qing - December 29 - Nanjing - President of the Republic of China - January 1 - Taiwan

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The official history of the Kuomintang (and for that matter, the Communist Party of China) emphasizes Sun's role as the first provisional President, but many historians now question the importance of Sun's role in the 1911 revolution and point out that he had no direct role in the Wuchang uprising and was in fact out of the country at the time. In this interpretation, his naming as the first provisional President was precisely because he was a respected but rather unimportant figure and therefore served as an ideal compromise candidate between the revolutionaries and the conservative gentry.

Related Topics:
Kuomintang - Communist Party of China - Gentry

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Sun is highly regarded as the National Father of modern China. His political philosophy, known as the Three Principles of the People, was proclaimed in August 1905. In his Methods and Strategies of Establishing the Country completed in 1919, he suggested using his Principles to establish ultimate peace, freedom, and equality in the country.

Related Topics:
1905 - 1919 - Peace - Freedom - Equality

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Republic of China

After taking the oath of office, Sun Yat-sen sent telegrams to the leaders of all provinces, requesting them to elect and send new senators to establish the National Assembly of the Republic of China. Then the provisional government organizational guidelines and the provisional law of the Republic were declared as the basic law of the country by the Assembly.

Related Topics:
Telegram - Senator - National Assembly of the Republic of China

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The provisional government was in a very weak position. The southern provinces of China had declared independence from the Qing dynasty, but most of the northern provinces had not. Moreover, the provisional government did not have military forces of its own, and its control over elements of the New Army that had mutinied was limited, and there were still significant forces which had not declared against the Qing.

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The major issue before the provisional government was gaining the support of Yuan Shikai, the man in charge of the Beiyang Army, the military of northern China. After promising Yuan the presidency of the new Republic, Yuan sided with the revolution and forced the emperor to abdicate. Later, Yuan proclaimed himself emperor and afterwards opposition snowballed against Yuan's dictatorial methods. In 1913 Sun led an unsuccessful revolt against Yuan, and he was forced to seek asylum in Japan, where he reorganized the Kuomintang. He married Soong Ching-ling, one of the Soong sisters, in Japan on October 25, 1915, without divorcing his first wife Lu Muzhen due to opposition from the Chinese community. Lu pleaded with him to take Soong as a concubine but this was also unacceptable to Sun's Christian ethics.

Related Topics:
Yuan Shikai - Beiyang Army - Emperor - 1913 - Soong Ching-ling - Soong sisters - October 25 - 1915 - Christian ethics

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Guangzhou militarist government

In the late 1910s, China was greatly divided by different military leaders without a proper central government. Sun saw the danger of this, and returned to China in 1917 to advocate unification. He started a self-proclaimed military government in Canton (now Guangzhou), southern China, in 1921, and was elected as president and general.

Related Topics:
1910s - 1917 - Canton - 1921

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In 1923, he delivered a speech in which he proclaimed his Three Principles of the People as the foundation of the country and the Five-Yuan Constitution as the guideline for the political system and bureaucracy. Part of the speech was made into the National Anthem of the Republic of China.

Related Topics:
1923 - Five-Yuan Constitution - National Anthem of the Republic of China

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To develop the military power needed for the Northern Expedition against the militarists at Beijing, he established the Whampoa Military Academy near Guangzhou, with Chiang Kai-shek as its commandant and with such party leaders as Wang Ching-wei and Hu Han-min as political instructors. The Academy kept running during the rest of the Republic of China and continued to serve as a major military school in the People's Republic of China until today.

Related Topics:
Northern Expedition - Beijing - Whampoa Military Academy - Chiang Kai-shek - Commandant - Wang Ching-wei - Hu Han-min - People's Republic of China

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Way to Northern Expedition and death

In the early 1920s Sun received help from the Comintern for his reorganization of the Kuomintang as a Leninist Democratic-Centrist Party and negotiated the First CPC-KMT United Front. In 1924, in order to hasten the conquest of China, he began a policy of active cooperation with the Chinese Communists.

Related Topics:
1920s - Comintern - Leninist - Democratic-Centrist - First CPC-KMT United Front - 1924 - Chinese Communists

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By this time, Sun was convinced that the only hope for a unified China lay in a military conquest from his base in the south, followed by a period of political tutelage that would culminate in the transition to democracy. Sun then prepared for the later Northern Expedition with help from foreign powers such as Japan and the U.S. until his death.

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On November 10 1924, Sun traveled north and delivered another speech to suggest gathering a conference for the Chinese people and the abolition of all unfair treaties with the Western powers. Two days later, he yet again traveled to Peking (now Beijing) to discuss the future of the country, despite his deteriorating health and the ongoing civil war of the warlords. Although ill at the time, he was still head of the southern government. He left Canton to hold peace talks with the northern regional leaders on the unification of China. Sun died of liver cancer on March 12, 1925, at the age of fifty eight, en route to Beijing.

Related Topics:
November 10 - 1924 - Peking - Warlord - Liver cancer - March 12 - 1925

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