The Jouney of Sun Yat-Sen

Sun Yat-sen (12 November 1866 – 12 March 1925)was a
Chinese revolutionary and president. As the foremost
pioneer of Nationalist China, Sun is referred to as the
"Father of the Nation" in the Republic of China (ROC), and
the "forerunner of democratic revolution" in the People's
Republic of China. Sun played an instrumental role in the
overthrow of the Qing dynasty during the Xinhai
Revolution. Sun was the first provisional president when the
Republic of China was founded in 1912 and later co-founded
the Kuomintang (KMT), serving as its first leader. Sun was a
uniting figure in post-Imperial China, and remains unique
among 20th century Chinese politicians for being widely
revered amongst the people from both sides of the Taiwan
Strait.

Although Sun is considered one of the greatest leaders of
modern China, his political life was one of constant struggle
and frequent exile. After the success of the revolution, he
quickly fell out of power in the newly founded Republic of
China, and led successive revolutionary governments as a
challenge to the warlords who controlled much of the
nation. Sun did not live to see his party consolidate its
power over the country during the Northern Expedition. His
party, which formed a fragile alliance with the Communists,
split into two factions after his death. Sun's chief legacy
resides in his developing of the political philosophy known
as the Three Principles of the People: nationalism,
democracy, and the people's livelihood.[3]

The original name of Sun Yat-sen was Sun Wen (孫文) and
his genealogical name was Sun Deming (孫德明). As a child,
his "milk name" was Dixiang (帝象). The courtesy name of
Sun Yat-sen was Zaizhi (載之), and his baptized name was
Rixin (日新). While at school in Hong Kong he got the name
Yat Sen (逸仙; Hanyu pinyin: Yìxiān). Sun Zhongshan (孫中
山), the most popular of his Chinese names, came from
Nakayama (中山樵), a form of the Japanese name given to
him by Miyazaki Touten.

Sun Yat-sen (back row, fifth from left) and his family.

Sun Yat-sen was born on 12 November 1866 to a Cantonese
Hakka family in the village of Cuiheng, Xiangshan (later
Zhongshan county), Guangzhou prefecture, Guangdong
province in Qing China. He was the third son born in a family
of farmers, and herded cows along with other farming duties at
age 6.

At age 10, Sun Yat-sen began seeking schooling. It is also at this point where he met
childhood friend Lu Hao-tung. By age 13 in 1878 after receiving a few years of local
schooling, Sun went to live with his elder brother, Sun Mei (孫眉) in Honolulu.
Sun Yat-sen then studied at the ʻ Iolani School where he learned English, UK history,
mathematics, science and Christianity. Originally unable to speak the English
language, Sun Yat-sen picked up the language so quickly that he received a prize for
outstanding achievement from King David Kalākaua. Sun enrolled in Oahu College
(now Punahou School) for further studies for one semester. In 1883 he was soon sent
home to China as his brother was becoming afraid that Sun Yat-sen would embrace
Christianity.
When he returned home in 1883 at age 17, Sun met up with his childhood friend Lu
Hao-tung at Beijidian (北極殿), a temple in Cuiheng Village. They saw many villagers
worshipping the Beiji (literally North Pole) Emperor-God in the temple, and were
dissatisfied with their ancient healing methods.They broke the statue, incurring the
wrath of fellow villagers, and escaped to Hong Kong. While in HK in 1883 he studied
at the Diocesan Boys' School and from 1884 to 1886 he was at the government Central
school.
In 1886 Sun studied medicine at the Guangzhou Boji Hospital under the Christian
missionary John G. Kerr. Ultimately, he earned the license of Christian practice as a
medical doctor from the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese (the forerunner
of The University of Hong Kong) in 1892. Notably, of his class of 12 students, only two
graduated; Sun was one of them.

Sun was later baptized in Hong Kong by an American
missionary of the Congregational Church of the United
States, to his brother's disdain. The minister would also
develop a friendship with Sun. Sun pictured a revolution as
similar to the salvation mission of the Christian church. His
conversion to Christianity was related to his revolutionary
ideals and push for advancement. Sun later became the
godfather of Paul Linebarger, a science-fiction writer.

Photograph of Sun Yat-sen (seated, second from left) and his
revolutionary friends, the Four Bandits, including Yeung
Hok-ling (left), Chan Siu-bak (seated, second from right),
Yau Lit (right), and Guan Jingliang (關景良) (standing).

During and after the Qing Dynasty rebellion
around 1888 Sun was in Hong Kong with a group
of revolutionary thinkers that were nicknamed
the Four Bandits at the Hong Kong College of
Medicine for Chinese. Sun, who had grown
increasingly frustrated by the conservative Qing
government and its refusal to adopt knowledge
from the more technologically advanced Western
nations, quit his medical practice in order to
devote his time to transforming China.

In 1891 Sun met revolutionary friends in Hong Kong including Yeung Kui-
wan who was the leader and founder of the Furen Literary Society. The
group was spreading the idea of overthrowing the Qing. In 1894, Sun wrote
an 8,000 character petition to Qing Viceroy Li Hongzhang presenting his
ideas for modernizing China. He traveled to Tianjin and to personally
present the petition to Li but was not granted an audience. After this
experience, Sun turned irrevocably toward revolution. He left China for
Hawaii and founded the Revive China Society, which was committed to
revolution to restore China’s prosperity. Members were drawn mainly from
Chinese expatriates, especially the lower social classes. The same month in
1894 the Furen Literary Society was merged with the Hong Kong chapter of
the Revive China Society. Sun became the secretary of the newly merged
Revive China society, which Yeung Kui-wan headed as president. They
disguised their activities in Hong Kong under the running of a "Qianheng
Company" (乾亨行).

In 1895 China suffered a serious defeat during the First Sino-Japanese War.
There were two types of response. One group of intellectuals contended
that the Manchu Qing government could restore its legitimacy by
successfully modernizing. They stressed that overthrowing the Manchu
would result in chaos leading to China being carved up by imperialists. So
intellectuals like Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao support responding with
something like the Hundred Days' Reform. In another faction, Sun Yat-sen
and others like Zou Rong wanted a revolution to replace the dynastic
system with a modern nation-state in the form of a republic. The Hundred
Day's reform turned out to be a failure by 1898.

Plaque in London marking the site of a house where Sun
Yat-sen lived while in exile

Letter from Sun Yat-sen
to James Cantlie
announcing to him that
he has assumed the
Presidency of the
Provisional Republican
Government of China.
Dated 21 January 1912.

In the second year of the establishment of the Revive China society on
26 October 1895, the group planned and launched the First Guangzhou
uprising against the Qing in Guangzhou. Yeung Kui-wan directed the
uprising starting from Hong Kong. However, plans were leaked out and
more than 70 members, including Lu Hao-tung, were captured by the
Qing government. The uprising was a failure.

Sun Yat-sen spent time living in Japan while in exile. He befriended and
was financially aided by a democratic revolutionary named Miyazaki
Toten. Most Japanese who actively worked with Sun were motivated by
a pan-Asian fear of encroaching Western imperialism. While in Japan,
Sun also met and befriended Mariano Ponce, then a diplomat of the First
Philippine Republic.

On 22 October 1900 Sun launched the Huizhou uprising to attack
Huizhou and provincial authorities in Guangdong. This came five years
after the failed Guangzhou uprising. This time Sun appealed to the triads
for help. This uprising was also a failure. Miyazaki who participated in
the revolt with Sun wrote an account of this revolutionary effort under
the title "33-year dream" (三十三年之夢) in 1902.

Sun was an exile not only in Japan, but in Europe, the United States, and
Canada. He raised money for his revolutionary party and to support
uprisings in China. In 1896 he was detained at the Chinese Legation in
London, where the Chinese Imperial secret service planned to kill him.
He was released after 12 days through the efforts of James Cantlie, The
Times and the Foreign Office, leaving Sun a hero in Britain. James Cantlie,
Sun's former teacher at the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese,
maintained a lifelong friendship with Sun and would later write an early
biography of Sun.

A "Heaven and Earth Society" sect known as Tiandihui has been
around for a long time. The group has also been referred to as the
"three cooperating organizations" as well as the triads. Sun Yat-sen
mainly used this group to leverage his overseas travels to gain further
financial and resource support for his revolution.
According to Lee Yun-ping, chairman of the Chinese historical society,
Sun needed a certificate to enter the United States at a time when the
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 would have otherwise blocked him. But
on Sun's first attempt to enter the US, he was still arrested. He was later
bailed out after 17 days. In March 1904, Sun Yat-sen obtained a
Certificate of Hawaiian Birth, issued by the Territory of Hawaii, stating
he was born on 24 November 1870 in Kula, Maui. Official files of the
United States show that Sun had United States nationality, moved to
China with his family at age 4, and returned to Hawaii 10 years later.

A letter with
Sun's seal
commencing
the
Tongmenghui
in HK

In 1904 Sun Yat-sen came about with the goal "to expel the Tatar
barbarians, to revive Zhonghua, to establish a Republic, and to distribute
land equally among the people." (驅除韃虜, 恢復中華, 創立民國, 平均地權).
One of Sun's major legacies was the creation of his political philosophy of
the Three Principles of the People. These Principles included the principle
of nationalism (minzu, 民族), of democracy (minquan, 民權), and of welfare
(minsheng, 民生).

On 20 August 1905 Sun joined forces with revolutionary Chinese students
studying in Tokyo, Japan to form the unified group Tongmenghui (United
League), which sponsored uprisings in China. By 1906 the number of
Tongmenghui members reached 963 people.

Sun's notability and popularity extends beyond the Greater China
region, particularly to Nanyang (Southeast Asia) where a large
concentration of overseas Chinese reside in Malaya (Malaysia and
Singapore). While in Singapore he met local Chinese merchants Teo Eng
Hock, Tan Chor Nam and Lim Nee Soon, which mark the
commencement of direct support from the Nanyang Chinese. The
Singapore chapter of the Tongmenghui was established on 6 April 1906.
Though some records claim the founding date to be end of 1905. The
villa used by Sun was known as Wan Qing Yuan. At this point
Singapore was the headquarter of the Tongmenghui.

On 1 December 1907 Sun led the Zhennanguan uprising against the
Qing at Friendship Pass, which is the border between Guangxi and
Vietnam. The uprising failed after seven days of fighting. In 1907 there
were a total of four uprisings that failed including Huanggang
uprising, Huizhou seven women lake uprising and Qinzhou uprising.
In 1908 two more uprisings failed one after another including Qin-lian
uprising and Hekou uprising.

Because of these failures Sun's leadership was beginning to be
challenged by elements from within the Tongmenghui who wished to
remove him as leader. In Tokyo 1907–1908 members from the recently
merged Restoration society raised doubts about Sun's credentials. Tao
Chengzhang (陶成章) and Zhang Binglin publicly denounced Sun with
an open leaflet called "A declaration of Sun Yat-sen's criminal acts by
the revolutionaries in Southeast Asia". This was printed and
distributed in reformist newspapers like Nanyang Zonghui Bao. Their
goal was to target Sun as a leader leading a revolt for profiteering
gains.

The revolutionaries were polarized and split between pro-Sun and
anti-Sun camps. Sun publicly fought off comments about how he had
something to gain financially from the revolution. In 1910 Sun took the
time to establish the United Chinese Library in Singapore. But by 19
July 1910 the Tongmenghui headquarter had to relocate from
Singapore to Penang to reduce the anti-Sun activities. It is also in
Penang that Sun and his supporters would launch the first Chinese
"daily" newspaper, the Kwong Wah Yit Poh on December 1910.

To sponsor more uprisings, Sun made a personal plea for financial aid at
the Penang conference held on 13 November 1910 in Malaya. The leaders
launched a major drive for donations across the Malay Peninsula. They
raised HK$187,000.

On 27 April 1911 revolutionary Huang Xing led a second Guangzhou
uprising known as the Yellow Flower Mound revolt against the Qing. The
revolt failed and ended in disaster; only the bodies of 72 revolutionaries
were found. The revolutionaries are remembered as martyrs.

On 10 October 1911 a military uprising at Wuchang took place led again by
Huang Xing. At the time Sun had no direct involvement as he was still in
exile. Huang was in charge of the revolution that ended over 2000 years of
imperial rule in China. When Sun learned of the successful rebellion against
the Qing emperor from press reports, he immediately returned to China
from the United States accompanied by General Homer Lea on 21
December 1911. The uprising expanded to the Xinhai Revolution also
known as the "Chinese Revolution" to overthrow the last Emperor Puyi.
After this event 10 October became known as the commemoration of
Double Ten Day.

Provisional government
On 29 December 1911 a meeting of representatives from provinces in
Nanking elected Sun Yat-sen as the "provisional president" (臨時大總統
). 1 January 1912 was set as the first day of the First Year of the
Republic.Li Yuanhong was made provisional vice-president and Huang
Xing became the minister of the army. The new Provisional
Government of the Republic of China was created along with the
Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China. Sun is credited for
the funding of the revolutions and for keeping the spirit of revolution
alive, even after a series of failed uprisings. His successful merger of
minor revolutionary groups to a single larger party provided a better
base for all those who shared the same ideals. A number of things were
introduced such as the republic calendar system and new fashion like
Zhongshan suits.

Yuan Shikai was in charge of the Beiyang Army, the military of northern
China. He was promised the position of President of the Republic of
China if he could get the Qing court to abdicate. On 12 February 1912
Emperor Puyi did abdicate the throne. Sun Yat-sen stepped down as
President, and Yuan became the new provisional president in Beijing on
10 March 1912. The provisional government did not have any military
forces of its own, its control over elements of the New Army that had
mutinied was limited and there were still significant forces which still
had not declared against the Qing.

Sun Yat-sen sent telegrams to the leaders of all provinces, requesting
them to elect and to establish the National Assembly of the Republic of
China in 1912. In May 1912 the legislative assembly moved from Nanjing
to Beijing with its 120 members divided between members of
Tongmenghui and a Republican party that supported Yuan Shikai. Many
revolutionary members were already alarmed by Yuan's ambitions and
the northern based Beiyang government.

Tongmenghui member Song Jiaoren quickly tried to control the parliament.
He mobilized the old Tungmenghui at the core with the merger of a number
of new small parties to form a new political party called the Kuomintang
(KMT) on 25 August 1912 at Huguang Guild Hall Beijing. The 1912–1913
National assembly election was considered a huge success for the KMT
winning 269 of the 596 seats in the lower house and 123 of the 274 senate
seats. The Second Revolution took place where Sun and KMT military forces
tried to overthrow Yuan's forces of about 80,000 men in an armed conflict in
July 1913. The revolt against Yuan was unsuccessful. Sun was forced to seek
asylum in Japan. In retaliation KMT party leader Song Jiaoren was
assassinated under the secret order of Yuan Shikai on 20 March 1913.

In 1915 Yuan Shikai proclaimed the Empire of China (1915–1916) with
himself as Emperor of China. Sun took part in the Anti-Monarchy war of
the Constitutional Protection Movement, while also supporting bandit
leaders like Bai Lang during the Bai Lang Rebellion. This marked the
beginning of the Warlord Era. In 1915 Sun wrote to the Second
International, an organisation of socialist based in Paris, asking it to send
a team of specialists to help China set up the world's first socialist
republic. At the time there were many theories and proposals of what
China could be. In the political mess, even when Sun Yat-sen was
announced as President, Xu Shichang was also announced as President
of the Republic of China.

Sun Yat-sen (middle, dressed in white) and Chiang Kai-shek (on stage in
uniform) at the founding of the Whampoa Military Academy in 1924.

China had become divided between different
military leaders without a proper central
government. Sun saw the danger of this and
returned to China in 1917 to advocate Chinese
reunification. In 1921 he started a self-proclaimed
military government in Guangzhou and was elected
Grand Marshal. Between 1912 and 1927 three
governments had been set up in South China: the
Provisional government in Nanjing (1912), the
Military government in Guangzhou (1921–1925), and Sun Yat-
the National government in Guangzhou and later
Wuhan (1925–1927). The southern separatist sen
government in the South was established to rival the (seated
Beiyang government in the north. Yuan Shikai had on right)
banned the KMT. The short lived Chinese
Revolutionary Party was a temporary replacement
and
for the KMT. On 10 October 1919 Sun resurrected the Chiang
KMT with the new name Chung-kuo Kuomintang, Kai-shek
basically "Chinese Nationalist party".

By this time Sun had become 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. In order to hasten the conquest of China, he began a policy of
active cooperation with the Communist Party of China (CPC). Sun and the
Soviet Union's Adolph Joffe signed the Sun-Joffe Manifesto in January 1923.
Sun received help from the Comintern for his acceptance of communist
members into his KMT. Revolutionary and socialist leader Vladimir Lenin
praised Sun and the KMT for their ideology and principles. Lenin praised
Sun and his attempts at social reformation, and also congratulated him for
fighting foreign Imperialism. Sun also returned the praise, calling him a
"great man", and sent his congratulations on the revolution in Russia.

With the Soviet's help, Sun was able to develop the military power needed
for the Northern Expedition against the military at the north. He established
the Whampoa Military Academy near Guangzhou with Chiang Kai-shek as
the commandant of the National Revolutionary Army (NRA). Other
Whampoa leaders include Wang Jingwei and Hu Hanmin as political
instructors. This full collaboration was called the First United Front.

In 1924 Sun appointed TV Soong to set up the first Chinese Central bank
called the Canton Central Bank. To establish national capitalism and a
banking system was a major objective for the KMT. However Sun was
not without some opposition as there was the Canton volunteers corps
uprising against him.

Sun (seated, right) and his
wife Soong Ching-ling (宋慶
齡) (seated, center) in Kobe,
Japan in 1924

In February 1923 Sun made a presentation to the Students' Union in Hong
Kong University and declared that it was the corruption of China and the
peace, order and good government of Hong Kong that turned him into a
revolutionary. This same year, 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.

On 10 November 1924, Sun traveled north to Tianjin and delivered a
speech to suggest a gathering for a "National conference" for the Chinese
people. It called for the end of warlord rules and the abolition of all
unequal treaties with the Western powers. Two days later, he traveled to
Beijing to discuss the future of the country, despite his deteriorating health
and the ongoing civil war of the warlords. On 28 November 1924 Sun
traveled to Japan and gave a speech on Pan-Asianism at Kobe, Japan.

Sun died of liver cancer on 12 March 1925 at the age of 58 at the Rockefeller
Hospital in Beijing. In keeping with common Chinese practice, his remains
were placed in the Temple of Azure Clouds, a Buddhist shrine in the
Western Hills a few miles outside of Beijing.

Chinese Generals pay tribute to the
Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Beijing in
1928 after the success of the Northern
Expedition. From right to left, are
Generals Cheng Jin (何成浚), Zhang
Zuobao (張作寶), Chen Diaoyuan (陳
調元), Chiang Kai-shek, Woo Tsin-
hang, Yan Xishan, Ma Fuxiang, Ma
Sida (馬四達), and Bai Chongxi.

After Sun's death, a power struggle between his young protégé Chiang
Kai-shek and his old revolutionary comrade Wang Jingwei split the
KMT. At stake in this struggle was the right to lay claim to Sun's
ambiguous legacy. In 1927 Chiang Kai-shek married Soong May-ling, a
sister of Sun's widow Soong Ching-ling, and subsequently he could claim
to be a brother-in-law of Sun. When the Communists and the
Kuomintang split in 1927, marking the start of the Chinese Civil War,
each group claimed to be his true heirs, a conflict that continued through
World War II. His widow, Soong Ching-ling, sided with the Communists
during the Chinese Civil War and served from 1949 to 1981 as Vice
President (or Vice Chairwoman) of the People's Republic of China and as
Honorary President shortly before her death in 1981.

A personality cult in the Republic of China was centered on Sun and his
successor, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. Chinese Muslim Generals
and Imams participated in this cult of personality and one party state,
with Muslim General Ma Bufang making people bow to Sun's portrait
and listen to the national anthem during a Tibetan and Mongol religious
ceremony for the Qinghai Lake God. Quotes from the Quran and Hadith
were used by Muslims to justify Chiang Kai-shek's rule over China.

Statue in the Mausoleum,
Kuomintang flag on the ceiling

Sun Yat-sen remains unique among 20th century Chinese leaders for
having a high reputation both in mainland China and in Taiwan. In
Taiwan, he is seen as the Father of the Republic of China, and is known
by the posthumous name Father of the Nation, Mr. Sun Zhongshan
(Chinese: 國父孫中山先生, where the one-character space is a
traditional homage symbol). His likeness is still almost always found in
ceremonial locations such as in front of legislatures and classrooms of
public schools, from elementary to senior high school, and he continues
to appear in new coinage and currency.

On the mainland, Sun is also seen as a Chinese nationalist and proto-
socialist, and is highly regarded as the Forerunner of the Revolution (革命先
行者). He is even mentioned by name in the preamble to the Constitution
of the People's Republic of China. In recent years, the leadership of the
Communist Party of China has increasingly invoked Sun, partly as a way
of bolstering Chinese nationalism in light of Chinese economic reform and
partly to increase connections with supporters of the Kuomintang on
Taiwan which the PRC sees as allies against Taiwan independence. Sun's
tomb was one of the first stops made by the leaders of both the
Kuomintang and the People First Party on their pan-blue visit to mainland
China in 2005. A massive portrait of Sun continues to appear in
Tiananmen Square for May Day and National Day.

The Jouney of Sun Yat-Sen

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