Sun Yat Sen
Sun Yat Sen
Sun Yat Sen
After the success of the revolution and the Han Chinese regaining power after 268 years of living under
Manchurian rule (Qing dynasty), he quickly resigned from his post as President of the newly founded Republic of
China to Yuan Shikai, 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 Yat-sen was born in1866 to Sun Dacheng and Madame Yang, in the village of Cuiheng, Xiangshan County
(now Zhongshan City), Guangdong. He had a cultural background of Hakka (with roots in Zijin, Heyuan,
Guangdong) and Cantonese. His father owned very few lands and worked as a tailor in Macau, and as a
journeyman and a porter. After finishing primary education, he moved to Honolulu in the Kingdom of Hawaii,
where he lived a comfortable life of modest wealth supported by his elder brother Sun Mei.
During his stay in Honolulu, Sun Yat-sen went to ʻIolani School, which was under the supervision of British
Anglicans and directed by an Anglican prelate named Alfred Willis. There he studied English, British history,
mathematics, science, and Christianity. At Iolani School, young Sun Wen first came in contact with Christianity,
and it made a deep impression on him. Schriffin writes that Christianity was to have a great influence on Sun's
whole future political life. 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.
In 1883 he was sent home to China as his brother was becoming worried that Sun Yat-sen was beginning to
embrace Christianity. When he returned to China in 1883 at age 17, he studied at the Christian Diocesan Boys'
School in Hong Kong. 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. Sun was later baptized in Hong Kong (on 4 May 1884) by Rev. C.
R. Hager, an American missionary of the Congregational Church of the United States (ABCFM), to his brother's
disdain. The minister would also develop a friendship with Sun. Sun attended To Tsai Church, founded by the
London Missionary Society in 1888.
In 1924 Liao Chongzhen, a prominent and influential government official of the day, arranged a meeting between
Sun and Martha Root, a well-known journalist and traveling teacher of the Bahá'í Faith in the late 19th and early
20th century. In this meeting Sun came into contact with the Teachings of the Bahá'í Faith, expressing his
appreciation for the Cause and declaring it "highly relevant to the needs of China."
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 1894, Sun wrote an 8,000 character petition to Qing Viceroy Li Hongzhang
presenting his ideas for modernizing China. He traveled to Tianjin 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 revolutionizing China's prosperity. Sun
received financial support mostly from his brother who sold most of his 12,000 acres of ranch and cattle in
Hawaii.
Sun Yat-sen spent time living in Japan while in exile. He befriended and was financially aided by a democratic
revolutionary named Miyazaki Toten. While in Japan, Sun also met and befriended Mariano Ponce, then a
diplomat of the First Philippine Republic. During the Philippine Revolution and the Philippine–American War,
Sun helped Ponce procure weapons salvaged from the Imperial Japanese Army and ship the weapons to the
Philippines. By helping the Philippine Republic, Sun hoped that the Filipinos would win their independence so
that he could use the archipelago as a staging point of another revolution. However, as the war ended in July 1902,
America emerged victorious from a bitter 3-year war against the Republic. Therefore, the Filipino dream of
independence vanished with Sun's hopes of collaborating with the Philippines in his revolution in China.
On 22 October 1900, Sun launched the Huizhou uprising to attack Huizhou and provincial authorities in
Guangdong. This time, Sun appealed to the triads for help. The "Heaven and Earth Society" sect, known as
Tiandihui had 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. 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".
According to the New York Times, "Sun Yat-sen left his village in Guangdong, southern China, in 1879 to join a
brother in Hawaii. He eventually returned to China and from there moved to the British colony of Hong Kong in
1883. It was there that he received his Western education, his Christian faith and the money for revolution." This
is where Sun Yat-sen realized that China needed to change its ways. He knew that the only way that China would
change and modernize would be to overthrow the Qing Dynasty.
Sun was in exile not only in Japan but also in Europe, the United States, and Canada. He raised money for his
revolutionary party and to support uprisings in China. In 1896, Sun Yat-sen 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 Globe, 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.
In March 1904, while residing in Kula, Maui, Sun Yat-sen obtained a Certificate of Hawaiian Birth, issued by the
Territory of Hawaii, stating that "he was born in the Hawaiian Islands on the 24th day of November, A.D. 1870."
He renounced it after it served its purpose to circumvent the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. 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.
In 1904, Sun Yat-sen came about with the goal "to expel the Tatar barbarians (i.e. Manchu), to revive Zhonghua,
to establish a Republic, and to distribute land equally among the people".
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 challenged by elements from within the Tongmenghui who wished to remove
him as leader.
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; the bodies of only 72 revolutionaries were
found.[73] 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 returned to China
from the United States accompanied by his closest foreign advisor, the American, "General" Homer Lea. He
met Lea in London, where he and Lea unsuccessfully tried to arrange British financing for the new Chinese
republic. Sun and Lea then sailed for China, arriving there 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.
On 29 December 1911 a meeting of representatives from provinces in Nanking (Nanjing) elected Sun Yat-sen as
the "provisional president". 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, who controlled the Beiyang Army, the military of northern China, was promised the position of
President of the Republic of China if he could get the Qing court to abdicate.[78] On 12 February 1912 Emperor
Puyi did abdicate the throne.[77] Sun stepped down as President, and Yuan became the new provisional president
in Beijing on 10 March 1912.[78] 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.[79] 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.[80] Many revolutionary members were already alarmed by Yuan's ambitions and the northern based
Beiyang government.
Nationalist party and Second Revolution[edit]
Tongmenghui member Song Jiaoren quickly tried to control the parliament. He mobilized the old Tongmenghui at
the core with the merger of a number of new small parties to form a new political party called the Kuomintang
(Chinese nationalist party, commonly abbreviated as "KMT") on 25 August 1912 at Huguang Guild Hall
Beijing.[80] 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.[78][80] 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.[81] The revolt against Yuan was unsuccessful. Sun was forced to seek asylum in Japan with politician
and industrialist Fusanosuke Kuhara. In retaliation the national party leader Song Jiaoren was assassinated, almost
certainly by a secret order of Yuan, on 20 March 1913.[78]
Political chaos[edit]
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, a socialist-based organization in Paris, asking it to send a team of specialists to help
China set up the world's first socialist republic.[82] At the time there were many theories and proposals of what
China could be. In the political mess, both Sun Yat-sen and Xu Shichang were announced as President of the
Republic of China.[83]
Path to Northern Expedition[edit]
Guangzhou militarist government[edit]
(L-R): Liao Zhongkai, Chiang Kai-shek, Sun Yat-sen and Soong Ching-ling 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.[84] 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 the National government in Guangzhou and later Wuhan (1925–
1927).[85] The southern separatist government in the South was established to rival the Beiyang government in
the north.[84] Yuan Shikai had banned the KMT. The short lived Chinese Revolutionary Party was a temporary
replacement for the KMT. On 10 October 1919 Sun resurrected the KMT with the new name Chung-kuo
Kuomintang (simplified Chinese: 中国国民党; traditional Chinese: 中國國民黨; pinyin: Zhōngguó guómíndǎng),
or the "Nationalist Party of China".[80]
KMT–CPC cooperation[edit]
Sun (seated, right) and his wife Soong Ching-ling (seated next to him) 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.[94][95] 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.[96] 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. Among the people he met was the Muslim
General Ma Fuxiang, who informed Sun that they would welcome his leadership.[97] On 28 November 1924 Sun
traveled to Japan and gave a speech on Pan-Asianism at Kobe, Japan.[98]
Illness and death[edit]
For many years, it was popularly believed that Sun died of liver cancer. On 26 January 1925, Sun underwent an
exploratory laparotomy at Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH) to investigate a long-term illness.
This was performed by the head of the Department of Surgery, Adrian S. Taylor, who stated that the procedure
"revealed extensive involvement of the liver by carcinoma" and that Sun only had about ten days to live. Sun was
hospitalized and his condition was treated with radium. [99] Sun survived the initial ten-day period and on 18
February, against the advice of doctors, he was transferred to the KMT headquarters and treated with traditional
Chinese medicine. This too was unsuccessful and he died on 12 March at the age of 58.[100] Contemporary
reports in The New York Times,[100] Time,[101] and the Chinese newspaper Qun Qiang Bao all reported the
cause of death as liver cancer, based on Taylor's observation.[102]
Following this the body then was preserved in mineral oil[103] and taken to the Temple of Azure Clouds, a
Buddhist shrine in the Western Hills a few miles outside of Beijing.[104][105] He also left a short political will (
總理遺囑) penned by Wang Jingwei, which had a widespread influence in the subsequent development of the
Republic of China and Taiwan.[106]
In 1926, construction began on a majestic mausoleum at the foot of Purple Mountain in Nanjing, and this was
completed in the spring of 1929. On 1 June 1929, Sun's remains were moved from Beijing and interred in the Sun
Yat-sen Mausoleum.
By pure chance, in May 2016, an American pathologist named Rolf F. Barth was visiting the Sun Yat-sen
Memorial Hall in Guangzhou when he noticed a faded copy of the original autopsy report on display. The autopsy
was performed immediately after Sun's death by James Cash, a pathologist at PUMCH. Based on a tissue sample,
Cash concluded that the cause of death was an adenocarcinoma in the gallbladder that had metastasized to the
liver. In modern China, liver cancer is far more common than gallbladder cancer and although the incidence rates
of either in 1925 are not known, if one assumes that they were similar at that time, then the original diagnosis by
Taylor was a logical conclusion. From the time of Sun's death until the appearance of Barth's report[107] in the
Chinese Journal of Cancer in September 2016 (now known as Cancer Communications[108] since March 1,
2018), the true cause of death of Sun Yat-sen was not reported in any English-language publication. Even in
Chinese-language sources, it only appeared in one non-medical online report in 2013.[99][109]
Legacy[edit]
Power struggle[edit]
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 Mei-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. Sun's 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.
Cult of personality[edit]
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.[110] Quotes from the Quran and Hadith were
used by Muslims to justify Chiang Kai-shek's rule over China.[111]
The Kuomintang's constitution designated Sun as party president. After his death, the Kuomintang opted to keep
that language in its constitution to honor his memory forever. The party has since been headed by a director-
general (1927–1975) and a chairman (since 1975), which discharge the functions of the president.
Father of the Nation[edit]
Aerial perspective of Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall in central Singapore. Taken in 2016
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Yat-sen