Sun Yat-sen: The Great Forerunner of China’s Democratic Revolution and Interpretation of the Three People’s Principles

In-depth interpretation of the life, thoughts, Three Principles of the People (Three Principles of the People) and the grand founding strategy of Sun Yat-sen, China’s great national hero and revolutionary forerunner in modern times.

Sun Yat -sen (Sun Yat-sen) was a famous politician, revolutionary, physician and political philosopher in modern China. He is hailed as a great national hero, a great patriot, and a great pioneer of China's democratic revolution. As the outstanding leader of the 1911 Revolution, Sun Yat-sen led the overthrow of the feudal monarchy of the Qing Dynasty and founded Asia's first democratic republic, the Republic of China (ROC). He was also the first leader and founder of the Chinese Kuomintang (KMT).

The political philosophy system proposed by Sun Yat-sen, namely the Three Principles of the People, advocates the nation, civil rights and people's livelihood, and aims to establish a republic of the people, by the people and for the people.

On both sides of the China Strait, Sun Yat-sen enjoyed a high reputation. In Taiwan, he is revered as the "Father of the Nation." In mainland China, he is revered as the "Forerunner of the Revolution", and his name is even written into the preamble of the "Constitution of the People's Republic of China".

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Sun Yat-sen's various names and early experiences

Sun Yat-sen was born on November 12, 1866 (the sixth day of October in the fifth year of Tongzhi) in Cuiheng Village, Xiangshan County, Guangzhou Prefecture (now Zhongshan City), Guangdong Province.

He used several names, many chosen to promote revolution or to avoid being wanted.

• Genealogical name and infant name: His genealogical name is Sun Te-ming, and his infant name is Emperor Xiang .
• Name and nickname: He was named Sūn Wén when he attended a village school in his childhood. This was also the name he used for most of his life. His given name is Zàizhī .
• Christian name and nickname: When he was baptized into Christianity in Hong Kong in 1884, he gave himself the Christian name Rìxīn . The allusion was taken from the Confucian classic "Great Learning", "Gou Rixin, Dayi Xin, Ri Xin again". His nickname was Yìxiān , which was changed by Pastor Au Fengchi, a Chinese teacher, based on the Cantonese homophony of "Rixin".
• English name: The internationally well-known Sun Yat-sen is the Cantonese pronunciation transliteration of "Sun Yat-sen" used in Hong Kong.
• Common name: His most popular Chinese name, Sun Yat-sen (Sūn Zhōngshān), comes from the pseudonym "Nakayama Kikori" (meaning "Chinese Mountain Woodcutter") he adopted to hide his identity when he was in exile in Japan in 1897.

Sun Yat-sen grew up in an ordinary family during his childhood. It was not until his eldest brother, Sun Mei, ran a ranch and store in Hawaii that the family's situation improved. In 1878, 12-year-old Sun Yat-sen went to Honolulu with his mother. With the support of his brother, he received modern Western education at Hawaii's Iolani School and Oahu College (today's Punahou School).

From healing people and saving the world to revolutionizing China: the emergence of early revolutionary ideas

Sun Yat-sen studied medicine in his early years. He studied at Guangzhou Boji Hospital and the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese (the predecessor of today’s School of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong). He graduated with honors in 1892 and became a Western medicine physician. He chose medicine because he believed that "medicine is also the art of saving people."

Changes in Thoughts and the Founding of the Xingzhong Society

While studying medicine in Hong Kong, Sun Yat-sen had close contacts with revolutionary thinkers such as Yang Heling, Chen Shaobai, and You Lie, and was known as the "Four Bandits" by his time. He was deeply influenced by modern Western thought and Christian teachings, and saw that "the purpose of Christ's salvation is connected with revolution."

In the late 19th century, due to the corruption of the Qing government and the failure of the First Sino-Japanese War, he saw that the Chinese nation was in danger of being carved up by Western powers. He decided to give up his "career as a doctor" and engage in "the career of healing the country."

• Letters and setbacks in reform: In 1894, Sun Yat-sen wrote the famous "Letter to Li Hongzhang", proposing to Li Hongzhang, the governor of Zhili, the idea of self-improvement by following the West in developing industry and agriculture and reforming education. However, he failed to meet Li Hongzhang. This experience enabled him to see clearly the corruption of the Qing government, and his thoughts changed from a reformist to a democratic revolutionary who overthrew the Qing Dynasty.
• The Revive China Society was founded: On November 24, 1894, Sun Yat-sen founded the Revive China Society , the first modern revolutionary group in Chinese history, in Honolulu, and clearly proposed the revolutionary program of "driving out the Tartars, restoring China, and establishing a United Government."

Uniting revolutionary forces: the Tongmenghui and the Xinhai Revolution

In the following years, Sun Yat-sen experienced the failure of many armed uprisings, as well as the hardships of exile and fundraising overseas.

The revolutionary journey of repeated defeats

In 1895, the Xingzhonghui planned the First Guangzhou Uprising in Guangzhou, but it failed. More than 70 members, including Lu Haodong, were arrested and sacrificed. Sun Yat-sen was forced to flee overseas.

• London Tragedy: In 1896, Sun Yat-sen was trapped by the Qing legation in London, England, and planned to be secretly sent back to China for execution. He was later rescued by his teacher James Cantlie and other British friends and was released. This incident made him famous far and wide. He later wrote "The Tragedy of London".
• Tongmenghui was founded: On August 20, 1905, in order to unify the national revolutionary forces, Sun Yat-sen joined forces with the Xingzhong Hui, Huaxing Hui and other revolutionary groups to create the national bourgeois revolutionary party China Tongmenghui (Tongmenghui) in Tokyo, Japan. He was elected Prime Minister. The program of the Tongmenghui is "to expel the Tartars, restore China, establish the Republic of China, and equalize land rights."

The Revolution of 1911 and the Provisional President

Under the organization of the Tongmenghui, Sun Yat-sen led revolutionaries to launch multiple armed uprisings in South China and other places, including the Guangzhou Huanghuagang Uprising in April 1911.

On October 10, 1911, the Wuchang Uprising broke out and later developed into the Chinese Revolution. At that time, Sun Yat-sen was raising funds in Denver, USA. After learning that the uprising was successful, he quickly returned to China.

On December 29, 1911, Sun Yat-sen was elected as the interim president of the Republic of China by a majority of votes from representatives of 17 provinces. On January 1, 1912, he was sworn in in Nanjing, and the Provisional Government of the Republic of China was established.

On February 12, 1912, Puyi, the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, announced his abdication, ending China's more than 2,000-year-old autocratic monarchy. Sun Yat-sen was forced to resign as interim president after the Qing emperor abdicated, giving way to Yuan Shikai, who controlled the Beiyang Army.

During his tenure in the provisional government, Sun Yat-sen presided over the formulation of the "Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China", which was the first democratic constitutional document in Chinese history, clearly stipulating that "the sovereignty of the Republic of China belongs to all the people."

The Three People's Principles: The Grand Blueprint of the Nation's Founding Strategy

The core of Sun Yat-sen's political thought is the Three Principles of the People, which aims to achieve the independence, democracy, and prosperity of the Chinese nation through political construction and economic development. Sun Yat-sen believed that the Three People's Principles were the ideological foundation for transforming and building China.

Three core principles

1. Nationalism (Minzu): advocates the equality and integration of all ethnic groups in the country to form the "Chinese nation". Externally, it opposes anti-imperialism and emphasizes the pursuit of international equality.
2. Minquan: advocates the establishment of a democratic government. He put forward the theory of power differentiation that "the people have the right and the government has the ability" and believed that the people should have the four political powers of election, recall, creation and review. In terms of government structure, he proposed the famous Five-Power Constitution , which added examination and supervisory powers to the three powers of legislation, administration, and justice.
3. Minsheng: pursues the well-being of people's lives, advocates equalizing land rights, controlling capital, developing national capital, and achieving social equality. He once clearly stated that he hoped to "use foreign capitalism to create socialism in China" and believed that people's livelihood doctrine was socialism.

Exploring political ideology: Sun Yat-sen's Three People's Principles include multiple aspects such as national independence, democratic politics, and people's livelihood and welfare. His political ideology has elements of revolutionary nationalism, progressivism , and democratic socialism . If you are interested in the composition and tendencies of different ideologies , you can try taking an 8Values political values orientation test to gain a clearer understanding of your own political stance.

Progressive construction and industrial planning

Sun Yat-sen proposed that national construction should follow a progressive path of three stages: military administration, political training, and constitutional government . During the political tutelage period, priority should be given to infrastructure construction and civil rights training.

He is the author of systematic works such as "The Fundamentals of National Reconstruction" and "Outline of the Founding of the People's Republic of China". Among them, "The International Development of China" shows his grand blueprint for China's modernization construction:

• Transportation network: It is planned to build about 160,000 kilometers of railways and 1.6 million kilometers of road networks.
• Port construction: Plan to build three world-class ports (Northern Port, Eastern Port, and Southern Port).
• Industrial development: Emphasizes the development of heavy industries such as steel and machinery manufacturing, and promotes China's industrialization through the introduction of foreign investment and advanced technology. He advocated using foreign capital to develop China's industry, but emphasized that foreign capital must be "under my control."

Sun Yat-sen also advocated Pan -Asianism, advocated the unity of Asia, overthrew the "hegemony" of the West, and promoted the "kingdom" of the East.

The United Russia, the Communist Party and the Last Years of the Revolution

After overthrowing the monarchy, Sun Yat-sen experienced a series of setbacks such as Yuan Shikai proclaimed himself emperor, Song Jiaoren was assassinated, the "second revolution" failed, and the law-protection movement was squeezed out by warlords. He realized that it would be difficult to achieve China's unity and independence with the power of one party alone.

First United Front

Faced with the chaotic situation of domestic warlord rule, Sun Yat-sen turned his attention to international anti-imperialist forces.

• Decision-making on alliance with Russia: He and Adolph Joffe, the representative of the Soviet Russian government, issued the "Sun Wen-Joffe Joint Declaration" in January 1923, which laid the foundation for the alliance with Russia policy.
• Three major policies: Sun Yat-sen accepted the help of the Comintern and the Communist Party of China (CCP) and proposed three major policies: alliance with Russia, alliance with the Communist Party, and support for agriculture and industry , and launched the First United Front.
• Whampoa Military Academy: In January 1924, the Chinese Kuomintang held its first national congress in Guangzhou. In June of the same year, Sun Yat-sen, with the help of Soviet advisers, founded the Whampoa Military Academy on Changzhou Island in Huangpu, Guangzhou, to cultivate revolutionary military talents for the Northern Expedition.

Regretful death and the Prime Minister’s will

In October 1924, due to the coup in Beijing, Sun Yat-sen was invited to go north to discuss state affairs with all parties. He arrived in Beijing ill and advocated convening a National Assembly to achieve the peaceful reunification of the country, and called for the abolition of all unequal treaties signed with Western powers.

Sun Yat-sen's condition deteriorated from January 1925 and he was hospitalized. He died in Beijing on March 12, 1925 at the age of 58 due to cancer (re-evaluated by modern medicine and determined to be gallbladder cancer metastasized to the liver).

On the eve of his death, he signed three wills: "State Will", "Family Will" and "Suicide Note to the Soviet Union". In the "State Will", he summarized 40 years of revolutionary experience, issued a call that "the revolution has not yet succeeded, comrades must still work hard", and asked comrades to continue to work hard to implement his "National Founding Strategy", "National Founding Outline", "Three People's Principles", etc.

On June 1, 1929, Sun Yat-sen's coffin was buried in the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum at the southern foot of Purple Mountain in Nanjing.

Historical evaluation and eternal commemoration

With his great contribution to the country and nation, Sun Yat-sen enjoys a high historical status in the hearts of Chinese people at home and abroad. He ended China's thousands-year-old autocratic monarchy and is recognized as the founder of the Chinese republic.

Official title and evaluation

In the People's Republic of China, Sun Yat-sen is revered as "the great pioneer of China's democratic revolution" and is highly regarded as an "outstanding patriot and national hero". Mao Zedong, the leader of the Communist Party of China, once praised him for "devoting his whole life to transforming China. He was really dedicated until his death." Xi Jinping pointed out that Sun Yat-sen was the first person to propose methods for the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

Cultural and Memorial Architecture

In order to commemorate Sun Yat-sen's historical achievements, many places and buildings were named after him.

• Place names and roads: Xiangshan County, Sun Yat-sen's hometown, was renamed Zhongshan County in 1925. In many major Chinese cities, the main road is named Zhongshan Road.
• Educational Institutions: Important institutions include Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou and National Sun Yat-sen University in Taiwan.
• Memorial facility: Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Purple Mountain, Nanjing is his burial place. In addition, there are the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Guangzhou, the National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei, and the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Museum in Hong Kong, aiming to promote his patriotism and revolutionary spirit. His image also appears on China's commemorative coins and exhibitions.

Revolutionary spirit and philanthropic thought

Throughout his life, Sun Yat-sen implemented the lofty ideal of "the world is for the common good" that he pursued. This idea comes from the Confucian classic "Book of Rites·Liyun". He interpreted Confucian "benevolence" as the "benevolence of saving the country" of revolutionaries, resolutely gave up the ideal of a missionary or a famous doctor, and devoted himself to the revolutionary cause of saving China. He emphasized that the value of life lies in dedication to the nation and country. His firm revolutionary spirit and unremitting will to fight are still precious spiritual assets for the Chinese people to achieve national prosperity and national rejuvenation.

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Summarize

This article introduces in detail the life, thoughts, and historical status of Sun Yat-sen (Sun Yat-sen) as the forerunner of the Chinese revolution . It focuses on analyzing his theory of the Three People's Principles, his role in the Revolution of 1911 , and his policy of allying with Russia and containing the Communist Party in his later years. For more information, please continue to browse our official blog .