UNIT14
Dr. Sun Yat-sen: Father of the Chinese Revolution
Dr. Sun Yat-sen held official political office
for a total of only a few months in China,
yet he had an impact so profound
that it earned him the designation
of Father of the Chinese Revolution.
He was a man
who is still much revered in China.
His portrait can be seen in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
Sun was born in 1866 in Guangdong Province.
His ancestors were clans
of farmers and shepherds.
During his adolescent years,
he attended school in Honolulu and Hong Kong.
In the latter city,
he studied medicine, receiving an “A”
in every subject in the program,
an unprecedented feat at Hong Kong Medical College
(later, the University of Hong Kong).
While in Hong Kong,
Sun undertook conversion to Roman Catholicism.
Early in life, Sun developed contempt
for the corruption of the Qing (Manchu) Dynasty.
He was also vocal
in denouncing foreign intrusions
and aggression against China
during the 19th century.
The opium war of 1839 to 1842
was a major testimony to China's inability
to defend itself against outside aggression.
By this period,
Britain had developed a strong monopoly
in the trade of many goods,
including tea, salt, opium,
and other commodities.
This monopoly was exercised mostly
through the British East India Company.
Britain had been importing much from China,
but was exporting little.
This resulted in a yearly balance
of payments deficit with China.
To correct this imbalance in trade,
and the fact that opium was a highly addictive drug,
the arrogant British forced
the export of opium on China,
even though opium was declared illegal
by the latter. China's attempt
to resist these aggressive trade practices
precipitated the bloody Opium War of 1839 to 1842.
Thousands were massacred
as China lost miserably against superior forces.
The Treaty of Nanking in 1842
dictated that China pay huge compensation
to Britain and it forced China
to open five of its ports to British trade.
Britain also demanded and received immunity
from Chinese laws,
therefore gaining British sovereignty
over small parts of a foreign land.
Hong Kong was ceded to Britain as well.
The Chinese endured repression
and humiliation for many decades.
In 1896, the United States,
relative newcomers to the club
of world imperialists,
declared an Open Door policy
for trading with China.
No foreign country was to have a monopoly
of trade with China.
During the 19th century,
many foreign countries successfully
carved out pieces of China for themselves.
Geographically, by 1911,
China was a significantly smaller country
than it was in 1800.
In the middle of the 19th century,
China was also going through
some very grim times, economically.
There were famines, floods, and droughts.
There was much suffering and deprivation,
especially in the southern areas of China.
The Qing dynasty did very little
to relieve the people of their plight.
These conditions, along with
the humiliating concessions being forced
on them by foreign powers,
culminated in a mass of violent eruptions
and disturbances against the Qing Dynasty,
which became known as
the Taiping Rebellion from 1851 to 1864.
The Opium Wars, the Taiping Rebellion,
and later, in 1900,
the Boxer Rebellion,
were constant reminders of government corruption
and China's weakness against foreign intrusion
and manipulation.
With these tragic misfortunes
in recent modern Chinese history on his mind,
Sun came to the conclusion that
the only way that China could truly
become a strong unified country once again,
was by fullscale revolution.
This should begin
with capturing the Qing throne,
terminating millennia of imperial rule in China.
He also realized that
a more militant approach was needed
if he was going to achieve his goals.
Blundering in the first attempt
to overthrow the Manchus in 1895,
Sun fled from China and embarked upon
an unexpected 16 years of world travel
and refection.
This period proved instrumental
in Sun's development of revolutionary strategy and theory.
He enrolled support from Chinese people
living in other countries.
He visited Hawaii, the United States,
Britain, and Japan.
He elicited help wherever he could.
He read some of works of Karl Marx
and those of Henry George.
George was an American economist
and social philosopher
who saw the injustice of land policy
during the building of railroads
into the American west in the second half
of the 19th century.
George observed that
most people who moved west
remained poor or got poorer,
while the relatively few land developers
got richer and richer.
The advertisement
“Go west young man and prosper” meant,
in reality, that only a very few would prosper.
George suggested, without success,
that a heavy land tax be levied
to tap some of this wealth
in order to develop a solid infrastructure
from which all people in the west,
not just the rich, could benefit.
Sun also had the opportunity
to study republican forms of government
such as that of the United States.
He became even more convinced that
China had to break away from
the millenniaold imperial government system,
concluding that a republican system
was the answer for China.
He was impressed with Montesquieu's principle
of the separation of government powers.
This theory stated that
the three branches of government,
the executive, legislative, and judicial,
function separately.
He saw this in practice,
particularly in the United States.
He later concluded that for China,
two additional separated powers,
examination and censorial would be necessary.
