Founding Father,
Republic of China
Dr. Sun Yat-sen, also known as Sun Chung-shan and Sun Wen, was born in 1866
in a coastal village of Hsiangshan County 香山縣, Guangdong Province. After receiving
his early education in both Chinese and Western schools, he moved to Hawaii
in 1879, where he attended Iolani and Oahu Colleges. In 1883, he returned to
China to continue his studies, concentrating on the Chinese classics and history.
He later moved to Hong Kong to attend Queen's College and in 1892 graduated
from Hong Kong Medical College.
Seeing the weakness of the imperial Manchu court and the encroachment on China
by foreign powers, Sun gave up his medical career to pursue political reform.
In 1894, together with a group of overseas Chinese youths, Sun established his
first revolutionary organization, the Hsing-chung Hui 興中會 (Society for Regenerating
China), in Honolulu, Hawaii. His political ideals are summarized in a set of
doctrines called the Three Principles of the Peoplenationalism, democracy, and
the people's well-beingwhich were designed to build an independent, democratic,
and prosperous China.
Over the next 16 years, Sun and his followers launched ten futile attempts
to topple the corrupt imperial Manchu court. Finally, on October 10, 1911, forces
loyal to Sun took over Wuchang, the capital of Hubei Province. Thereafter, other
provinces and important cities joined the revolutionary camp and declared independence
from the Manchu government. On December 29, 1911, Sun was elected provisional
president of the new republic by delegates from 16 of the 17 provinces gathered
in Nanjing. He was inaugurated on January 1, 1912, the founding day of the ROC.
To preserve national unity, Sun relinquished the presidency on April 1, 1912,
to military strongman Yuan Shih-kai 袁世凱, who declared himself emperor in 1915.
Sun and other leaders moved the revolutionary effort to Japan until Yuan Shih-kai's
death in 1916. In 1917, the Provisional Assembly elected Sun to lead the Chinese
Military Government 軍政府 based in Guangzhou, and in 1921 Sun assumed office as
president of the newly formed government in Guangzhou. He devoted the rest of
his life to uniting China's feuding factions.
Dr. Sun denied the inevitability of communism in China. He believed that class
struggle, an intrinsic element of communism, was not a requirement of human
progress. He reiterated this point in a joint declaration issued with Soviet
envoy Adolf Joffe in 1923, which stated that the communist system was not suitable
for China. He also believed that cooperation rather than class struggle was
the motive force for social development.
Sun died of illness on March 12, 1925, at the age of 59 in Beijing. In 1940,
he was posthumously declared the Founding Father of the Republic of China for
his life-long contributions to the revolution.
