Sun Yat-sen (; 12 November 186612 March 1925) was a Chinese physician, revolutionary and political philosopher who founded the Republic of China (ROC) and the Kuomintang (KMT). Sun is credited with leading the 1911 Revolution and overthrowing the Qing dynasty. He served as the first president of the Provisional Government of the Republic of China (1912) and as the inaugural premier of the Kuomintang.
Born to a poor peasant family in Guangdong, Sun was educated in Hawaii before graduating from the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese in 1892. In 1894 he submitted a petition to reform the Qing government to Li Hongzhang, which was rejected. Sun subsequently went into exile and led anti-Qing movements overseas, founding the Revive China Society, the Tongmenghui, and the People's News.
Following the 1911 Revolution, Sun proclaimed the establishment of the Republic of China but relinquished the presidency to Beiyang Army leader Yuan Shikai in exchange for securing the Qing court's abdication. After the assassination of Song Jiaoren in 1913, widely attributed to Yuan, Sun led a failed Second Revolution against him, after which Sun fled to Japan. In 1917, Sun established a Constitutional Protection junta in Guangzhou, but before his planned Northern Expedition against the warlords, he was forced to resign due to infighting. Sun assumed the junta leadership in 1921, survived Chen Jiongming's revolt, and collaborated with Soviet Union and the Chinese Communist Party to form the First United Front. In late 1924, he traveled north beyond his base in Guangdong to call for a national assembly and the abolition of unequal treaties, continuing his struggle against the warlords Duan Qirui and Zhang Zuolin. He died in Beijing in 1925.
Sun is revered by both the Republic of China, which designates him "Father of the Nation," and the People's Republic of China, which honors him as the "Forerunner of the Revolution." Sun's flagship ideology, Three Principles of the People, sought to modernize China through nationalism, democracy, and the people's livelihood, within an ethnically harmonious conception of the Chinese nation.
Names
Sun's genealogical name was Sun Deming (Cantonese: ; ).Singtao daily. Saturday edition. 23 October 2010. section A18. Sun Yat-sen Xinhai revolution 100th anniversary edition . As a child, his milk name was Tai Tseung (Cantonese: ; ). In school, a teacher gave him the name Sun Wen (Cantonese: ; ), which was used by Sun for most of his life.
Sun's courtesy name was Zaizhi (Cantonese: ; ), and his art name was Rixin (; ) before it was changed to Yixian (; ) when he attended school in British Hong Kong. The most common English form of his name derives from the Cantonese romanization of his art names, which differ in Mandarin pronunciation but are identical in Cantonese.
Sun Zhongshan (; , also romanized Chung Shan), his best known name in the Chinese-speaking world, is derived from his Japanese name Kikori Nakayama (; ), the pseudonym given to him by Tōten Miyazaki when he was in hiding in Japan.
His birthplace, originally known as Xiangshan, was renamed Zhongshan in his honour shortly after his death in 1925.
Early years Birthplace and early life Sun Deming was born on 12 November 1866 to Sun Dacheng and Madame Yang. His birthplace was the village of Cuiheng, Xiangshan County (now Zhongshan City), Canton Province (now Guangdong). He was Hakka and Cantonese. His father owned very little land and worked as a tailor in Macau and as a journeyman and a porter. After finishing primary education and meeting childhood friend Lu Haodong, 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.
Education
Sun began his education at the age of 10, and later attended secondary school in Hawaii. In 1878, after receiving a few years of local schooling, a 13-year-old Sun went to live with his elder brother Sun Mei, who would later make major contributions to overthrowing the Qing dynasty, and who financed Sun's attendance of the ʻIolani School. There, he studied English, British history, mathematics, science, and Christianity. Sun was initially unable to speak English, but quickly acquired it, received a prize for academic achievement from King Kalākaua, and graduated in 1882. He then attended Oahu College (now known as Punahou School) for one semester. Sun Yat-sen learned American history and political ideas extensively during his schooling in Hawaii, particularly admiring figures like Abraham Lincoln and Alexander Hamilton, which profoundly shaped his vision for a democratic China, incorporating concepts of republicanism, self-rule, and economic development inspired by American models. He studied U.S. history and geography, absorbing revolutionary ideals from American schools that influenced his own revolutionary path for China. By 1883, Sun's interest in Christianity had become deeply worrisome for his brother, who, seeing his conversion as inevitable, sent Sun back to China.
Upon returning to China, a 17-year-old Sun met with his childhood friend Lu Haodong at the Beiji Temple () in Cuiheng, where villagers engaged in traditional folk healing and worshipped an effigy of the North Star God. Feeling contemptuous of these practices, Sun and Lu incurred the wrath of their fellow villagers by breaking the wooden idol; as a result, Sun's parents felt compelled to dispatch him to Hong Kong. In November 1883, Sun began attending the Diocesan Home and Orphanage on Eastern Street (now the Diocesan Boys' School), and from 15 April 1884 he attended The Government Central School on Gough Street (now Queen's College), until graduating in 1886.
In 1886, Sun studied medicine at the Guangzhou Boji Hospital under the Christian missionary John Glasgow Kerr. According to his book Kidnapped in London, in 1887 Sun heard of the opening of the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese (the forerunner of the University of Hong Kong). He immediately sought to attend, and went on to obtain a license to practice medicine from the institution in 1892; out of a class of twelve students, Sun was one of two who graduated.Singtao Daily. 28 February 2011. 特別策劃 section A10. "Sun Yat-sen Xinhai revolution 100th anniversary edition".South China Morning Post. "Birth of Sun heralds dawn of revolutionary era for China". 11 November 1999.
Religious views and Christian baptism Sun was a Christian. It has been argued, e.g. by D. Treadgold, that Sun was not a real Christian; he just portrayed himself as such for political reasons. The evidence is that Sun did not visit the church often nor often celebrate Christian festivals such as Christmas or Easter.
Sun said in San Francisco, "Our greatest hope is to make the Bible and Christian education, as we have known it, the means of conveying to our countrymen what blessings may be in the way of just laws."
Sun was baptized in Hong Kong on 4 May 1884 by Rev. Charles Robert Hager,"...At present there are some seven members in the interior belonging to our mission, and two here, one I baptized last Sabbath, a young man who is attending the Government Central School. We had a very pleasant communion service yesterday..." – Hager to Clark, 5 May 1884, ABC 16.3.8: South China v.4, no.17, p.3"...We had a pleasant communion yesterday and received one Chinaman into the church..." – Hager to Pond, 5 May 1884, ABC 16.3.8: South China v.4, no.18, p.3 postscriptRev. C. R. Hager, 'The First Citizen of the Chinese Republic', The Medical Missionary v.22 1913, p.184 an American missionary of the Congregational Church of the United States (American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions), to his brother's disdain. The minister would also develop a friendship with Sun.Bergère: 26Soong, (1997) p. 151–178 Sun attended To Tsai Church (), founded by the London Missionary Society in 1888, while he studied medicine in Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese. 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.
Becoming a revolutionary Four Bandits
During the Qing-dynasty rebellion around 1888, Sun was in Hong Kong with a group of revolutionary thinkers, nicknamed the Four Bandits, at the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese.Bard, Solomon. Voices from the past: Hong Kong, 1842–1918. (2002). HK University Press. . p. 183.
From Furen Literary Society to Revive China Society In 1891, Sun met revolutionary friends in Hong Kong including Yeung Ku-wan who was the leader and founder of the Furen Literary Society.Curthoys, Ann; Lake, Marilyn (2005). Connected worlds: history in transnational perspective. ANU publishing. . p. 101. 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.Wei, Julie Lee. Myers Ramon Hawley. Gillin, Donald G. (1994). Prescriptions for saving China: selected writings of Sun Yat-sen. Hoover press. .Bergère: 39–40 He traveled to Tianjin to personally present the petition to Li but was not granted an audience.Bergère: 40–41 After that 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. It was the first Chinese nationalist revolutionary society. Members were drawn mainly from Chinese expatriates, especially from 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. Thereafter, Sun became the secretary of the newly merged Revive China Society, which Yeung Ku-wan headed as president.(Chinese) Yang, Bayun; Yang, Xing'an (2010). Yeung Ku-wan – A Biography Written by a Family Member. Bookoola. p. 17. They disguised their activities in Hong Kong under the running of a business under the name "Kuen Hang Club", founder Tse Tsan-tai's account (). Sun had members swear an oath to "Expel the Tartar barbarians, restore China."
Heaven and Earth Society and overseas travels to seek financial support A "Heaven and Earth Society" sect known as Tiandihui had been around for a long time.João de Pina-Cabral. (2002). Between China and Europe: person, culture and emotion in Macao. Berg publishing. . p. 209. The group has also been referred to as the "three cooperating organizations", as well as the triads. Sun mainly used the group to leverage his overseas travels to gain further financial and resource support for his revolution.
First Sino-Japanese War In 1895, China suffered a serious defeat during the First Sino-Japanese War. There were two types of responses. One group of intellectuals contended that the Manchu Qing government could restore its legitimacy by successfully modernizing.Bevir, Mark (2010). Encyclopedia of Political Theory. Sage publishing. . p 168. Stressing that overthrowing the Manchu would result in chaos and would lead to China being carved up by imperialists, intellectuals like Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao supported responding with initiatives 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 Days' reform turned out to be a failure by 1898.Lin, Xiaoqing Diana. (2006). Peking University: Chinese Scholarship And Intellectuals, 1898–1937. SUNY Press, . p. 27.
First uprising and exile First Guangzhou Uprising