SUN YAT-SEN. - Cantonese form of the name of Süenisien (Sun I-hsien), Chinese politician and revolutionary. Born on 12 Nov. 1866 to a humble peasant family in the village of Tsuiheng, halfway between Canton and Macao, died in Beijing on 12 March 1925. He attended the village school, then at the age of eleven went with his elder brother to Hawaii, to Honolulu, where he studied at Iolani College, until at the age of sixteen his brother brought him back to his native village for fear that he might become too modernized.
Feeling ill at ease among backward people, he took refuge in Hong Kong, where at the beginning of 1884 he received Baptism at the hands of an American Protestant missionary and on 7 May he married. To devote himself better to the revolution, without arousing the suspicions of the police, he took up the study of medicine, first at Canton and then again at Hong Kong, from 1887 to 1892, when he obtained the degree of bachelor of medicine and surgery. From then on he was known under the name of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, although in fact he had never reached the degree of doctor. After the defeats of the Franco-Chinese wars of 1884-85 and the Sino-Japanese war of 1895, he attempted a coup in Canton against the Manchu dynasty. But the conspiracy was discovered in time and S. no longer believed himself safe in China. In 16 years of wandering life, he sought refuge in Japan, America, Europe, Siam, Malaya, India, etc., everywhere dogged by the imperial police, who placed on his head, dead or alive, a reward of one million taels. On 11 Oct. 1896 he was therefore seized in the Chinese Legation in London, but an old teacher of his from Hong Kong managed to free him. He thus continued to travel the world, preaching revolution and democracy to the numerous Chinese he found almost everywhere. After China's disasters around 1900, the revolutionary party gained ground and in 1905 there was serious talk of the future Chinese Republic. It was the moment when S. concentrated his reforms around the Three Principles (v.). In Oct. 1911, the outbreak of the revolution in China found him in Denver, Colorado. Sure of England's support, on 25 Dec. 1911 S. returned to his homeland, was immediately elected provisional president of the young Republic and assumed its functions at Nanking on 1 Jan. 1912. From then on he was regarded as the "father of the fatherland." Forty-five days later, weary of the presidency, he abdicated in favor of Iüenseechae (Yuan Shih-k'ai), on condition that the Emperor too abdicate, which happened on 12 Febr. 1912. Free from all political responsibility, he devoted himself to preaching the new political gospel, the Three Principles. But relations between President Iüenseechae and S. deteriorated especially when, in 1915, the former wished to re-establish the monarchy in his own favor. S. took refuge again in Japan, whence he returned in 1916 upon the death of his antagonist. In 1917 at Canton the "military government" was formed with S. as generalissimo, and when in 1921 the city proclaimed itself a Republic independent of Beijing he was elected its president. He immediately preached the expedition against the north, which twice came to nothing. Faithful to his grandiose plans of reform, in Jan. 1924 he admitted into his nationalist party the communist party, desired by Russia, from which S. had requested help. Then he set himself again to preaching his Three Principles once more. On 1 June 1929 his mortal remains were entombed in a magnificent marble mausoleum at Nanking.
Bibliography
Pasquale M. D'Elia