Sun Yat-sen—Founding Father of Modern China

(国父孙中山)

8 min read

 

During the nineteenth century, China endured repeated invasions and plunder: the two Opium Wars (1839–42, 1856–60), the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894 (甲午战争), and the Eight-Nation Alliance’s (八国联军) assault on Beijing in 1900. These foreign incursions made painfully clear that China had fallen gravely behind the West—militarily, economically, and politically. Throughout this tumultuous period, countless Chinese, often at great personal risk, pursued reform with unwavering determination to save the nation and build a modern society.

 

After China’s defeat in the Sino-Japanese War, foreign powers rushed to extract concessions in treaty ports, railway rights, mining privileges, naval bases, and exclusive commercial privileges. At the same time, they moved toward establishing spheres of influence and, in some cases, colonizing parts of China. Britain dominated the Yangtze Valley and the Hong Kong region; Russia expanded into Manchuria; Germany seized Jiaozhou Bay in Shandong (山东胶州湾); France extended its influence into southern China bordering Indochina; and Japan gained Taiwan and later expanded its influence into Fujian and Manchuria. As a result, China became what historians often describe as a “semi-colony” rather than a fully colonized country.

The fear of national dismemberment profoundly shook China’s intellectual class. The first major upheaval in China’s awakening was the Taiping Rebellion (太平天国起义, 1850–1864), a massive civil war fueled by social unrest and widespread resentment toward Qing corruption. Although the movement achieved early successes, internal division and corruption ultimately led to its collapse. The prolonged conflict caused catastrophic loss of life and destruction, severely damaging China’s economy and social order.

 

Beginning in 1865, Qing provincial officials—guided by the principle of “Chinese learning as the essence, Western learning for practical use” (中学为体, 西学为用)—enlisted Western firms to build ships, telegraph lines, and railways in what became known as the Westernization Movement (洋务运动). In 1895, however, Japan defeated China in the Sino-Japanese War and annexed Taiwan, abruptly exposing the limitations of the movement.

 

The second half of the nineteenth century witnessed the emergence of a generation of reformers and revolutionaries. The former included Kang Youwei (康有为), Liang Qichao (梁启超), Tan Sitong (谭嗣同), and Yan Fu (严复); the latter, Zou Rong (邹容), Sun Yat-sen (孙中山), and his close associates Huang Xing (黄兴) and Song Jiaoren (宋教仁).

 

Sun, born in Xiangshan in Guangdong province (广东省香山), was educated in Hawaii before graduating from the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese in 1892. (Xiangshan was later renamed Zhongshan [中山] in his honor, after his adopted name Zhongshan.)

 

In private correspondence with friends, Sun Yat-sen described his intellectual journey from an ambitious young man to a revolutionary leader:

  • “Upon first witnessing the marvels of steamships and the vastness of the open sea, I was inspired to pursue Western learning and to explore the mysteries of the universe.” [1]
  • “Xiangshan and Hong Kong are separated by a mere fifty miles; why, then, are they so vastly different? How is it that foreigners, within only seventy or eighty years, could achieve such monumental feats upon a desolate island, while China—with its four-thousand-year civilization—still possesses no place comparable to Hong Kong? Wherein lies the reason?” [2]
  • “The practice of medicine saves lives, yet its reach is limited. The same is true of other charitable endeavors. However, when it comes to the greatest power of all, nothing surpasses politics. Political power can be a force for immense good, yet also for immense evil. The hardships endured by our people are, without exception, the direct result of corrupt and incompetent governance.” [3]
  • “It is my earnest hope that you, my friends, will shoulder the responsibility of revitalizing China.” [4]

In 1894, Sun Yat-sen submitted a proposal (上书) to Li Hongzhang (李鸿章), a senior Qing official, outlining the case for reform. He argued that Western powers were strong not merely because of superior ships and weapons, but because they effectively utilized human talent, land, resources, and commerce: “These four matters are the great foundations of wealth and power, and the fundamental principles of statecraft.” [5]

 

Sun also presented concrete reform proposals and requested an audience with Li. Although respectful in tone, the underlying warning was unmistakable: unless the Qing court undertook fundamental reform, the dynasty would inevitably collapse. This final appeal went unanswered, and its failure became a catalyst for revolution.

 

To rally support for his revolutionary cause, Sun Yat-sen and his supporters founded the Revive China Society (兴中会) in Hawaii in 1894 and later the United League of China (同盟会) in Tokyo in 1905. Their explicit mission was to “Expel the Manchus, restore China, establish a republic, and equalize land rights.” [6]

 

With financial support from the global Chinese diaspora and backing from revolutionary-minded Chinese students in Japan, Sun launched numerous uprisings. In October 1911, the eleventh uprising finally succeeded, bringing an end to dynastic rule and leading to the establishment of the Republic of China (中华民国) in 1912. Ironically, although the Qing government had sent students to Japan in hopes of strengthening the dynasty, many became ardent revolutionaries who helped overthrow it. The map below, photographed from an exhibit in the Memorial Museum of the Former Residence of Sun Yat-sen, shows the distribution of uprisings organized or inspired by Sun Yat-sen.

The 1911 Revolution ended more than three millennia of dynastic rule. It fundamentally dismantled the ideological foundations of imperial authority and forced China to search for new political and cultural models. It fostered a new sense of nationalism and opened the floodgates to vigorous debates about how to modernize the country—questioning Confucianism while exploring democracy, science, and later socialism.

 

Sun Yat-sen’s final words to his compatriots were: “I have devoted forty years to the national revolution, with the aim of seeking freedom and equality for China. From this experience, I have realized that to achieve this goal, it is necessary to awaken the masses and unite with other nations that treat us as equals, so that we may struggle together. The revolution has not yet succeeded. All my comrades must continue their efforts in accordance with the principles set forth in my Plans for National Reconstruction, Fundamentals of National Reconstruction, Three Principles of the People, and the Manifesto of the First National Congress, so as to carry the revolution to completion…” [7]

 

Sun Yat-sen’s dream of “national rejuvenation” did not end with his death in 1925, because the crises he sought to resolve—foreign domination, political fragmentation, poverty, and national weakness—remained unresolved. His ideas continued to inspire successive generations across the political spectrum, culminating in the watershed year of 1949 with the founding of the People’s Republic of China. His enduring influence lay not in a single political doctrine, but in the powerful and adaptable belief that China could—and must—rejuvenate itself. That aspiration survived dynastic collapse, warlord conflict, invasion, and civil war, eventually becoming one of the defining narratives of modern Chinese history.

 

China’s Revolution of 1911 was also part of a broader global transformation. In the early twentieth century, under the pressures of Western imperial expansion and industrialization, many non-Western societies experienced surging nationalism, mass politics, and new ideologies led by transformative national figures comparable to Sun Yat-sen. Among them were Emperor Meiji in Japan, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in Turkey, Vladimir Lenin in Russia, and Mahatma Gandhi in India.

 

Today, Sun Yat-sen is revered in both mainland China and Taiwan. The first image below shows the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing (南京), China, and the second the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei (台北), Taiwan. The third image depicts the entrance to the renowned Sun Yat-sen University (中山大学) in Guangzhou (广州), and the fourth the Memorial Park of the Xinhai Revolution in Cuiheng Village (翠亨村), near Sun’s childhood home. As shown in the fifth and sixth images, his childhood home and its surroundings have been carefully preserved. All of these sites are open and easily accessible to visitors.

  1. “始见轮舟之奇, 沧海之阔, 自是有慕西学之心, 穷天地之想.”
  2. “香山香港相距仅五十英里, 何以如此不同? 外人能于七八十年间在一荒岛上成此伟绩, 中国以四千年之文明仍无一地如香港者, 其故安在?”
  3. “医术救人, 所济有限. 其他慈善亦然. 若夫最大权力者, 无如政治. 政治之势力, 可为大善, 亦能为大恶. 吾国人民之艰苦, 皆不良之政治为之.”
  4. “惟愿诸君将振兴中国之责任, 置之于自身之肩上.”
  5. “窃尝深维欧洲富强之本, 不尽在于船坚炮利, 垒固兵强, 而在于人能尽其才, 地能尽其利, 物能尽其用, 货能畅其流, 此四事者, 富强之大经, 治国之大本也.”
  6. “驱除鞑虏, 恢复中华, 创立民国, 平均地权.”
  7. “余致力国民革命凡四十年, 其目的在求中国之自由平等. 积四十年之经验深知欲达到此目的, 必须唤起民众及联合世界上以平等待我之民族, 共同奋斗. 现在革命尚未成功, 凡我同志, 务须依照余所著建国方略, 建国大纲, 三民主义, 及第一次全国代表大会宣言, 继续努力, 以求贯彻…”

Photo credit: Baidu.com