Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925)

Pioneer of the national democratic revolution in modern China; the great forerunner of the Chinese democratic revolution; the founder of the Republic of China and the Chinese KMT; the advocate of the Three Principles of the People. Also known as Sun Wen, courtesy name Sun Deming, Rixin, native of Xiangshan County (present-day Zhongshan City), Guangdong Province. In 1879, he studied in Honolulu, Hawaii. In the winter of 1883, he was baptized into Christianity in Hong Kong. In 1887, he attended the Hong Kong College of Medicine (the predecessor of the University of Hong Kong) and graduated in July 1892. In June 1894, Sun wrote a letter to Li Hongzhang calling for the reform of current politics, but he was ignored and embarked on the road of overthrowing the Qing government by revolutionary means. On November 24, 1894, China's first bourgeois revolutionary group, the Xingzhong Association, was established in Honolulu. It put forward the slogan of "revitalizing China" and the political program of "driving out the northern barbarians, restoring China and creating a united government".

In 1895, he was preparing to launch the Guangzhou Uprising in 1895, but after the failure of the incident he fled to Japan. Exiled to London in 1896, he was trapped by the Qing government's embassy in Britain and was rescued by friends. In 1900, he organized the Huizhou Uprising. After failure, he traveled across the oceans and engaged in revolutionary activities in Japan, Vietnam, and Honolulu. In 1905, the first bourgeois revolutionary party in China—the Chinese Alliance Party elected Sun Prime Minister in Tokyo. The revolutionary program of "driving out the northern barbarians, restoring China, establishing the Republic of China and equalizing land rights" was established. In the same year, the People's Daily was founded, and the Three People's Principles of "nationality, civil rights and people's livelihood" were put forward. He spread revolutionary ideas and launched a heated debate with the reformists. On October 10, 1911, the Wuchang Uprising broke out, and the provinces responded it. Sun Yat-sen returned home on December 25 and was elected temporary president by 17 provincial representatives on December 29.

On January 1, 1912, he became the interim president of the Republic of China in Nanjing, ending the rule of the Qing Dynasty and the feudal autocracy that lasted for more than two thousand years.

But because the progressive forces compromised with the reactionary Yuan Shikai, he was forced to resign as president. In 1913, the assassination of Song Jiaoren sparked the Second Revolution targeting to unseat Yuan, but, after the failure of revolution, he was exiled to Japan. In June 1914, Sun Yat-sen formed the Chinese Revolutionary Party in Japan and was elected as the party Chairman; he issued two declarations which attacked the Yuan Shikai government. In 1917, he led the Southern military campaign against the Northern forces to uphold the Provisional Constitution, in August, he held an extraordinary Congress in Guangzhou, and in September, he established a military government in Guangzhou aiming to uphold the Provisional Constitution, and served as its Grand Marshal of the Navy and Army. In October 1919, the Chinese Revolutionary Party was reorganized under the name of Chinese KMT.

In May 1921, he took office as the president with a large support, and then unified the two Guangs —Guangdong and Guangxi Provinces in order to prepare for the Northern Expedition. In June 1922, when Chen Jiongming betrayed and rebelled in Guangdong, in August Sun Yat-sen started a counter-attack against the rebellers using the Navy, he commanded the sea war from the Yongfeng ship, after nearly two months of persistent warring, he landed at Shanghai. During the desperate situation, Sun Yat-sen achieved to get helped from the Soviet Union and the CPC and began to reorganize the KMT. In January 1923, “Sun—Joffe Cooperation Manifesto” was issued, which guaranteed assistance from the Soviet Union and the Communist International. In January 1924, Sun Yat-sen presided over the First National Congress of the KMT in Guangzhou, and put forward three major policies of "Ally with Soviet Russia, Ally with the Communist Party and Support Peasant Toilers", which developed the old Three Principles of People into the new Three Principles of People, and established Huangpu Military Academy with the help of Soviet consultants. After the First National Congress of the KMT, Sun Yat-sen led the KMT to form a united front against imperialism and feudalism with the Communist Party of China, realized the first cooperation between the KMT and the Communist Party, and promoted the vigorous development of the national revolutionary movement. In November 1924, in order to promote the early reunification of the whole country, Sun Yat-sen, at the invitation of Feng Yuxiang and others, issued the “Declaration of Beisheng” before his departure, putting forward two slogans: “convening a national conference” and “abolishing unequal treaties”. On March 12, 1925, Sun Yat-sen died of liver cancer in Beijing at the age of 59. His works were compiled in Zhongshan Quanshu, Selected Works of Sun Yat-sen and Complete Works of Sun Yat-sen, etc.