As free Chinese throughout the world celebrate the opening of the Dr. Sun Yat-sen centennial year this month, the role of Taiwan in the National Revolution and in the Chinese history of the last three centuries is brought into sharp focus.
On at least two occasions before the successful Revolution of October 10, 1911, Taiwan's existence was significant in strengthening Dr. Sun's determination to overthrow the corrupt Manchu government and create a republic. The nation's Founding Father visited Taiwan three times: once for a stay of two months to direct revolutionary activities, another time for a brief stopover after birth of the republic, and the third time on his way to North China before his untimely death.
Sun Yat-sen was born in a village near Macao on November 12, 1866. That was 24 years after the Opium War, but the people of Kwangtung still remembered the humiliating Chinese defeat vividly. When the Treaty of Tientsin made Annam a French protectorate in 1885, Sun was a student in Hongkong. China had won several land battles in South China and northern Taiwan but the weak Manchu officials, fearful of irrevocable losses, ordered a ceasefire and surrendered. China gave up Annam to secure Taiwan, which the French had been planning to occupy as an outpost in the Far East.
The young men of China were infuriated. As Dr. Sun later recalled, the Treaty of Tientsin made him vow to topple the Manchu rulers and establish a new China free from foreign influence.
Then, in 1894, Japan dealt a fatal blow to the already tottering Chinese empire. In that year Dr. Sun founded his Hsing Chung Hui (Society for Rebuilding China) in Honolulu. In the Treaty of Shimonoseki in April of the following year, China recognized Korea, theretofore a Chinese vassal state, as independent, and ceded Taiwan and the Penghu (Pescadores) to Japan. China's loss of the war to her small neighbor aroused much indignation among the people. Dr. Sun acted fast. Returning from Hawaii, he set up a Hsing Chung Hui headquarters in Hongkong in January, 1895. In October of that year, less than a week after the Japanese had taken Taiwan by force and violence, Dr. Sun launched in Canton his gallant but abortive first attempt at National Revolution.
There was an uproar in Taiwan when it became known that the island had been ceded to Japan. Officials from Taiwan and Fukien urged Peking to reject the cession. But the Manchus were weak. Great Britain was asked to assume temporary protection of Taiwan, but London declined for fear of French and German reaction.
For Taiwan, only one course remained. The island would declare itself a republic and resist the Japanese. In the independence declaration of May 23, 1895, the people said they were "determined to die rather than be subdued by the Japanese". Bloody battles were fought. Countless islanders lost their lives in the face of overwhelming Japanese force. The revolts were crushed. Yet in succeeding years, the islanders staged some 100 uprisings in repeated attempts to reverse the Treaty of Shimonoseki.
Flight to Mainland
Many patriotic islanders fled to the mainland, believing that the failure to stop the Japanese was only a temporary setback. They were convinced that Taiwan would be free again as a part of the mainland. First they looked to South China for support in the establishment of their republic. That failing, they went to the mainland to free the nation from the Manchus so that a strong regime would be in a position to recover Taiwan.
The recovery of Taiwan came half a century later, in 1945, after China's eight-year War of Resistance against Japan. In the years before that, the flow of island-born patriots to the mainland had not ceased. Irredentist groups included the Taiwan Revolutionary League, established in Chungking in1941, and the Taiwan Volunteers Brigade that fought alongside Chinese government troops against the Japanese in 'southeastern China from 1940 until V-J Day .
South China house where Dr. Sun was born in 1866 later became much-visited national shrine. (File photo)
In recalling the course of the National Revolution, it seems of special significance that Dr. Sun Yat-sen's first coup de main in Canton in October, 1895, took place on the heels of the Japanese occupation of Taiwan. He sought to assure national integrity, to free the nation from the yoke of foreign influence. He was aware that Taiwan had always been a part of China, and was convinced it should continue to be so.
When the first revolutionary attempt failed, Dr. Sun went into exile. For the next 15 years he fought on from Hawaii, Tokyo or any place else where he found understanding and backing among fellow-countrymen and foreign sympathizers. Overseas Chinese welcomed him and contributed generously to his crusade. Throughout the years, Dr. Sun kept in close touch with the movement in China, financing and directing activities for the expanding network of revolutionary cells. He met with his lieutenants, made plans, and issued orders.
Chen Shao-pai, one of the revolutionaries who fled to Japan with Dr. Sun after the 1895 failure in Canton, visited Taiwan twice—in 1897 and 1898—to solicit support, both times at the instruction of Dr. Sun. Despite strict Japanese restrictions against island contact with the mainland, Chen succeeded in setting up a Hsing Chung Hui branch in Taiwan. He also collected sizable contributions for the revolutionary cause. Chen was then instructed to proceed to Hongkong where, in December of 1899, he started the first revolutionary newspaper, China, to accelerate the tempo of the anti-Manchu movement.
Called “arch rebels” by the Manchus were (l-r) Yang Ho-ling, Sun Yat-sen, Chen Shao-pai, Yu Lieh. (File photo)
Direction From Taiwan
In September, 1900, Dr. Sun himself was in Taiwan to make preparations for revolutionary uprisings along the South China coast. Gentaro Kodama, the Japanese governor-general of Taiwan, promised help. October 8 of that year saw the successful beginning of the second revolutionary campaign at Huichow in Kwangtung province. The effort eventually failed because governmental change in Japan disrupted the supply of arms.
Undaunted, Dr. Sun left Taipei and reached Japan on November 16. For the next few years, he worked to unify the various revolutionary organizations at home and abroad. Many more attempts failed before the shots rang out at Wuchang October 10, 1911, to signal the end of the Manchus and the birth of Asia's first republic. Dr. Sun was in Denver, Colorado, when the Revolution finally succeeded. He hurried to London in time to prevent the Manchus from obtaining a loan which might have perpetuated the dynasty. It was in the British capital that Dr. Sun learned of his election as Provisional President of the new republic.
Dr. Sun Yat-sen and other leaders of the Republic of China's first government, established January 1, 1912. (File photo)
The second Taiwan visit of Dr. Sun took place in August of 1913. He stayed briefly in Taipei on his way from Shanghai to Japan via Hongkong and Manila. The Republic of China had been in existence for over a year but the nation was yet to be unified and strengthened. The sight of Taiwan under foreign rule doubtless filled Dr. Sun with emotion. The Japanese-style house where the nation's Founding Father stayed is now a memorial.
More than a decade later, in November of 1924, Dr. Sun boarded a Japanese vessel at Hongkong on his way to North China. The shipcalled at Keelung, Taiwan's northern gateway, but Dr. Sun did not go ashore. He was on his way to Peking in a last peaceful effort to bring about national unity through talks with the warlords. Dr. Sun fell ill after arrival in Tientsin but went on to Peking. His condition worsened. He died there of liver cancer on March 12, 1925, with the words "Peace, struggle, Save China" on his lips.
Japanese Defied
The news of Dr. Sun's death saddened the people of Taiwan. They had hoped that the young republic under Dr. Sun would become strong enough to demand .the return of Taiwan from the Japanese. More than 3,000 persons attended a Taipei memorial service the evening of March 24 despite strong Japanese objections and the presence of 5,000 Japanese troops and policemen surrounding the meeting place. The Japanese forbade the reading of this tribute to the memory of Dr. Sun:
"A bright star has fallen, suddenly rendering the sky of Asia dark and bleak. The 400 million compatriots are in agony, abandoning themselves to grief over your death. We the islanders of Taiwan feel as if we had been torn apart from within. We keep looking toward the western sky, unable to contain our floods of tears."
Three centuries earlier, in 1625-27, Cheng Chih-lung led migrant-crowded junks across the Taiwan Straits, dreaming of a day when a strong Taiwan might revive the glory of the Ming by expelling the Manchu usurpers. His son, Cheng Cheng-kung, better known as Koxinga, carried on the fight. In 1662, he drove the Dutch out of Taiwan and prepared to return to the Chinese mainland. Then he died, tragically, in the prime of his life.
Still, the dream of Cheng Cheng-kung lived on in the minds of others. The coming of the Japanese could not destroy it. The secret society Tien Ti Hui (Society of Heaven and Earth), established in Taiwan in 1662 by the followers of Cheng Cheng-kung for the overthrow of Manchu rule, became one of the most potent forces in Taiwan. The period from the subjugation of Taiwan by the Manchus in 1683 to the Japanese occupation in 1895 was punctuated by a series of uprisings. Tien Ti Hui later spread to the mainland, where it became known as the San Ho Hui (Society of Triple Unity). Its members actively assisted the revolutionary movement of Dr. Sun. The flame of freedom that burst into full blaze on the mainland in the early 20th century had been lit centuries earlier in Taiwan. It burns brightly still in Taiwan as 13 million people prepare for counter-offensive and mainland recovery.
Haven for Oppressed
In the time of Cheng Cheng-kung, 10 waves of migration carried thousands of refugees across the Taiwan Straits to seek a new and free life. Thousands of others had sought asylum in Taiwan in the days of the Five Dynasties (907-960), during the Sung dynasty (960-1280), and during the period of Mongol rule (1280-1368). Taiwan long has been a haven for the oppressed.
History has moved full circle since Cheng Cheng-kung's time. Of the striking similarity between conditions throughout the Chinese world at the time of Cheng Cheng-kung three centuries ago and those existing today, Prof. W.G. Goddard of Australia says in his book The Makers of Taiwan:
"On the mainland, then as now, one word of criticism of the ruling regime could cost a man his head, whereas in Taiwan, then as now, the flame of freedom burned brightly. On the mainland, then as now, officials were offered rewards for bringing suspects, whereas in Taiwan, then as now, officials were urged to meet, as far as possible, the wishes of the people. Then as now, the literati sought every possible means of escaping from the mainland to Taiwan. On the mainland, then as now, people died of starvation, while Taiwan was actually shipping foodstuffs abroad."
The free Chinese in Taiwan, under President Chiang Kai-shek, see the Taiwan aspirations of Cheng Cheng-kung's time taking concrete shape in the mid-1960s. They have the same hope and spirit of struggle. The only difference is that instead of the Manchus they see the power-mad Communists just across the Taiwan Straits.
Model for Mainland
The goals of mainland recovery and national reconstruction' have become a dynamic force among the people of Taiwan, who look to President Chiang Kai-shek for the necessary leadership. The President has inspired the people with a new sense of mission and national purpose.
Dr. Sun is flanked by ministers of war, navy. (File photo)
The government of the Republic of China has emphasized this mission again and again. Progress in Taiwan is not an end in itself., Political freedom and economic prosperity have no narrow insular meaning. They demonstrate that there is a far better way of life than Communism in store for 600 million Chinese on the mainland.
As reiterated by President Chiang in his Double Tenth message this year, the National Revolution started by Dr. Sun more than half a century ago lives on today in the form of the projected counter-offensive and national recovery. The National Revolution, the President said, is "a war for freedom and righteousness that unifies the armed forces and the people - to oppose totalitarianism, violence, and treason".
When the opportune moment comes, the people of Taiwan and their compatriots of the mainland will join in responding to the call of President Chiang. Together they will restore the country with the same spirit of resolution and dedication as that with which Dr. Sun and the revolutionary martyrs founded the Republic of China in 1911. They then will reconstruct the mainland provinces for the benefit of the people, just as has been the case in Taiwan. The guiding star will be Dr. Sun's Three Principles of the People.
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Other Recent FCR Articles About Dr. Sun Yet-sen
Sun Yat-sen, Man of the Ages
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Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Political Philosophy
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Dr. Sun and the Chinese Revolution
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Dr. Sun's Economic System
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Dr. Sun's System of Social Welfare
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A Tale of 72 Martyrs
by Senyung Chow, October, 1965