Travel and an international education gave the Founding Father of the Republic of his high level of sophistication and an awareness of 's potential
He was born in Choy Hang (Ts'ui Heng), a village not far from the coast in the Hongkong-Canton-Macao triangle of . His name was Sun Wen, his mother called him Tai-cheong (Ti-hsiang) and he is known to the world as Sun Yat-sen, the Founding Father of the Republic of China.
This year's observance of his birth November 12, a national holiday of the Republic of China, was the 105th, which means that Sun Yat-sen was born the year after the death of Abraham Lincoln. Dr. John C.H. Wu, honorary president of the College of Chinese Culture, remarks in his book Sun Yat-sen, The Man and His Ideas, that "these two men of genius will loom larger and larger (in history) and will continue to be admired and loved, not only by their own peoples but by all peoples of the world."
The family was sizable and poor. Father Sun was a farmer and sometimes tailor. In all, there were to be six children, of whom Tai-cheong was the fifth. Two died in infancy. Elder brother Sun Mi was 13 and elder sister Miao-hsi 4 at Tai-cheong's birth. A younger sister was born five year later.
Sun Yat-sen, who was to be a giant spanning the thought of East and West, had what could be regarded as a prenatal inclination in that direction. Living under his father's roof were two aunts. They were widows of his father's younger brothers who had gone to to work in the goldfields and had not returned. One was believed to have died in the Mother Lode country and the other to have perished at sea while on the way back to .
Of one of these aunts, the grown Sun Yat-sen was to recall: "One of the earliest recollections that I have was the story that a dead adopted auntie in our family told me. I was only a tiny boy, but this dear old auntie thought to entertain me by telling me about the (Kam Shing Kong). Then it seemed so very far away to me - that Harbor of the Golden Star - although it was so very near. Auntie was a good storyteller. She declared that dreadful things were happening on those foreign ships and that it was not safe to have them around; that the foreigners were all rich men dressed in the queerest of clothes and that none of them wore a queue, and that some of them had no hair on their heads at all, but lots of beard as red as fire. She had been told that when they ate they put sharp knives up to their faces. She further declared that one day she saw the smoke rising from muskets, of which they made very free use, much to her fear and perturbation. Ah, they were a rash lot, those ocean-men, and good little Chinese boys would do well to stay away from them."
Although he was destined to be scientist, scholar and leader, the boy Tai-cheong worked on the farm and built a healthy body. "I grew up in humble conditions," he said" and this is why I came to acquire an aptitude in so many things of a menial nature." Of his family, he said: "My mother was good; my father was good; and to obtain the respect of the family circle, an ambition to do my very best was always present, for there was a goodness that prevailed in our midst in spite of the ancient conditions which beclouded it. Of course, it was a goodness that looked backward rather than forward for its models, but it was goodness that spelled morality in personal life. My mother wanted me to enjoy the happiness that went with the respect of the family circle, and in the village midst."
A real link with the West developed when he was 6. Elder brother Sun Mi, then 18, was sent to with a maternal uncle who had settled there and came home on a visit. Sun Mi had no interest in book learning. His father was hopeful he would do better in a new life.
Tai-cheong first attended a one-teacher Chinese village school. The text was a rhymed book based on the Classics and learned by rote through unison chanting Tai-cheong, who had objected to foot-binding, also had small patience with singsong acquisition of knowledge. Offended, the teacher wanted to know how a pupil dared to rebel against the masters of the past. Tai-cheong asked why he should endlessly repeat what he did not understand. He pleaded with his teacher to give the reason of what was being memorized. The storm quieted and the teacher did his best to explain. By the age of 13, he had made his way through the Four Books and part of the Five Classics.
Sun Mi prospered in . He worked hard at framing and then entered business. In 1879, Tai-cheong accompanied his mother on a trip to visit his elder brother. He was tremendously impressed by the English steamship and later told his friend Paul Linebarger: “I think more than the wonder of the engine, and more than the wonder of the flaming boilers, was just a beam of iron that reached from one side of the ship to the other, to strengthen it. To me it appeared to be a colossal affair, and I remember wondering how, with its great weight, enough men could get hold of it to put it into place. This thought flashed through my mind, that the same mechanical genius that had made the great Iron girder had also devised means to handle it mechanically. I immediately realized that something was wrong with , for we could not do the things that foreigners do. If the foreigners could make and raise into place those massive girders of solid metal, was it not an indication that they were superior to us in other respects."
Tai-cheong was permitted to remain In Hawaii with Sun Mi, who had opened a general store at Ewa near . The precocious 13-year-old learned Chinese bookkeeping and the abacus, acquired enough Kanaka to speak to customers and was put behind the counter in Sun Mi's emporium. In the fall of 1879 he entered the , which was operated by Anglican missionaries. He didn't know a word of English but that was soon remedied. He was delighted to discover the English alphabet and the quickness of learning to read in the new language. "By some miraculous method." he said, "each word in English could be broken up into parts called letters and saved to be used again in making up another word in a most wondrous fashion. It was like eating cake and having it." He was graduated from Iolani in three years and received a book from King David Kalakaua to mark his excellence in English.
Bishop Alfred Willis, the principal, led Tai-cheong into a lifelong study of the Christian Bible, although the boy could not accept Christianity publicly at the time because of his brother's opposition. He himself found no conflict between Christian belief and Chinese humanism.
Sun Mi put Tai-cheong to work after the Iolani graduation. He hoped to persuade his younger brother to forget Christianity and the ways of the West. Already nicknamed the King of Maui because of his wealth, Sun Mi was prepared to share equally with Tai-cheong. He made his brother a partner in his business ventures. Tai-sheng cared nothing for riches, however, and entered in in the winter of 1882. He studied there a semester and then transferred to , from which he hoped to graduate before embarking upon graduate studies in the . Fearing that Tai-cheong might become a Christian, Sun Mi wrote their parents, urging that his brother be called home. The parents complied and Tai-cheong had to leave for .
The future leader of the National Revolution had acquired too much knowledge of the outside world. I He did not fit into village life and got into trouble as a result of an incident in the temple of Buck Tai (the Northern Deity). He was sent to Hongkong to continue his studies, enrolled briefly at the of the Anglicans and then took private lessons in English from an elderly Chinese Christian. He carne to know Dr. Charles R. Hager, a medical missionary of the American Board, who baptized him in the spring of 1884. It was at this time that he ceased to call himself Tai-cheong (the Deity's Image) and came to be known as Yat-sen (Jih-hsing), meaning "daily renewed." King Tang, the founder of the Shang dynasty, had said, "If you renew yourself today, you will be renewed every day and renewed all the days of your life."
Yat-sen registered at (later to be Queen's College) in March of 1884 and studied there until November of 1885, when he went back to at the call of Sun Mi. The latter had heard of Yat-sen's conversion to Christianity and the ways of the foreigners. Sun Mi thought better of his partner ship with his younger brother and sought to cancel the arrangement. Yat-sen readily agreed. "I am sorry," he said, "if I disappointed you. I am sorry that I cannot find my duty in the paths of the Chinese ancients. I would rather follow the way of the Chinese law than that of foreign law, should my conscience allow it. But is not doing its duty to itself, I cannot conform to customs that break down rather than build up character. As for the property you have bestowed upon me so generously, I shall be glad to return it to you. Great riches do not attract me."
Yat-sen went back to Kahului on briefly but his heart was not in business. Friends provided passage money, and he returned to . He considered the ministry as a career. But he had been attracted to science in and decided upon medicine. He was admitted to the medical school of the in 1886 and in the following year, moved to the new for Chinese in Hongkong. Of the 12 students enrolled in the first class, only two graduated on schedule in 1892 and one was Yat-sen. He had scored honors in 10 of the 12 courses he took.
Dr. Sun practiced in and then . Skilled in surgery, obstetrics and pediatrics as well as internal medicine, he was among the first to introduce Western medical methods to . His success in was such that Portuguese practitioners united against him and persuaded the colonial government to forbid his practice on grounds he lacked a Portuguese degree and license. "It was not the obstructive ignorance of the East but the jealousy of the West which stepped in to thwart my progress," Dr. Sun wrote later.
However, it was in that he first learned of the existence of what he described as a "Young China party." He wrote: "Its objects were so wise, so modest and so hopeful that my sympathies were at once enlisted in its behalf, and I believed I was doing my best to further the interests of my country by joining it. The idea was to bring about a peaceful reformation and we hoped by forwarding modest schemes of reform to the Throne, to initiate a form of government more consistent with modern requirements. The prime essence of the movement was the establishment of a form of constitutional government to supplement the old-fashioned, corrupt and worn-out system under which was groaning."
Like so many others of his time, Sun Yat-sen at first hoped for the peaceful reform of the Ch'ing dynasty. By 1894, he had begun to understand that this was impossible and that the Manchus would have to be overthrown. He went to and organized a revolutionary society called the Hsing Chung Hui (Revival of China Society). A headquarters was established in Hongkong in January of 1895. The plan was to seize and use it as a base for spreading the flames of revolution throughout . Weapons intended for the uprising were seized by the Ch'ing authorities in and Lu Hao-tung, a close friend of Sun Yat-sen and designer of the National Flag, was executed. Dr. Sun made his way to Hongkong and thence to Japan and . He traveled across the , exposing Manchu failure and corruption to all who would listen. He took ship for and arrived in October 1, 1896, renewing his friendship with his old teacher. Dr. James Cantlie.
The stage thus was set for the Manchu kidnapping of Dr. Sun with the intention of returning him to for execution. The incident began this way, as recounted by Sun Yat-sen: "On Sunday morning. October 11th, almost half past ten, I was walking towards Devonshire Street, hoping to be in time to go to church with the doctor (Cantlie) and his family, when a Chinaman approached in a surreptitious manner from behind and asked in English, whether I was Japanese or Chinese. I replied, ‘I am Chinese.' He inquired from what province I came, and when I told him I was from , he said. 'We are countrymen, and speak the same language; I am from .'
"We then conversed in the Cantonese dialect. Whilst he was talking, we were slowly advancing along the street, and presently a second Chinaman joined us, so that I had now one on each side. They pressed me to go in to their 'lodgings' and enjoy a smoke and chat with them. I gently demurred, and we stopped on the pavement. A third Chinaman now appeared and my first acquaintance left us. The one who remained further pressed me to accompany them, and I was gradually, and in a seemingly friendly manner, led to the upper edge of the pavement, when the door of an adjacent house suddenly opened and I was half-jokingly and half-persistently compelled to enter by my companions one on either side, who reinforced their entreaties by a quasi-friendly push. Suspecting nothing, for J knew not what house I was entering, I only hesitated because of my desire to get to Mr. Cantlie's in time for church, and I felt I should be too late did I delay. However, in good faith J entered, and was not a little surprised when the front door was somewhat hurriedly closed and barred behind me. All at once it flashed upon me that the house must be the Chinese Legation, thereby accounting for the number of Chinamen in mandarin attire and for the large size of the house; while I also recollected that the Minister resided somewhere in the neighborhood of Devonshire Street, near to which I must then be.
"I was taken to a room on the ground floor whilst one or two men talked to me and to each other. I was then sent upstairs, two men, one on either side, conducting and partly forcing me to ascend. I was next shown into a room on the second floor and told I was to remain there. This room, however, did not satisfy my captors, as I was shortly afterwards taken to another on the third floor with a barred window looking out to the back of the house."
The trap for Sun Yat-sen had been set even before he left . Informed of Dr. Sun's plans to visit , the Chinese Legation had asked the British to extradite him. The British Foreign Office refused on grounds he was a political offender and that no extradition treaty existed. Sir Halliday Macartney, the English adviser to the Chinese Legation, suggested that Dr. Sun be detained and then spirited out of the country.
Plot and counterplot succeeded one another during the 12 days of Sun Yat-sen's imprisonment. He was told of plans to get him aboard a Hongkong-bound steamer, then transfer him to a Chinese gunboat for delivery to the Manchus at . He was tricked into writing a statement implying that he had gone to the Legation voluntarily. George Cole, an English servant, finally agreed to try to get a note past the guards. Cole talked to Mrs. Howe, the housekeeper, who pushed this note under Dr. Cantlie's door, rang the bell and went away: "There is a friend of yours imprisoned in the Chinese Legation here, since last Sunday. They intend sending him to , where it is certain they will hang him. It is very sad for the poor man, and unless something is done at once he will be taken away and none will know it. I dare not sign my name; but this is the truth, so believe what I say. Whatever you do must be done at once, or it will be too late."
Cole subsequently found Dr. Cantlie and gave him additional information. Legation personnel were spreading the story that Sun was a lunatic and would be sent to two days hence. Dr. Cantlie went to see Dr. Patrick Manson, another former teacher of Sun Yat-sen. They agreed that Dr. Manson would go to the Legation. He was told that Dr. Sun was not being held there. The Foreign Office was informed and learned of a steamship reservation made by the Chinese Legation. The Legation was placed under surveillance. Foreign Secretary Lord Salisbury formally requested release of the prisoner and the story go into the press.
Dr. Sun wrote this account of his release: "Friday, October 23rd, dawned, and the day wore on and still I was in durance. At 4:30 p.m., however, or that day, my English guards came into the room and said, 'Macartney wants to see you downstairs.' I was told to put on my boots and hat and overcoat. I accordingly did so, not knowing whither I was going. I descended the stairs, and as it was to the basement I was being conducted, I believed I was to be hidden in a cellar whilst the house was being searched by the command of the British Government. I was not told I was to be released, and I thought I was to enter another place of imprisonment or punishment. It seemed too good to be true that I was actually to be released. However, Mr. Cantlie presently appeared on the scene in company with two other men, who turned out to be Inspector Jarvis from Scotland Yard, and an old man, the messenger from the Foreign Office.
"Halliday Macartney then, in the presence of these gentlemen, handed me the various effects that had been taken from me, and addressed the Government officials to the following effect: 'I hand this man over to you, and I do so on condition that neither the prerogative nor the diplomatic rights of the Legation are interfered with,' or words to that effect. I was too excited to commit them to memory, but they seemed to me then, as they do now, senseless and childish. The meeting related above took place in a passage in the basement of the house, and I was told I was a free man. Sir Halliday then shook hands with us all, a post-Judas salutation, and we were shown out by a side-door leading to the area. From thence we ascended the steps and issued into from the back door of the Legation."
Dr. Sun emerged to find himself a celebrity. He tells of the excitement in this way "During the evening, I was frequently interviewed, and it was not until a late hour that I was allowed to rest. Oh that first night's sleep - Shall I ever forget it? When I awoke it was to the noise of children romping on the floor above. It was evident by their loud, penetrating voices some excitement was on hand, and as I listened I could hear the cause of it, 'Now Collin, you be Sun Yat-sen, and Neil will be Sir Halliday Macartney, and I will rescue Sun.' Then followed a turmoil. Sir Halliday was knocked end ways, and a crash on the floor made me believe that my little friend Neil was no more. Sun was brought out in triumph by Keith, the eldest boy, and a general amnesty was declared by the beating of drums, the piercing notes of a till whistle, and the singing of 'The British Grenadiers.' This was home and safety, indeed; for my youthful friends were prepared to shed the last drop of their blood on my behalf."
The experience brought reaffirmation of Dr. Sun's religious faith. He wrote a friend in Hongkong: "Recently I was lured into a trap in and locked in the Manchu Legation for over ten days. Their intention was to have me bound in ropes and fetters, sent to a ship under cover of night, and secretly transported out of . They had already chartered a ship, and only awaited a convenient moment to carry out their design. During the first six or seven days of my detention, nobody outside the Legation knew anything about it. Locked all alone in a room, I felt I was confronted with inevitable death with no possibility of survival. But it is in the nature of man to 'cry to Heaven when one is in a helpless state, as it is to call upon one's parents when one is in trouble.' Likewise, in my situation the only course open to me was to repent of all my sins with heart-piercing intensity, and to pray earnestly for the help of God. So I prayed continuously for six or seven days and nights. The more I prayed, the more earnest was my prayer. On the seventh day, my heart was suddenly filled with peace and comfort, without the slightest shadow of worry. As this was something humanly unaccountable, I felt confident that my prayer had been heard and that God was already showering his blessings upon me ... Emerging from this grave crisis of my life, I feel like the prodigal son returning home, and a lost sheep found again. All this is due to an extraordinary grace from our Heavenly Father. I respectfully hope that you will help me to advance further in the Way by giving me constant instructions, that I may proceed from the Way of God to the Way of Government. This will prove a blessing for me and for mankind."
Dr. Sun stayed on in until July of 1897. Dr. Cantlie has written of this period: "When residing with us in London, Sun wasted no moments in gaities; he was forever at work, reading books on all subjects which appertained to political, diplomatic, legal, military and naval matters; mines and mining, agriculture, cattle rearing, engineering, political economy, etc., occupied his attention and were studied closely and persistently. The range of his opportunities for acquiring knowledge has been such as few men ever had." Sun Yat-sen was acquiring the foundation for his revolutionary thinking and the San Min (Three Principles of the People). Most of his time was spent in the .
The years which followed involved worldwide travel to raise the revolutionary spirit of the overseas Chinese and obtain funds. He went to in the summer of 1897, thence to , where he stayed for some time. He visit , Saigon and , and stayed in from December of 1902 to July of 1903. The Revolution was picking up speed and new support. Dr. Sun was to say later that the darkest time was from 1895 to 1900. The fall of 1903 saw him back in , and he returned to the in March of 1904. That spring he published in a pamphlet "The True Solution of the Chinese Question" providing a first statement of his foreign policy. 's weakness, he said, was the cause of the Russo-Japanese War and threatened the political equilibrium of the world. could be made strong only by getting rid of the Manchus. He rejected the thesis of as a land rejecting inter-course with others. "This misapprehension," he wrote, "is due more to the ignorance of Chinese history than to anything else. History furnished abundant proof that from the very earliest times up to the establishment of the present dynasty the Chinese entertained close relations with the neighboring countries and did not appear to have the least ill-disposition towards foreign traders and missionaries among the people there as early as the seventh century after Christ. Again, the Buddhist religion was introduced into by an Emperor of the Han Dynasty, and the people welcomed the new religion with great enthusiasm. It has since continued to flourish until now it is one of the three religions of . Not only missionaries but traders were allowed to travel freely through the length and breadth of the Empire. Even as late as the Ming Dynasty there was no sign of anti-foreign spirit among the Chinese. The Prime Minister, Hsu Kwang-chi, himself embraced the Catholic faith, and his intimate friend, Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit missionary in Peking, was held in great esteem by the people.
"With the establishment of the Manchu Dynasty came the gradual change of policy. The whole country was closed to foreign trade; missionaries were driven out; native Christians were massacred; and no Chinese were allowed to emigrate outside the Chinese border under pain of death. Why was this? Simply because the Manchus wanted to exclude foreigners from their jurisdiction and instigate the people to hate them, lest the Chinese might be enlightened and realize their own nationality through coming into contact with them. The anti-foreign spirit fostered by the Manchus finally culminated in the Boxer trouble of 1900. It is only too well known that the leaders of the movement were none other than the members of the reigning family. Hence it is clear that the seclusive policy of is the outcome of selfishness on the part of the Manchus and does not represent the will of the majority of the Chinese people. Foreigners traveling in have often noted that those people who are farther away from official influence are always more friendly to them than those nearer."
He sought to correct the American misconception of a "yellow peril," which the sensational journalism of William Randoph Hearst was promoting in order to build newspaper circulation. Dr. Sun wrote: "The theory has sometimes been advanced with some show of plausibility that China, with her immense population and her vast resources, would be a menace to the whole world, if she would wake up and adopt Western methods and ideas; that if the foreign countries should do anything toward the uplifting and enlightening of the Chinese people, they would thereby create a sort of Frankenstein; and that the wisest policy for other countries to pursue is to keep the Chinese down as much as possible. This is, in short, the substance of what is known as the 'yellow peril.' The theory sounds very well, hut it will be found upon examination to he untenable from whatever standpoint you may view it. Apart· from the moral side of the question as to whether it is right for one country to hope for the downfall of another, there is the political side to it. The Chinese are by nature an industrious, peaceful, law-abiding people. They are by no means an aggressive race. If ever they go to war at all, it is only for self-defense. The Chinese would be a menace to the peace of the world only if they were controlled and drilled by some foreign country and made use of as an instrument for the gratification of its own ambition. If left to themselves, they would prove to be the most peaceful people in the world. Again, from an economic standpoint, the awakening of and the establishment of an enlightened government will be beneficial not only to the Chinese but also to the world at large. The whole country would be open to foreign trade; railroads would be built; natural resources would be developed; the people would be richer and their standard of living higher; the demand for foreign goods would be greater, and international commerce would be increased a hundredfold above the present rate. Is this a peril? Nations are to each other as individuals. Is it economically better for a nation to have a poor, ignorant neighbor than to have a wealthy and intelligent one? Viewed from this light, the specious theory falls at once to the ground and we may safely assert that the yellow peril may after all be changed into the yellow blessing."
His words about the misuse of the Chinese people, and the danger if they were manipulated by others for the sake of selfish ambitions, might have been a prophetic warning of the bitter potion which would be offered the free world when the mainland of China fell under the control of Communism, an ideology which originated not in the Middle Kingdom, but in the Soviet Union.
Sun Yat-sen continued to build revolutionary organizations, one after another, and to inspire a succession of uprisings, all of which failed. The enthusiasm of the revolutionaries exceeded their military experience and ability. Of the 1906 failure at P'ing Hsiang in , Sun Yat-sen wrote: "The leaders were entirely composed of Tung Meng Hui members, and the army they led was known as the 'Revolutionary Army.' All the Tung Men Hui members were deeply inspired by patriotism. Every one of them was anxious to return home to face the Manchus in a life and death struggle. Every day at our headquarters, crowds of students volunteered to be sent home to fight' and when they were rejected, they wept bitterly, burning with indignation and disappointment, crying that even death was denied them.. Their spirit, bravery, and patriotism were wonderful. But alas! the movement in P'ing Hsiang was started by members of the there without the knowledge and orders of the head quarters; therefore, we were unprepared. Already many students had started for the battlefield. The battle was lost and as a consequence, Liu Tao-i, Yu Chih-mu, Ning T'iao-yuan, Hu Ying and many others were either taken prisoner or killed. This was the first sacrifice offered by Tung Meng Hui for the revolutionary cause. Thereafter, the tide of revolution swept all over the country, more furious than ever."
Compelled to leave Japan in the spring of 1907, Dr. Sun went to Hanoi, from where he directed uprisings at Huang Kang in Ch'ao-chu, Kwangtung; Seven Lady Lake in Waichow; and Kinchow, Kwangtung. He was not always the general behind the battleground. In December of 1907, he personally led an attack on Chin Nan Kwan in Kwangsi. Of this he wrote: "Since my plan did not succeed at Kinchow and Linchow, I personally led a surprise attack on Chen Nen Wwan, with Huang Hsing, Hu Han-min, the French officers and over a hundred soldiers. We captured three forts. After receiving the surrendered soldiers, I planned to effect a junction with our soldiers at Shih-wan-ta-shan in order to stage an attack on Lungchow. Unfortunately, the troops there could not reach us owing to the great distance. So holding on to the three forts, we fought against overwhelming odds with the troops of Lung Chi-kwang and Lu Yung-t'ing for seven days and nights continuously. Later we were forced to retreat into . The Manchu spy got hold of the news when I passed Liang-shen and reported my presence in to the Manchu government, which began negotiations with the French authorities to bring about my expulsion from . This was my sixth defeat."
Other losses followed. But revolutionary fervor was rising. Money was easier to come by. Dr. Sun wrote: "Before the establishment of Tung Meng Hui, no one except a few of my relatives and personal friends provided funds for the cause. No one else dared or was willing to help. But after the Tung Meng Hui was established, we began to seek help from a wider circle. The person who contributed most often and generously was Chang Jen-chieh who at one time donated sixty or seventy thousand dollars to the cause, all the money he could get out of his curios shop in . And there was Huang Ching-nan of , a mere peddler, who offered for the support of the revolutionary army several thousand dollars, the entire savings of his life-long labor. Such noble sacrifice and generosity cannot be excelled."
Sun Yat-sen was organizing and raising money in in 1908. In 1909, he was in , and . In that same year he established a T'ung Meng Hui hranch in and in January, 1910, another in . Then it was on to , where he opened the central office that was to direct operations in . It was here he learned of the "ninth failure" in another uprising. At in March, he opened another branch and swore in his son, Sun Fo, 18 years old," a student at and editor of the Chinese daily Liberty News. Soon it was on to (in secret), and . Doors of slammed against an unsuccessful revolutionary. Dr. Sun had to return to North America and for financial backing.
Then came the 10th and last failure. Dr. Sun wrote: "Wherever I went in I persuaded and urged my countrymen to support the revolutionary cause and many of them gladly did so. All this contributed toward what happened in on April 27, 1911 (March 29 by the solar calendar). On that memorable occasion heroic comrades from all provinces were gathered together to strike a last blow at . Although the attempt failed, yet the mighty thunderbolt dealt out by our "Seventy-two Martyrs of Huang Hua Kang" reverberated over the ends of the earth and charged the air of our whole country with a revolutionary tension to a degree never reached before. All the same, it was a military failure, and our tenth defeat. But if ever there was a glorious failure, this one was."
Sun Yat-sen was in briefly at the end of 1910 and the beginning of 1911. He arrived in in mid-January of 1911 and traveled across the , raising sizable sums of revolutionary money. The Wuchang Revolution started October 10 but Dr. Sun did not learn of it until the 12th. He was in . , and read a newspaper headline: "Wuchang Captured by Revolutionists.. ' He thought of going to personally to lead the victorious armies but decided that "my greatest help toward the cause was not in the battlefield but in solving the international questions arising out of victory." He headed for Europe, pausing at , where he read in a newspaper: "The revolt of revolutionary soldiers at Wuchang was by the order of Sun Yat-sen. A republic will be established with Sun Yat-sen at its head."
As Dr. Sun saw it, "There were six powerful nations that had important relations with . and were in sympathy with our cause. Germany and were against us. The Japanese government was against us, although the people were sympathetic with us. The English people were with us, but the government was undecided. So it was clear that held the balance of the diplomatic scale, upon which rested the success or failure of our cause. If the English government would sympathize with us, would be rendered harmless." Sun Yat-sen went first to . He asked that the British suspend loans to the Manchu government, prevent the Japanese from helping the Ch'ing and direct the colonies to suspend expulsion orders against him. The British agreed on all three counts.
Starting home by way of , Dr. Sun met with high French officials, including Premier Clemenceau. He arrived at on Christmas Day of 1911. "Now, before my arrival at ," he wrote, "there were rumors that I was returning with a big sum of money to help the revolutionary troops. So upon my arrival, my comrades and countrymen were in great expectations. To the reporters who came to inquire about this, I replied, 'I have not brought back a single cent! What I have brought with me is the spirit of revolution. So long as the aim of our revolution is not accomplished, there can be no talk of peace. An election was held at by representatives from the eighteen provinces and I was elected Provisional President (December 29). I took the oath of inauguration and issued a mandate christening as Chung Hua Min Kou and changing the calendar from the lunar into the solar system, thereby making that year the first year of the Republic of China. At last, after thirty years of ceasless effort, my aim of accomplishing a republic was accomplished."
(To be continued)