Taiwan Today

Great men live by their principles and ideas. The Republic's Founding Father left a rich heritage of both to the Chinese people

Sun Yat-sen was not a man of great political ambition. His aspirations were for , not himself. So the text of the oath which he took as first Presi­dent of the Provisional Government specified that "As soon as the despotic government is overthrown and interior order restored, so that the Republic stands out in the world, recognized by other countries, I shall relieve myself of the office and duties of the provisional presidency." This was on January 1, 1912, the birth date of the Republic of China. He was to keep his word with resignation in favor of Yuan Shih-k'ai less than a month and a half later.

Although Dr. Sun's initial period in office was brief, it was a time of immense initial accomplishment. The equality of ethnic groups within the country was proclaimed. So was the equality of in the world, al­though implementation had to await World War II and Chinese partnership with the and against the dictatorships of and . The lunar calendar was officially terminated in favor of solarchronology. Footbinding and opium were proscrib­ed. Slavery and the exploitation of human labor were attacked. Starts were made in the development of democracy and the protection of human rights.

Unhappily for , the situation of the time did not allow Dr. Sun to remain as chief of state. Yuan Shih-k'ai was an able military leader and administrator. He sided with the Empress Dowager against the reform movement of Emperor Kwang-hsu but did not join her in encouraging the Boxers. He was rusticated in 1909 but held the balance of power in the chaotic of late 1911. If he joined the National Revolution, the Manchus would fall. If he sided with the Ch'ing, the revolutionaries would not be able to hold what they had gained. That amounted to 14 of the 18 provinces as the end of November.

Yuan Shih-k'ai chose to sit on the fence and negotiate benefits for himself. Dr. Sun returned to aware that Yuan was the one man who could bring about abdication of the Manchus without further bloodshed. On December 29 and again on January 2 Dr. Sun sent messages urging Yuan to heed the will of the people. In that case Yuan would be qualified to assume the presidency.

A peace conference had opened on December 18. On January 22, Dr. Sun proposed that the Manchu Emperor abdicate and that Yuan declare himself in favor of the republican form of government. In that case Sun would resign and the Assembly of Provincial Representatives would elect Yuan Provisional Presi­dent. Yuan gave the appearance of accepting. On February 12, the issued an Edict of Abdication handing over sovereignty to the people. However, the document also gave Yuan "full powers" to organize a provisional government for the Republic d . Dr. Sun commented that authority to organize a government had to come from the people and not from the retiring government, but nevertheless resigned the presidency. Yuan was elected Provisional President on February 13 by the unanimous vote of the representatives of 17 provinces.

The Assembly of Provincial Representatives also passed a resolution making the seat of govern­ment, which meant that Yuan would go there to assume office. There were sound reasons for this. The dif­ferences between North and South were wide and stood in the way of national unity. Yuan's presence in would have paved the way to reconciliation and reduced revolutionary suspicions that his republican sentiments were only skin deep. A fresh start in a fresh place was also advisable. had been the seat of imperialism and the center of scheming and irresponsible bureaucracy.

Ch'en Chi-mei was to write later that the As­sembly failed to listen to Dr. Sun and "allowed Yuan to eat his words about assuming office in in compliance with the will of the people, leading event­ually to his open defiance of the Provisional Constitu­tion and overthrow of the Republic. These disasters could have been averted had we cooperated whole­-heartedly with Dr. Sun."

Sun Yat-sen gave up waiting for Yuan and named a special delegation to go to . The group ar­rived February 25 and was received by Yuan, who said nothing of going to . On the 29th in Peking and March Tientsin, troops under com­mand of officers loyal to Yuan mutinied, looted and burned, supposedly in protest against Yuan's departure. He deceived the delegation, which cited the mutinies in a message to . Establishment of a stable government was regarded as more important than the location of the capital.

Yuan was inaugurated in March 15. He agreed to support democracy, observe the constitution and convene a parliament to elect a permanent president. On March 29, the Assembly resolved to move to . Sun Yat-sen was relieved of his duties on April 1 and went to Wuchang and then to and . He was warmly received everywhere. He had been away from for 17 years and crowds turned out in that city just to catch a glimpse of him. He spoke of land reform, local government and education.

Yuan Shih-k'ai called Dr. Sun to in August. The two had 13 lengthy conferences in a month. The Provisional President appeared to agree with most of Sun's ideas, including one to build 75,000 miles of railroad in 10 years. Yuan appointed Sun Yat-sen to direct railroad development. At the time, Dr. Sun wrote: "I am more interested in the social regenera­tion of my country than I am in the question of party and politics. I have seen enough of the discord between capital and labor in Western countries, and the misery that besets the multitudes of the poor, so that I am desirous of forestalling such conditions in . With industrial development there will come an increase of manufacturing, and with the change of condi­tions there is a danger of widely separating the working classes and those who possess capital. I wish to see the masses of the people improved in their condition rather than to help a few to add power to themselves until they become financial autocrats."

Yuan Shih-k'ai was insincere. Probably the Founding Father sensed that. But as a Christian and a charitable man, he was always prepared to believe the best of anyone until there was proof to the contrary. The Republic was new and unity had yet to be achieved. Hopes for stability rested upon cooperation with Yuan. The alternative was more fighting.

Sun Yat-sen went about his railroad planning and then to Japan with the approval of Yuan to discuss , which had declared its independence in response to Russian urging. Sung Chiao-jen, one of Dr. Sun's closest revolutionary comrades, was assassinated in March 20, 1913. Returning from , Dr. Sun quickly diagnosed the murder as part of a political conspiracy engineered by Yuan and his followers. He advocated an attack on Yuan. The forces of the Provisional President were strong, however, and Ch'en Ch'i-mei and Huang Hsing counseled caution.

If Dr. Sun could not immediately lead a second revolution, he could at least oppose Yuan. This he proceeded to do by arousing sentiment against a loan which Yuan was negotiating with Western bankers. President Wilson declined to make the a party to the loan because "conditions seem to touch very nearly the administrative independence of ." European powers had no such compunctions. The loan was approved despite the opposition of parliamen­tary bodies and four provincial governors. Dr. Sun advised Yuan to resign. "You have," he wrote, "nego­tiated a loan in defiance of the law in order to supply your armies, which you have begun to mobilize for no other reason than to hasten a civil war." Yuan's answer was to deprive Sun of his railroad post.

The people had already started rising against Yuan, but the "Second Revolution" was to fail. Yuan had his money from the West and the revolutionaries moved too slowly. It was all over by September of 1913 and Sun Yat-sen went to by way of Tai­wan. Yuan Shih-k'ai was elected President by Parlia­ment in October. Now he could permit emergence of his monarchist sentiments. He dissolved Parliament in January of 1914. A year and a half later, he as­signed ranks of nobility to faithful officials and generals. Yet he still denied ambotions to be emperor. To his old associate General Feng Kuo-chang, he said: "Since time immemorial the offspring of kings and emperors have been put on the throne only to fall victims to various kinds of disaster. I certainly have no heart to impose such hazards on my children."

Attempts were made to foster the concept of as a monarchy and not a republic. Then a movement was instigated to demand restoration of dynastic rule with Yuan Shih-k'ai as emperor. On December 25, 1915, Yuan Shih-k'ai announced he would begin his reign with the new year. Revolution broke out in and other provinces. The new "empire" had been terminated by March 22. Yuan was compelled to restore the republic. Dr. Sun, who had been in , returned to in April. Ch'en Ch'i-mei was assassinated May 18 on Yuan's order. That was the last straw for even Yuan supporters. Ch'en Huan, the governor of and one of Yuan's most trusted lieutenants, declared that province's independ­ence. Two weeks later Yuan was dead; the strain of another failure had been too much for him.

Yuan was not an honorable man. As one critic wrote of him, "Yuan Shih-k'ai does not know the essential difference between a man and a beast. All that he knows about human nature is that every man fears the sword and adores gold. He is sure that if he uses these two, there is nothing in the world that he will not be able to get. For the last four years, there have been no politics in , only the ghastly shad­ows of the sword and of gold flying about in the air and haunting the minds of people." Sun Yat-sen said of Yuan: He "has torn up the Constitution, dissolved the National Assembly, canceled regional autonomy and altered the judicial system, so that he can have absolute power to kill and to confiscate as he wishes. His spies infest the cities and bandits roam the countryside. Heavy penalties and summary executions are used to reinforce the heavy taxation which alone does not seem to satisfy his greed. He has sold mining rights and thus the Treasury becomes empty; he has massacred members of the Kuomintang, so the nation is weakened. The Republic which the Revolutionary Government created with such difficulty has been entirely destroyed by him. The traitor has surely done enough."

On June 9, 1916, three days after Yuan's death, Sun Yat-sen issued a statement calling for restoration of the Provisional Constitution of 1912 and reconven­ing of the National Assembly. Li Yuan-hung, who had succeeded to the presidency, complied. Sun order­ed a ceasefire by troops under his control. Li did likewise. But stability had not yet come to . Premier Tuan Ch'i-jui was determined to get a declaration of war against and hired gangsters to lay siege to the National Assembly and beat up its members. Li refused to dissolve the Assembly. Eight warlord followers of Yuan Shih-k'ai declared their in­dependence from the central government. An inde­pendent warlord, Chang Hsun, marched upon with Li's approval, then doublecrossed Li and demanded dissolution of the Assembly. Once in the capital, Chang Hsun placed the former boy emperor Pu-i on the throne. Other warlords rose against Chang and Li resigned the presidency. The monarchical resump­tion lasted only a few days. Tuan Ch'i-jui routed Chang and resumed the premiership.

Sun Yat-sen went to . Soon more than 130 members of the dissolved National Assembly were in the southern city. Meeting in extraordinary session, they decided to organize a Military Government for the Republic of China. Sun Yat-sen was named commander-in-chief on September 1 with Tang Chi-yao and Lu Yung-t'ing as his chief generals.

entered World War I but not with the bless­ing of Sun Yat-sen. He had written Lloyd George, explaining: "I owe my life to . I am grateful to her for it. It is both as friend of England and as Chinese patriot that I have come to point out to you the momentous consequences that the campaign under­taken by agents of yours urging China to go to war, may have for China and for England ... China is as yet an infant Republic, and as a nation, she may be likened to a sick man just entering the hospital of constitutionalism. Unable to take care of herself at this stage, she needs careful nursing and support ... China has always had unbounded confidence in the strength of England and in her ultimate victory, but this confidence has diminished since the campaign was started to make us enter into the struggle, a campaign that has gone so far as to insist upon the sending of Chinese troops to Mesopotamia. All this leads to nothing but the lessening of 's prestige, for the Chinese cannot understand why the Allies should have need of them in order to beat . Should enter the war, it would prove dangerous to her national life and injurious to the prestige of in the ."

As usual, Dr. Sun was right. was treated shabbily at . 's rights in Shantung were assigned to instead of being returned to . The Chinese delegates refused to sign the peace treaty. One English observer wrote, " was hurried into the war by her so-called friends. Well might she pray to be saved from her friends. could have struck her no blow which compares with that dealt her by the Allies."

Dr. Sun hoped for the international development of in the wake of the First World War and wrote a book on the subject. "," he said, "is the land that still employs manual labor for production and has not yet entered the first stage of industrial evolution, while in Europe and the second stage is already reached. So has to begin the two stages of industrial evolution at once by adopting the machinery as well as the nationalization of production. In this case will require machinery for her vast agriculture, machinery for her rich mines, machinery for the building of her innumerable factories, machinery for her extensive transportation systems and machinery for all her public utilities. Let us see how this new demand for machinery will help in the readjustment of war industries. The workshops that turned out can­nons can easily be made to turn out steamrollers for the construction of roads in . The workshops that turned out tanks can be made to turn out trucks for the transportation of the raw materials that are lying everywhere in . And all sorts of warring machinery can be converted into peaceful tools for the general development of 's latent wealth."

's development, he suggested, would serve the cause of world peace. Instead of being a target for the strong, the Chinese would themselves be strong enough to organize their country in the cause of peace. He warned against the militarism of Japan, saying: "The Japanese militarists still think that war is the most profitable national pursuit, and their general staff keeps on planning a war once in a decade. This Japanese illusion was encouraged and strengthened by the campaign of 1894 against China, a cheap and short one but rich in remuneration for Japan; also by the campaign of 1904 against Russia which was a great success to the Japanese, and its fruit of victory was no less in value; finally, by the campaign of 1914 against Germany which formed her part in the world war. Although Japan took the smallest part in the world war and expended the least in men and money, yet the fruit of her victory was Shantung, a territory as large as Romania before the war, with a population as numerous a~ that of France. With such crowning results in every war during the last 30 years, no wonder the Japanese militarists think that the most profitable business in this world is war. The effect of the last war in proves, however, just the contrary. An aggressive lost entirely her capital and interests, plus something more, while victorious gained practically nothing. Since is awake now, the next aggression from will surely be met by a resolute resistance from the Chinese people.

"Even granted that could conquer , it would be an impossibility for to govern profitably for any period of time. The Japanese finan­ciers possess better foresight than their militarists, as was proved during the dispute of the Manchurian and Mongolian reservations when the former prevailed over the latter, thus causing the Japanese government to give up her monopoly of these territories to the new con­sortium in order to cooperate with the other powers. We, the Chinese people, who desire to organize for peace will welcome heartily this new consortium provided it will carry out the principles outlined in these programs. Thus cooperation of the various na­tions can be secured and the military struggle for in­dividual and national gain will cease forever."

By May of 1918, Sun Yat-sen could see that the Military Government established at was not going to be effective. He resigned as Generalissimo and subsequently departed for , where he met Chiang Kai-shek. The two had been drawn together on several occasions during the revolutionary period hut had not been close. On June 1, Dr. Sun left for , then returned to , where he was to reside quietly for more than two years, thinking and writing. Chiang had become chief of field operations for the Kwangtung Army in the spring of 1918 and also commander of the second detachment. He visited Dr. Sun at in -319, then returned to his Kwangtung Army post in deference to the Founding Father's wishes. Finally he felt compelled to resign from what he described as a "hellish life" in an "intrigue-infested army." He saw Dr. Sun again in and took a trip to to visit old friends. From 1919 onward, he was drawn ever closer to Sun Yat-sen.

The situation became still more com­plicated. Chiang returned to the Kwangtung Army, nevertheless, and his forces proceeded to capture Wai-chow, Polow, Shih-lung and . Dr. Sun wrote Chiang: "'s sudden death has made me feel as though I had lost my hands. As I look around in the ranks of our party, I can find only a few who are versed in military aflairs and whose loyalty and fidelity radiate from the core of their being. Only you have the courage and sincerity of Chih-hsin, and at the same time you surpass him in military science. You are endowed by nature with a strong character, and you tend to loathe the ways of the world with exces­sive intensity. This has made it hard for you to get along smoothly with others. However, for the sake of the great responsibility imposed upon you by the party, I hope that you will exert yourself in the direction of mortifying your own views and lowering your standards of judgment, not in regard to your personal cultivation, but in regard to the comrades."

Ch'en Chiung-ming, a warlord supposedly loyal to Dr. Sun, was seeking to dominate and enter into alliances with other warlords. Chiang had taken Sun's plan of operations to Ch'en only to have the latter depart from it at the behest of underlings who were seeking to appease the enemy. Chiang returned to Shanghai, soon to be joined by General Hsu Chung-chih, commander of the Second Kwangtung Army, who also found it impossible to get along with Ch'en. Chiang went to Fenghua to be with his ailing mother and Dr. Sun returned to , where he restored the Military Government.

Chiang reached in February of 1921 only to find that Ch'en was still plotting to seize all . For a long time, Dr. Sun remained oblivious to Ch'en's true character and real intentions. The showdown was delayed until June of 1923, when Ch'en ordered a rebellion against Sun Yat-sen and the Mili­tary Government. Ch'en's rebels marched on Dr. Sun's presidential headquarters the evening of June 15. Dr. Sun refused to take flight. "If Ch'en really dares to rebel, it is my sacred duty to resist and quell the rebel­lion," he said. "For me to escape is to abandon my responsibility. Even if our forces should prove too weak to resist the assault, I would rather die in the execution of my duty to the nation than to desert my post." He had only some 50 militiamen armed with 30 rifles to protect him. Dr. Sun's secretary, Lin Chih­ mien, and others virtually carried Dr. Sun from the headquarters and into the streets at 3 o'clock in the morning. They walked through the rebel forces and reached the safety of Admiralty Headquarters. Half an hour after Sun's departure, the rebels surrounded the presidential building and opened fire.

Chiang Kai-shek quickly rushed to the side of Dr. Sun ahoard the gunboat Yung Feng. In July, part of the naval force mutinied and Sun took Chiang's advice to move anchorage. The gunboat was fired upon by rebels from both banks of the river but neither Sun nor Chiang was hit although both stood on deck directing the return fire. It was August before they were able to escape from the traps that Ch'en Chiung-ming sought to set for them. The two, now drawn close by the sharing of battle and the nearness of death, reached Hongkong August 10 and four days later. Sun Yat-sen was one of the most forgiving men in Chinese history. But he could never bring himself to excuse the treachery of Ch'en. Told that Ch'en was claiming that the attempted coup was an act of revolution, Dr. Sun said:

"The terms revolution and rebellion must not be confused. Revolution is a precious and dignified term. We must know that a revolution has its principles, its spirit and its morality. The French Revolution was for liberty, the American Revolution for independence and our Revolution is for the realization of triple democ­racy. But in Ch'en's rebellion, he set loose his troops to prey upon the people, and he used underhanded means to murder. What he did was entirely contrary to the spirit and morality of revolution. His only aim is to be a local warlord to satisfy his selfish desires. To call such a treacherous rebellion revolutionary is to insult the name of revolution."

Sun Yat-sen thereupon sent Chiang to to study political and party affairs. The Founding Father's disciple stayed four months. Chiang was more im­pressed with the army than with the navy. As for politics, he wrote: "From my observations of how discussions were held and resolutions passed in the soviets of various levels, and from my conversations with Russia's important party and government leaders, I readily perceived that fierce struggles, both open and secret, were not only going on in Russia generally, but also among the Communists themselves. I became convinced that Soviet political institutions were instruments of tyranny and terror, and basically incompati­ble with the Kuomintang's political ideals. This was something that I had to go to to find out. I could never have imagined it had I remained in "

Russian diplomacy was insincere, Chiang found. He concluded that the U.S.S.R. had aggressive intentions toward despite Adolf Joffe's reassurances to Dr. Sun. He said the Kuomintang could have nothing in common with the Communist Party. "On the eve of my departure I received a copy of the Communist International's resolution on the Kuomin­tang," he wrote. "By its tenor I could tell that it had arbitrarily divided Chinese society into conflicting classes and that it intended to stir up conflicts among them. In fact, they paid more attention to devising ways and means against their friends than against their foes. I was naturally greatly worried."

Dr. Sun regarded Chiang's reports as overly cautious. Of Sun's feelings, Chiang wrote: "He believed that under the circumstances the only way to deter the Chinese Communists from inciting class conflicts and sabotaging the National Revolution was to put them under the unified control of the Kuomintang. He thought that the moment the projected Northward Ex­pedition came to a successful conclusion, the Three Principles of the People would be assured of implementation according to schedule, and that it would then be too late for the Chinese Communists to cause any trouble even if they tried. Besides, was it not a fact that Soviet Russia recognized the Kuomintang as the one and only political party to lead in her National Revolution? Was it not also a fact that Soviet Russia had instructed members of the Chinese Communist Party to join the Kuomintang and follow its leadership, and that had even admitted the impracticability of Communism in ? It was because of this reasoning that Dr. Sun persisted in his policy of aligning with Soviet Russia and admitting Chinese Communists into the Kuomintang."

In reality, Dr. Sun regard the relationship with the Communists as an expedient. He had no hope that the ideological differences could be reconciled. The first paragraph of his joint declaration with Joffe on January 26, 1923, declared: "Dr. Sun holds that neither the Communist social order nor the soviet system can actually be introduced into because there do not exist here the conditions for the success­ful establishment of either Communism or Sovietism. This view is entirely shared by Mr. Joffe, who is fur­ther of the opinion that 's paramount and most pressing problem is to achieve national unification and to attain full national independence, and regarding this task, he has assured Dr. Sun that has the warm­est sympathy of the Russian people and can count on the support of ."

Inspection of Russian military academies had con­vinced Chiang Kai-shek of the necessity of an army officer corps imbued with the spirit and principles of the National Revolution. Dr. Sun agreed. The Congress of the Kuomintang resolved in January of 1924 to establish the . The school, which was to become world-famous, was opened in June of that year with Chiang as commandant. The curriculum emphasized political science, economics and ethics as well as military science. Prominent Kuomintang leaders were invited to give lectures on the Three Principles of the People.

Cadets soon were put to the test. Abetted by British colonialists, the Merchants' Volunteers Corps of Canton was conspiring to overthrow Sun Yat-sen. Chiang Kai-shek led the Whampoa cadet corps against the rebels in October and quickly disarmed them. Dr. Sun was away from making preparations for the Northward Expedition. He returned soon after­ward and visited the , expressing great satisfaction at the progress made in such a brief time. Sun was leaving for , and spoke to Chiang Kai-shek of the danger involved in such a trip. "But as my trip is for the cause of the Revolution, for the purpose of saving the country and people, why should I consider my personal safety," he said. "Besides, I am already 59 years old. I should be content even if I were to die."

Dr. Sun said the hard work, discipline and fight­ing spirit of the Whampoa cadet corps gave him confidence that the tasks of the Revolution would be carried out. "Death comes to everyone sooner of later," he said, "but the point is that I can now afford to die, as I could not two or three years ago. Now that there are the cadets to complete my unfinished task, I feel I can die in peace."

The Founding Father went first to Shanghai and then to Kobe, where he spoke on his doctrine of Great­er Asia and on Japan's obligation to help China get rid of the unequal treaties. He reached December 4 and was stricken ill. Nevertheless, he continued the journey to , arriving New Year's Day. He underwent an operation January 26 and learned that he had cancer of the liver. He at least had the consola­tion of learning of victories scored by General Chiang in the Eastward Expedition, which was undertaken in February. Death came to Dr. Sun March 12. On March 13, Chiang Kai-shek and his Whampoa cadets and officers, numbering only slightly more than 1,000 men, routed more than 10,000 rebels.

Dr. Sun's heritage of the Three Principles of the People is the most important document of modem Chinese history and the inspiration for those who look forward toward a free, democratic, independent, progressive . San Min combines the values of classical Chinese culture and society with modern science and lays down a system for the of today and tomorrow.

The first principle is that of Nationalism. In the narrow sense, this concept was aimed at the Manchus, who had clamped a minority government on a also made up of Hans, Mongols, Mohammedans and Tibetans. In a broader sense, he regarded Nationalism as the moving force behind the nation-states of the modern era. Without national progress, international advance and internationalism would not be possible.

He discussed the concepts of nationhood and the importance of blood kinship, economic way of life, language, religion, and culture. obviously satisfied the conditions of nation-statehood extremely well. But Sun Yat-sen saw that while fulfilled all the physical tests for Nationalism, a national spirit was lacking. The Chinese possessed family and clan loyalties rather than a sense of national solidarity. Then, too, could be construed as an empire rather than a nation.

Manchu mismanagement as well as alienism played a part in the rousing of Chinese Nationalism. So did the incursions of the Western Powers and the Japanese. Although Dr. Sun was Westernized and a scientist, his Nationalism was Chinese to the core. Mao has tried to destroy the "old;" Dr. Sun taught that the past was to be preserved and combined with the present and future.

Chinese Nationalism also had an obligation to the world. Dr. Sun wrote: "The road which the Great Powers are traveling today means the destruction of other states. If , when she becomes strong, wants also to crush other countries, copy the Powers' im­perialism and go their road, she would be following in their broken tracks. Only if we rescue the weak and lift up the fallen would we be carrying out the divine obligation of our nation. We must aid the weaker and smaller nations and oppose the aggressive powers of the world ... Then we shall be truly governing the state and pacifying the world. If we want to reach this ideal in the future, we must now revive our national spirit, recover our national standing, unify the world upon the foundation of our ancient morality and love of peace and harmony, and bring about a universal rule of equality and fraternity. This is the great re­sponsibility which devolves upon our four hundred millions."

Chiang Kai-shek expressed the larger sense of Dr. Sun's Nationalism at the close of the eight-year War of Resistance Against Japan. He urged that resentments be put aside and that others be helped anew to begin their quest for righteousness, saying: "We have consistently declared during the war that our only foes were the ruthless militarists of , not the Japanese people as a whole. Today the enemy troops having been defeated by the joint efforts of our Allies, we should naturally charge them strictly to fulfill in good faith all the terms of surrender; but this does not mean that we should attempt to wreak our vengeance upon them, still less to inflict insults on their innocent people. On the contrary, we should rather have compassion for the Japanese people, who have been fooled and misled by their Nazi militarists. We must help them to free themselves from whatever errors and crimes they may have committed. If we should answer violence with violence, if we should try to requite their past delusions of grandeur by an overweening pride on our part, the result would be mutual hatred which knows no end. This certainly cannot be the aim of our soldiers of humanity and justice."

Nothing could be farther from the destructive concept of Nazi and Fascist nationalism than the Nationalism of Dr. Sun's Three Principles of the People.

Dr. Sun's second Principle is Democracy, which in his mind had both Chinese and Western sources. Democratic ideas are to be found in Mencius and others among the ancient Chinese philosophers. Im­plementation had been limited, however, and it was to the West and especially the that Sun Yat-sen looked for examples of democracy in action. He concentrated on the establishment of government of the people, by the people and for the people to assure the people of liberty and equality.

He did not conceive of liberty as license. involved discipline. At one point he said that the Chinese had enjoyed too much liberty, meaning that they had gone their own way without regard to the common good. Of student irresponsibility, he said: "Chinese students of today, having acquired certain ideas of liberty and having no other place to practice them, gave expression to them in their schools. Stu­dent insurrections and strikes followed, under the dignified guise of fighting for liberty. The liberty which Westerners talk about has its strict limitations and cannot be described as belonging to everyone. Young Chinese students when they talk about liberty break down all restraints. Because no one welcomes their theory in the society outside, they can only bring it back into their own schools, and constant disorders and strikes result. This is abuse of liberty."

He stood for free speech, press, assembly, associ­ation and worship but only in such measure as did no violence to the freedom of others.

On equality, Dr. Sun was a scientist. He knew all men were not created equal. What he quarreled with was man-imposed inequality. He said: "Nature did not make men equal. But when autocracy devel­oped, the despotic kings and princes pushed human differences to an extreme and the result was an in­equality far worse than nature's inequality. The in­equality created by kings and princes was an artificial inequality." He hoped that through the development of a spirit of service to mankind among the gifted, through education and through improvement of the environment, natural inequalities might be materially reduced.

Dr. Sun also had an institutional concept of democracy. He set this forth in a number of analogies. The people were shareholders in the company and govern­ment was general manager. Or the people were owner­ passengers and government was driving the car. He expressed it this way: "The foundation of the govern­ment of a nation must be built upon the sovereign rights of the people, but the administration of government must be entrusted to experts. We must not look upon these experts as stately and grand presidents and ministers, but simply as our chauffeurs, as guards at the gate, as cooks, as physicians, carpenters or tailors. It does not matter what sort of workmen the people consider t hem. As long as they have this general at­titude toward them, the state can be governed and the nation can go forward."

Sun Yat-sen relied upon the traditional political powers of election, recall, referendum and initiative. These assured the maximum of freedom for the people. The five powers of government provided for the efficiency of government. He added the powers of control and examination to the traditional three of executive, legislative and judiciary. The additional two were drawn from ancient Chinese practice and finally were incorporated in the Constitution of the Republic of China.

The third Principle of the People has been vari­ously translated as livelihood or well-being or social welfare. Dr. Sun's concern was with food, clothing, shelter, transportation, etc., and also with the social, intellectual and spiritual side of man. As expressed in one of his lectures, this was Dr. Sun's concept of man: "All the phenomena of the universe can ultimate­ly be reduced to two categories - Matter and Spirit. Although these two are antipodal, yet they are actually complementary. Before the development of scientific thinking, people used to assume that Spirit and Matter are absolutely separate, not knowing that the two are originally united as 'body' and 'function,' to borrow a familiar expression from ancient Chinese scholars. Now, what is 'body' but Matter and what is 'function' but Spirit? Take the whole being of a man. The five sensory organs and all the bones belong to Matter; but the ability to speak and act is a function performed by the spirit of the man. The two elements are complementary and indispensable to constitute a living per­son. If suddenly the Spirit is lost, all that remains is a dead body, which can no longer perform the function of speaking and acting. From this we can see that a mere material body without spiritual function can never produce a man, and a man who has lost his spirit cannot be an integral and independent human being. Even if mechanical sciences should have progressed to such a state that they can invent an automatic man exactly like a real man, they still would not be able to create the spirit of man and therefore the robot they have invented can never be called a human being. The essence of a human being lies in the functioning of his spirit, not just the possession of a material body. That's why revolution depends upon the spirit. The revolutionary spirit is the living source of all revolutionary deeds and accomplishments."

In providing for the economic good of man, Dr. Sun favored what today is known as a mixed economy. He was in favor of private capital but in moderation and under control in order to serve the public welfare. He opposed all flagrant inequality. His system of taxation was progressive. What couldn't be done privately should be undertaken publicly for the benefit of the; people. He wanted the land distributed equitably and supported a lax on the unearned increment from increase in land values to promote this end.

On the occasion of Dr. Sun's 100 birthday (101st by Chinese reckoning) in 1966, President Chiang dedicated the on Yangmingshan in the suburbs of . He spoke of the Founding Father's contributions to and the world. The essence of San Min , he said, "is to be found in ethics, democracy and science: and these are also the foundation stones on which t he traditional culture of is built."

The chief executive also said: "Dr. Sun's approach to national reconstruction is based; firstly, on ethics as the root of sincerity of thought, rectification of the heart, cultivation of the personality and regulation of the family; secondly, on democracy as the blueprint of national welfare and world peace; and, lastly, on science for the enhancement of the people's livelihood by fostering correct virtue, by enhancing the utilization of things and opportunities, and by enriching life. Thus the ideology of San Min is centered on benevolence, which treats the cosmos and all things in it as one organic whole. This, then, is what the classics mean by 'the virtues belonging to nature, the union of the external and the internal, and the timely appropriateness (of whatever is done).' "

In his Foreword to Sun Yat-sen: the Man and His Ideas by Dr. John C. H. Wu, the son of the Founding Father, Sun Fo, has written: "It is said that a great man lives in his ideas. This evidently is true of my father. He continues to live in the hearts of innumerable people who have absorbed his ideas, and in the living institutions in which his ideas are embodied."

Those living ideas include the of tomorrow, bright with all the prospects which Sun Yat-sen held out for the Chinese nation-state and people.