His Watchwords Were Nationalism, Democracy and the Welfare of the People. As a Political Scientist, He Originated the Interesting and Unique 5-Power Government System
The Revolution is not yet done; All my Comrades must strive on.
-- From Sun Yat-sen’s will
In a century of tumultuous change, perhaps no other revolutionary figure has influenced as many people as Sun Yat-sen. Four decades after his death, his name remains a shining beacon for the Chinese people in their search for freedom and democracy.
Sun was born on November 12, 1866, in a village near Hsiangshan in Kwangtung province. His father was a farmer. By Chinese reckoning, tills year is the centennial of his birth and a time of rededication by the Chinese people to his San Min Chu I, or Three Principles of the People (national independence, political democracy, and social welfare). The occasion assumes special significance in the light of Communist occupation of the Chinese mainland and their mounting threats to the peace of Asia and the rest of the world.
The emergence of Sun and his ideology came at a time when foreign powers had pried open an ancient, undeveloped, secluded China with their gunboats. In his words, China had degenerated into a “subcolony” of the 19th century imperialists. Its 4,000-year-old monarchical system of government and conservative socio-economic institutions were shaken to their foundations by the impact of the Western incursions. Sun accepted the challenge and vowed to save the country from danger and degradation.
Sun was educated in both Chinese and Western schools. At 13, he studied in Hawaii. Later he went to Hongkong to attend Queen’s College and the Hongkong Medical College. He was a Christian, but he said, “I don’t belong to the Christianity of churches but to the Christianity of Jesus Christ, who was a revolutionary.”
He graduated in medicine in 1892, but his professional practice was short-lived. He gave it up in response to a higher call following China’s defeat in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95. Sun wanted to save the entire nation rather than individual patients. His initial revolutionary attempts ended in failure. He began to live in exile. In 1894, he founded his first revolutionary organization, the Hsing Chung Hui (Society for Rebuilding China), in Honolulu. It became a full-fledged revolutionary party, the Tung Meng Hui (Society of the Common Cause), in Tokyo in August of 1905.
During this period, Dr. Sun traveled extensively in many parts of the world. Once he was kidnaped on a London street and carried off to the Manchu legation, where he was held for two weeks. Through the timely intervention of his teacher, Dr. James Cantlie, a plot to smuggle him back to China for execution was foiled.
Success at Wuchang
In his studies and residence abroad, he carefully observed democratic governments and institutions in Europe and America. His profound knowledge of both Chinese and Western cultures enabled him to formulate a long-range revolutionary ideology and pro gram. It is set forth in his works: The Three Principles of the People, Plans for National Reconstruction, Fundamentals of National Reconstruction, Memoirs of A Chinese Revolutionary, etc.
Sun’s revolutionary undertakings finally were crowned with success. In October of 1911, an uprising at Wuchang toppled the Manchu dynasty. The Republic of China was established, and Sun was called from exile to serve as the provisional President.
In the following year, he yielded the presidency to Yuan Shih-kai in an effort to bring about peaceful unification of the country. Sun turned to the task of educating the people in the fundamentals of democracy. The Tung Meng Hui was reorganized as the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) with a broad program of action.
Relentless civil wars among the warlords dashed hopes for national unity and Chinese modernization. Only Sun’s magnetic personality and selfless spirit could have sustained the Chinese revolution in those trying years. Several times be set up a revolutionary government in Canton only to have his plans frustrated. Finally, in 1923, a stable regime was founded in Canton to make preparations for a Northward Expedition to eliminate the warlords and abrogate unequal treaties imposed upon China by foreign imperialists.
Red Distortions
It was while in Canton that Sun reorganized the Kuomintang. The purpose was to rally all revolutionary elements behind a single banner, that of the Kuomintang. Chinese Communists were permitted to join as individuals. However, Sun’s toleration of Communist participation in no way signified acceptance of their ideology. In his joint statement with Comintern representative Adolf Joffe on January 26, 1923, and on many later occasions, Dr. Sun maintained that neither Communism nor the Soviet system was suit able to China and that China’s future lay with his Three Principles of the People. Sun died in 1925 just when the preparations were entering a crucial stage. The responsibility of leading the Northward Expedition fell on the shoulders of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, who unified the country in a series of campaigns in 1926-28.
During the past 40 years, the Chinese Communists have tried to distort Sun’s doctrines in support of their insurrection. They have even brazenly claimed that they are Sun’s true followers. Of course, nothing could be farther from the truth. The Three Principles of the People bear no resemblance whatsoever to Communism.
The Three Principles of the People were set forth in a series of lectures delivered in 1924. He used the term San Ming Chu I for the first time in 1905 in a message to the Ming Pao, a Chinese revolutionary newspaper in Tokyo. He advocated the principles of nationalism and democracy to liberate the Chinese people and the principle of the people’s livelihood to forestall in China those social and economic ills that were then beset ting the West.
Actually, a rough version of the Three Principles of the People was first embodied in the manifesto of the Tung Meng Hui, calling for expulsion of the Manchus, recovery of China’s lost territory, establishment of a republic, and the equalization of land ownership. The first true Chinese nationalist in a modern sense, Sun sought to give his countrymen a greater sense of dignity and human values, and a faith in their own country and civilization.
Morality Learning
Sun always identified himself with the traditions of Chinese history and culture. But to keep up with world progress, he also drew heavily on political theories of the West. He compared the Three Principles of the People with President Lincoln’s “government of the people, by the people, and for the people” and also equated the Principles with the watchwords of the French revolution: “liberty, equality, and fraternity.”
He believed China should not blindly imitate the West but should work out a democratic system of government suited to her own traditions and needs. Many have said that San Ming Chu I represents an organic synthesis of Western democracy and Confucian thought.
According to Sun, nationalism implies the revival of traditional Chinese morality and encouragement of traditional Chinese learning. Morality includes such Confucian virtues as loyalty, filial devotion, benevolence, love, faithfulness, justice, harmony and peace. Emphasis is placed on the Confucian political philosophy expressed in The Great Learning: “Search into the nature of things, extend the boundaries of knowledge; make the purpose sincere, regulate the mind; cultivate personal virtue, rule the family, govern the state, and keep the world in peace.” This is a philosophy that Sun thought was not to be found in the West.
On this moral foundation it was Sun’s belief that the Chinese nation could consolidate itself and cooperate with other peoples in advancing toward the Great Commonwealth of the Confucian ideal. As he put it, “a state belongs to the people” and “the people share everything in the state.” If applied to the international scene, this cannot but help bring about universal brotherhood, peace and harmony.
The avenue to the Great Commonwealth is that of wang tao (right) and not pa tao (might). This reflects a Chinese tradition for settlement of disputes by civilized means and in the spirit of justice. Sun set the example in his own thinking. While opposed to the foreign support of the warlords, he never failed to urge sincere foreign assistance to help China in her reconstruction.
Unique Division
The Principle of Democracy champions popular sovereignty. Though essentially modeled on Western parliamentary democracy, Sun’s concept also has aspects of originality. He advocated a separation of “political power” and “governing power.” The former, he said, consists of four sovereign rights of the people: suffrage, recall, initiative, and referendum. The latter includes five independent powers of government: the executive, legislative, judicial, examination, and control.
Sun pointed out the deficiencies and defects of the three-power constitutions of Western countries. With the power of impeachment vested in congress, crafty legislators could employ it against the government and render it impotent. Without an independent examination system, which had been a salient feature of the Chinese system of government for many centuries, the selection of civil servants would be dominated by political parties. More often than not, capable persons and real talents would be lost to the state.
Sun observed that “the foundation of a nation must be built upon the rights of the people, but the administration of government must be entrusted to experts.” With a clear division of sovereign rights and administrative powers, he believed China could have both democracy and an effective government.
To implement his political program, he formulated a three-stage revolution: (1) military government to clear away the obstacles to democracy, (2) revolutionary party government to train the people to exercise their political rights, and (3) constitutional government. The second stage of political tutelage was considered necessary for the Chinese as they long had been under the rule of monarchy.
Sun was always concerned with the rights and welfare of the people. His scheme of strong government and party rule was a means to an end, namely, a perfect democracy.
The Principle of the People’s Livelihood aims at economic justice for all. Its ultimate goal is the Great Commonwealth in which the people can “share everything in the state.” The basic means are “equalization of land ownership” and “regulation of private capital.” The later is to be accompanied by development of state enterprise. All these are to be achieved peacefully land gradually.
Equalization of Land Ownership
To Sun, inequitable distribution of land ownership was the principal obstacle to improvement of the people’s livelihood. He took pains to explain that his land reform pro gram would require neither liquidation of classes nor confiscation of land. He wanted the farmer to own the land he tills and receive the fruit of his own labor. Also he wanted to use the unearned increment of increased land value for the good of the people. Land owners were to evaluate the worth of their land and the government would impose taxes accordingly or purchase the land at the value declared by the owner. As land values go up, the unearned increment is to go to the community as a whole. Sun’s ideas owed much to Henry George and the theories he set forth in Progress and Poverty.
Sun wanted minimal interference with natural processes. He said in The International Development of China: “All matters that can be and are better carried out by private enterprises should be left to private hands, which should be encouraged and fully protected by liberal laws ... All matters that can not be taken up by private concern, and those that possess monopolistic character should be taken up as national undertakings.” Included in the latter category are certain banks, railways, and natural resources. The purpose is “to increase national wealth and to promote the welfare of the people.”
A Mixed System
With regard to the industrialization of China, Dr. Sun specially emphasized the importance of international investment land technical cooperation. He even blueprinted a detailed plan in his book The International Development of China. But this international assistance must be a cooperative venture for mutual benefit, and not a means of economic exploitation.
The economic measures advocated by Sun were designed to combat the evils of 19th century capitalism. But he visualized the economic goal of China as increased production rather than the distribution of existing wealth.
He described the economic situation of China in these words: “All of us have a share in the distressing poverty of the Chinese people. There is no especially rich class; there is only a general poverty. The ‘inequalities between rich and poor’ which the Chinese speak of are only differences within the poor class, difference in the degree of poverty.”
He wanted China to avoid the evils of the old capitalism, but had no fixed prejudice against private business and never advocated its elimination. He said he merely wanted “a plan which will anticipate dangers and forearm us against emergencies.”
Sun categorically denied the necessity of Communism in China. And he believed the class struggle is not a requirement of human progress. Man has been guided by the principle of cooperation, not conflict. From this grew Dr. Sun’s thesis that the people’s livelihood, or subsistence, determines the course of human history.
He referred to the theory of Maurice William, who e book The Social Interpretation of History apparently impressed him and helped fortify his ideas. He likened William’s view that subsistence is the heart of social problems to his own belief that livelihood is the “central force in social progress.”
Rejecting Karl Marx’s materialist interpretation of history, Sun maintained that man kind’s struggle for existence, not the change in the methods of production, is the central force of history. In criticism of Marx, he wrote:
“Class war is not the cause of social progress. It is a disease developed in the course of social progress. The cause of this disease is the inability to subsist, and the result of the disease is war. What Marx gained through his studies of social problems was a knowledge of disease in the social progress. Therefore, Marx can only be called a social pathologist; we cannot say that he is a social physiologist.”
Sun criticized Marx’s theory of surplus value as having given “all credit for production to the labor of industrial workers and overlooked the labor of other useful social factors.” He cited Henry Ford’s factories to contradict Marx’s three essentials (longer hours, lower wages, and higher prices) for increasing surplus value. Facts of modern industry prove the very opposite to be true, he pointed out.
Sun said: “All that Marx knew from his long study of social problems were facts in past history. He did not at all anticipate what would happen in the future.” Obviously, Sun’s Principle of the People’s Livelihood was formulated on a basis of his objections to Communist ideology. Despite his policy of admitting Communists into the Kuomintang in his last years, he never hesitated to point out the basic fallacies of Communism.
The San Ming Chu I, in Sun’s words, seeks “to reap the fruits of both a political revolution and a social revolution.” Judging from the trends of contemporary socio-economic development, the soundness of his doctrine has been fully proved. In his lifetime, Sun once said, “I am glad to observe that my principles are shared by the greatest political minds abroad and not in contradiction to the world’s democratic schools of thought.”
Implementation in Taiwan
The San Ming Chu I was incorporated in the Constitution of the Republic of China, promulgated in 1947. On Taiwan, the Kuomintang has committed itself to making the island a “model province of the Three Principles of the People.” Rural land reform has been completed and urban land reform has been begun in accordance with Sun’s teachings. Outstanding successes have been recorded in industrialization. International economic and technical cooperation have been welcome, as he recommended. Private business has been encouraged, as he suggested.
For more than a decade, a 7 per cent or higher annual economic growth has resulted in the most widespread prosperity ever known in China. These advances on Taiwan amount to a promise of what can be done when Sun’s programs are applied to the whole of the Chinese mainland. Government and people of free China have been directing all their efforts toward the realization of that objective.
The legacy of Sun Yat-sen transcends group or individual interest. He devoted his life to reconstruction of China in the spirit of her cultural tradition and her modern requirements. His philosophy and its realistic application provide the great, unfailing challenge to Communism in continental China. As his goals are liberty, justice, and peace and his means are moderate and peaceful, his cause will endure and prevail.