Hey guys, welcome back to
Office Hours with the Brofessor: The Show Where I Say Things.
Tonight: Badass Historical Chinese Bros, Part IV: Sun Yat-Sen.
The 19th century
was not a good time for China. Chinese historians use the term
“Century of Humiliation” to describe the period between the Opium
Wars in the 1830s and the end of WWII. China, mainly due to
corruption and cultural chauvinism on the part of the ruling Qing
dynasty, had fallen seriously behind the West in terms of
technological and economic development, and as a result became a
victim of Western imperialism. Japan even got involved following its
modernization in the 1870s. This culminated in the Japanese Imperial
Army committing some of the most horrific war crimes in human history
against the Chinese during WWII. In the 1850s and 60s, the Taiping
rebellion swept across southern China. Taiping, incidentally,
translates as “extremely peaceful”, an interesting name for a
conflict that killed over twice as many people as World War I(1).
In the midst of all this
chaos there emerged a man of vision and dedication, who believed in
his nation when no one else seemed to. This man’s name was Sun
Zhongshan, known in the West as Sun Yat-Sen.
Sun Yat-Sen was one of those
rare individuals whose ideals were just too far ahead of their time,
and as a result were not nearly as successful as they should have
been. Sun Yat-Sen was born in 1866 and grew up in Hawaii, where he
received a Western education and even converted to Christianity. He
returned to China just in time to see China get completely
obliterated in the first Sino-Japanese war, and then get carved up by
foreign powers in the 1890s. Frustrated at the Qing dynasty’s
incompetence, Sun advocated revolution and setting up a democratic
form of government.
Cool idea, his friends said,
but who’s going to lead this revolution? You? And of course,
that’s just what he did. After a few false starts, in 1912 Sun
Yat-Sen overthrew the Qing dynasty and established the Republic of
China, a state which continues to this day on Taiwan and continues to
be recognized by some countries as the legitimate government of all
China. He struggled for the next decade to make a free, just and
strong China, ultimately dying in 1925—before his goal was
accomplished.
Sun Yat-Sen was guided by
what he called the “Three Principles of the People” (Chinese 三民主义
San1min2
Zhu3yi4). He
developed the philosophy as a kind of blueprint for a prosperous,
strong, and democratic China. Let’s
take a look at each principle in detail:
The
first principle is
民族
min2zu2
usually
translated as “nationalism”. However, that term has an air of
chauvinism, or even racism, about it in English that was never
present in Sun Yat-Sen’s ideology. A more accurate translation
might be “People’s Nation”. Basically it referred to a
national Chinese identity and pride regardless
of ethnic group; that is, a Manchu
or a Tibetan
had just as much right to call himself
“Chinese” as a Mandarin speaker from Beijing. I like this
principle because it applies to me too! I like to have daydreams
about settling down in the ROC, getting naturalized as a dual
citizen, and looking like a foreigner but really being just as
Chinese as anyone else. Sun Zhongshan would’ve been totally on
board with that, and it’s something that I think some people
forget:
that China isn’t homogeneous! It’s a multiethnic country too,
just like the US, and Sun wanted to make sure that each ethnic group
in China was treated fairly.
The
second principle is 民權
min2quan2
or “people’s rule”--that is, democracy. Sun’s great hope was
that he would see China develop into a genuine democracy where people
could express themselves freely and choose their leaders. In the
end, he never accomplished his dream within his lifetime, but due to
the groundwork he laid as the Republic of China’s first president,
we now have a genuine multiparty
democracy in the ROC—that is to say, Taiwan. On the mainland,
too,
things are getting better every day. That said, I’m not exactly
gonna be the first one to wear a “Free Tibet” t-shirt to
Tienanmen Square. But
it’ll get there someday, I have faith.
Good
will always triumph over evil, freedom will always triumph over
tyranny, and I believe that someday, Sun’s dream of a
united, free and strong
China will come true. The
Communist Party of China likes to talk about the “great
rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”, which I really believe I’m
witnessing right now. That’s why I love living in China.
The
third principle is 民生
min2sheng1
“people’s livelihood”. Basically this means socialism, and a
highly-developed social welfare system for those members of society
who need an extra hand. I personally think socialism is a great
idea, within the framework of a free democracy. Sun Yat-Sen thought
so too, and believed in a fairer and more equitable society. While
people do have the opportunity to become successful through hard
work, the weaker members of society are taken care of. I’m down
with that. China is a huge
country, with enormous natural resources. There’s plenty to go
around, and Sun Yat-Sen understood that.
So those are my bro Sun
Yat-Sen’s Three Principles of the People, and that wraps up not
only today’s discussion, but my whole series on Badass Historical
Chinese Bros. Up next: The Origins of Chinese Civilization. See you
next time.
Sources:
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