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In the Chinese-speaking world today Sun Yat-sen (November 12, 1866–March 12, 1925) holds a unique position. From the early revolutionary period he is the only figure who is honored as the "Father of the Nation" by people in both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan).
Early Life:
On November 12, 1866, Sun Yat-sen was born Sun Wen in Cuiheng village, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. He was one of six children born to tailor and peasant farmer Sun Dacheng and his wife Madame Yang.
Sun Yat-sen moved to Honolulu, Hawaii at the age of 13 where his elder brother Sun Mei had lived since 1871 though he attended elementary school in China. Sun Wen studied at the Iolani School while living with his brother Sun Mei in Hawaii.
He earned his high school diploma in 1882, and then spent a single semester at Oahu College before his older brother abruptly sent him back to China at the age of 17. Sun Mei feared that if his brother stayed longer in Hawaii then he was going to convert to Christianity.
Christianity and Revolution:
In 1883, Sun Wen and a friend broke the Beiji Emperor-God statue in front of his home village's temple. However until then he had already absorbed too many Christian idea. His first marriage to Lu Muzhen (1867–1952), the daughter of a local merchant was arranged by his parents in 1884.
In 1887, to enroll in the college of medicine Sun Wen left for Hong Kong and left his wife behind. Son Sun Fo (b. 1891), daughter Sun Jinyuan (b. 1895), daughter Sun Jinwan (b. 1896) was their the children that they had. He would go on to take a long-term mistress and marry twice more, all without divorcing Lu.
Sun received a medical degree from the Hong Kong College of Medicine (now the University of Hong Kong) in Hong Kong. The young man converted to Christianity during his time in Hong Kong.
He received a new name after getting baptized: Sun Yat-sen. Becoming Christian for Sun Yat-sen, was a symbol of his embrace of "modern," or Western, knowledge and ideas. The Qing Dynasty who was trying desperately to fend off westernization at a time when this revolutionary statement came.
Sun was working with the Furen Literary Society which advocated the overthrow of the Qing after he had given up his medical practice by 1891.
A Hong Kong woman named Chen Cuifen began a long 20-year relationship with him. In 1894 to recruit Chinese ex-patriots he went back to Hawaii for the revolutionary cause in the name of the Revive China Society.
The Qing government saw a disastrous defeat in the 1894–1895 Sino-Japanese War which feed into the calls for reform. Sun Yat-sen called for the end of the empire and the establishment of a modern republic though some reformers sought a gradual modernization of imperial China.
The Revive China Society staged the First Guangzhou Uprising in October 1895, with an attempt to overthrow the Qing; however their plans leaked and the government arrested more than 70 society members. Sun Yat-sen escaped into exile in Japan.
Exile:
During his exile in Japan, Sun Yat-sen met Kaoru Otsuki and asked for her hand in marriage in 1901. Since she was only 13 at the time, her father forbade their marriage until 1903.
They had a daughter named Fumiko who, after Sun Yat-sen abandoned them in 1906, was adopted by a family named Miyagawa. It was also during his exile in Japan and elsewhere that Sun Yat-sen made contacts with Japanese modernizers and advocates of pan-Asian unity against Western imperialism.
He also helped supply weapons to the Filipino Resistance, which had fought its way free from Spanish imperialism only to have the new Republic of the Philippines crushed by the Americans in 1902. Sun had been hoping to use the Philippines as a base for a Chinese revolution but had to give up that plan.
From Japan, Sun also launched a second attempted uprising against the government of Guangdong. Despite help from the organized crime triads, on October 22, 1900, the Huizhou Uprising also failed.
Throughout the first decade of the 20th century, Sun Yat-sen called for China to "expel the Tatar barbarians"—meaning the ethnic-Manchu Qing Dynasty—while gathering support from overseas Chinese in the US, Malaysia, and Singapore.
He launched seven more attempted uprisings, including an invasion of southern China from Vietnam in December 1907, called the Zhennanguan Uprising. His most impressive effort to date, Zhennanguan ended in failure after seven days of bitter fighting.
The Republic of China:
The Xinhai Revolution broke out at Wuchang on October 10, 1911 when Sun Yat-sen was in the United States.
The child emperor Puyi or the rebellion who ended the imperial period of Chinese history got muted by Sun as he got caught off guard. Sun raced back to China as soon as he heard that the Qing Dynasty had fallen.
Sun Yat-sen got elected to be the "provisional president" of the new Republic of China by a council of delegates from the provinces on December 29, 1911. Sun's unflagging work raising funds and sponsoring uprisings over the previous decade saw him getting the recognition.
However, if the northern warlord Yuan Shi-kai could have pressured Puyi into formally abdicating the throne then as a reward he was promised to get the presidency under his rule.
On March 10, Sun Yat-sen stepped aside and Yuan Shi-kai became the next provisional president as Puyi got abdicated on February 12, 1912. It soon became clear that Yuan rather than a modern republic hoped to establish a new imperial dynasty.
In Beijing in May of 1912 Sun began to rally his own supporters and called them to a legislative assembly. Sun Yat-sen and Yuan Shi-kai both got even numbers of supporters in the assembly.
Sun's ally Song Jiao-ren who was Sun's ally renamed their party the Guomindang (KMT) at the assembly.
The KMT had 269/596 in the lower house, and 123/274 in the senate as they took many legislative seats in the election, but not a majority. In March of 1913 the assassination of KMT leader Song Jiao-ren was ordered by Yuan Shi-kai.
Sun organized a KMT force to challenge Yuan's army in July 1913 as he was unable to prevail at the ballot box and fearful of Yuan Shi-kai's ruthless ambition. Sun Yat-sen once more had to flee to Japan in exile as Yuan's 80,000 troops prevailed over them.
Chaos:
Yuan Shi-kai briefly realized his ambitions in 1915, when he proclaimed himself the Emperor of China. A violent backlash from other warlords such as Bai Lang as well as a political reaction from the KMT embarked with his proclamation as emperor.
The new "emperor" in the Anti-Monarchy War fought against Sun Yat-sen and the KMT, even as touching off China's Warlord Era Bai Lang led the Bai Lang Rebellion.
Both Sun Yat-sen and Xu Shi-chang were declared as the President of the Republic of China by the opposition once in the midst of all this chaos. Sun Yat-sen married his third wife Soong Ching-ling (m. 1915–1925) in the midst of the chaos, her sister May-ling would later marry Chiang Kai-shek.
Sun Yat-sen reached out to local and international communists in order to bolster the KMT's chances of overthrowing Yuan Shi-kai. The Second Communist International (Comintern) in Paris got his letter demanding for support, he also approached the Communist Party of China (CPC).
Sun got immensely praised by the Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin for his work and sent advisors to help establish a military academy.
Chiang Kai-shek, a young officer was appointed by Sun as the commandant of the new National Revolutionary Army and its training academy. On May 1, 1924 the Whampoa Academy officially opened.
Preparations for the Northern Expedition:
Chiang Kai-shek went along with his mentor Sun Yat-sen's plans although he was a bit skeptical about the alliance with the communists. They trained an army of 250,000 with the help of Soviets, which would march through northern China in a three-pronged attack.
Wiping out the warlords Sun Chuan-fang in the northeast, Wu Pei-fu in the Central Plains, and Zhang Zuo-lin in Manchuria was the main plan agenda of this army.
Between 1926 and 1928, this massive military campaign took place but rather than consolidating power behind the Nationalist government it simply realigned power among the warlords.
The enhancement of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's reputation was probably the longest-lasting effect—but Sun Yat-sen would not live to see it.
Death:
Sun Yat-sen died at the Peking Union Medical College on March 12, 1925, from liver cancer at the age of just 58 years. He was first buried at a Buddhist shrine near Beijing called the Temple of Azure Clouds although he was a baptized Christian.
Sun's early death ensured in a sense that his legacy lives on in both mainland China and Taiwan. Because the Nationalist KMT and the Communist CPC were brought together by him and as both sides honor his memory so they were still allies at the time of his death.
Written by: Gourav Chowdhury
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