China’s enigmatic hero.
Sun Yat-sen, known as the father of modern China, casts a long shadow. He was China’s first post-imperial leader, a unique linchpin in the country’s modernization. His legacy remains unique—revered in both the communist mainland and in Taiwan, Sun represented the first generation of Chinese elites to be educated abroad, and to bring a cosmopolitan worldview to their homeland.
The circumstances of his birth were hardly auspicious. Born in 1866 to a peasant family in Guangdong on the Southeast coast, his future would have been farming like his parents—but for the fact that an older brother had emigrated to Hawaii as a laborer. His brother sent for Sun to join him, and in 1878 at the age of 11, the future leader embarked across the ocean. He attended British and American schools on Oahu. There he would learn both English and Christianity, a Western understanding of the world that would influence him in the years to come.
He returned to China, studying there and in Hong Kong—eventually graduating from medical school in 1892. But the 26-year-old’s ambitions ran toward politics, not being a local doctor. In 1894, Sun was again in Hawaii and established the “Revive China” association, a secret revolutionary organization. The members swore their allegiances to the goals of overthrowing the Qing dynasty (whom they saw as foreign usurpers), reviving China’s identity, and establishing a unified government.
Sun made his first attempt at revolution in 1895, after China’s defeat in the First Sino–Japanese War. He went to Hong Kong, and tried to instigate a rebellion in Guangzhou, but failed. He fled for Europe, where an attempt by Chinese authorities to capture him in London and send him back to China triggered a diplomatic incident. Before he could be smuggled out of the country, the British Foreign Office intervened, rescuing Sun and giving him national prominence in news reports. His next stop was Japan, in an attempt to build up support, both financial and practical, for his goals.
As Sun tried to build alliances and plan for China’s future, fate would turn in his favor, as public sympathy for the Qing dynasty was fading. From 1899 to 1901, the Boxer Rebellion uprising cost hundreds of thousands of lives, and left China battered. Sun, however, saw an opportunity. He founded a new organization in 1905, the Tongmenghui (United League) in Tokyo, and they put out a newspaper, The People’s Journal (Min Bao). He would begin to gather stronger support from influential figures, who felt that China needed to modernize, and find a new path. But Sun kept creating plans for political uprisings that did not succeed.
He still believed that he needed more international support. He established revolutionary cells in Europe (made up of Chinese residents abroad, with some foreign allies). But the ruling Qing government had influence, and their pressure led foreign nations to disavow any support for Sun and his cohorts. Few foreign states wanted to be involved in another nation’s political problems, or to harbor a seditionist. In 1907, the Japanese authorities asked him to leave. He was also banned from French Indochina and Hong Kong.
He would spend the succeeding years in the US and Canada, raising money for his efforts—and hatching revolutionary plots that were fated to fail. In November 1910, he convened a conference in Penang, Malaya (now Malaysia), to plan another revolt from afar, this time with the goal of capturing Guangzhou. This would become the disastrous March 29 Revolution. Around a hundred revolutionaries tried to force their way into the Viceroy’s residence; government troops opened fire, and at least 86 of the rebels were killed.
While he continued to try to direct such efforts from abroad, there were others in China who were also trying to make changes. Sun was in Colorado when he heard that a rebel group had overthrown the regional government in Wuhan. Other regions would soon follow.
Returning to China, Sun proclaimed the Republic of China, and the Qing emperor abdicated. But history is rarely so clean. Sun had no real power base, and in turn relinquished leadership to Yuan Shikai, a military officer who controlled the army. Sun was then part of an attempt to overthrow Yuan, after which he fled the country again. The jostling for control of China was just beginning.
Yuan Shikai died in 1916—leaving a power vacuum that gave way to what is now known as the Warlord period. Regional leaders and aspirants were grabbing territory, infrastructure, and attempting to expand their influence. For the Chinese people, it was chaos.
Sun hovered in the orbit of power, briefly gaining control of factions—and even the title of leader—but he could not harness China to his ambitions. A dynamic and charismatic figure, he had attracted many followers, but could not retain power. His knowledge of the West had enabled him to gain money and support around the world, yet his vision for China was not of Western liberalism: his plan included economic control by the state and redistribution of property.
In his last decade, he had turned for support to the new Soviet Union, and reorganized his party along the hierarchy of Soviet Communist lines. Whether his leadership in the longer term would have led to a communist state is unclear. But Sun died of cancer at 58, before his ambitions (for himself and his country) could come to pass.
His legacy spans the ideological divide: to the communists in China, he is a “pioneer of the revolution”; while to the nationalists in Taiwan, he is still regarded as the father of the republic. A rare distinction, perhaps befitting someone who tried to be so many things.
