3 Question Answer & A Debate Paper

Lecture 15 Sun Yat-sen and the Revolutionary Movement

• Background of the Revolutionary Movement – Situating Sun Yat-sen in the historical background – Elements that Influenced Sun’s Revolution – Important Questions for you to think about

• Sun Yat-sen – Early Years – Becoming a Revolutionary – Sun Yat-sen’s Revolutionary Movement – Tongmenghui

• Debate with Liang Qichao • A Sun-centered History?

Background of the Revolutionary Movement

Situating Sun Yat-sen in the historical background

Elements that Influenced Sun’s Revolution • Anti-Qing Tradition • Western Influence • Three Principles of the People

New Press
 A young revolutionary shouts out : 
 
 "Awake quickly! Awake quickly!! 
 Let all you brothers rouse your spirits!” 


Carving up China

Questions to think about

1. How did the fall of the Qing differ from the fall of the Ming? Why did one end a dynasty, and the other end an empire?

2. Was the fall of the Qing inevitable? Was it inevitable after the Opium War, in which China failed to respond to the West? Or was it after the first Sino-Japanese war in 1895? Or was it not until the very end, 1910 or 1911?

Photograph of Sun Yat-sen and his friends, nicknamed the "Si Da Kou" 
 (Four Bandits, 四⼤大寇) at the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese

International Fame:
 Plaque in London marking the site of a house where Sun

Yat-sen lived while in exile

Sun Yat-sen 孙中⼭


Sun Yat-sen

• Xiangshan: Guangdong Background • Studied Medicine and Western Learning • Started in 1895 • Tongmenghui (Revolutionary Alliance) in

1905 – Republic of China – Anti-Manchu – The three people’s principles


The Three People’s Principles of Sun

• Minzu, Minquan, Minsheng • Nationalism

– A racial nationalism • Democracy

– Contrast to advocates of constitutional monarchy

• People’s Livelihood

Comparing to Liang

• Manchus • Republic • Social Revolution

The problem of Chinese Historiography

• A Sun-centered History?