Sun Yat-sen

by Marie-Claire Bergère, Janet Lloyd (Translation)

Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925), the first president of the Republic of China, has left a supremely ambivalent political and intellectual legacy—so much so that he is claimed as a Founding Father by both the present rival governments in Taipei and Beijing. In Taiwan, he is the object of a veritable cult; in the People’s Republic of China, he is paid homage as “pioneer of the revolution,” making possible the Party’s claims of continuity with the national past. Western scholars, on the other hand, have tended to question the myth of Sun Yat-sen by stressing the man’s weaknesses, the thinker’s incoherences, and the revolutionary leader’s many failures.

This book argues that the life and work of Sun Yat-sen have been distorted both by the creation of the myth and by the attempts at demythification. Its aim is to provide a fresh overall evaluation of the man and the events that turned an adventurer into the founder of the Chinese Republic and the leader of a great nationalist movement. The Sun Yat-sen who emerges from this rigorously researched account is a muddled politician, an opportunist with generous but confused ideas, a theorist without great originality or intellectual rigor.

But the author demonstrates that the importance of Sun Yat-sen lies elsewhere. A Cantonese raised in Hawaii and Hong Kong, he was a product of maritime China, the China of the coastal provinces and overseas communities, open to foreign influences and acutely aware of the modern Western world (he was fund-raising in Denver when the eleventh attempt to bring down the Chinese empire finally succeeded). In facing the problems of change, of imitating the West, of rejecting or adapting tradition, he instinctively grasped the aspirations of his time, understood their force, and crystallized them into practical programs.

Sun Yat-sen’s gifts enabled him to foresee the danger that technology might represent to democracy, stressed the role of infrastructures (transport, energy) in economic modernization, and looked forward to a new style of diplomatic and international economic relations based upon cooperation that bypassed or absorbed old hostilities. These “utopias” of his, at which his contemporaries heartily jeered, now seem to be so many prophecies.

Genres: History, Biography, China, Nonfiction, Politics

502 pages, Paperback

First published April 27, 1994

Reviews

[Julian Haigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sun Yat-sen was first President of China, raised in Hawaii (like Obama), important political thinker and a window on Chinese national heritage coming to grips with 20th Century international reality. Acknowledged as predecessor by both Chiang kai-Chek and Mao Zedong, Sun worked intimately with the concepts of imperialism v. development, centralism/nationalism v. provincialism, and expounded the three principles for China's modernization: nationalism, government by the people, and livelihood.

Nationalism was initially based on anti-Manchu feeling directed against the traditional administration of the Manchu dowager empress Cixi, morphed into anti-imperialism and yet appreciated the universalist nature of (argumentatively) Confucian ideals. Government by the people included not only the Western divisions of executive, legislative and judicial branches but recognized examination and censure as similarly important. His focus on livelihood represented an effort to overcome the problems of both communism and capitalism in using China's backwardness to boost its arrival into the modern age, focusing on food, clothing, housing and transport. The ideas are a synthesis between traditional Chinese thought based in Confucianism and a wide collection of 'Western' ideas from Smith and Rousseau to Lenin and some less known thinkers (Henry George).

Sun's impact is hard to quantify as he was neither a successful organizer or an intellectual. He represented a national character and drive when many of his contemporaries found more provincial application in their more direct and pragmatic approach to development. Sun was a big picture thinker that sought to balance the varying powers both internally and externally to achieve his goals. As a result, his influence is less in the directness of his actions or the clarity of his thought, but more as an abiding yearning and coming-to-consciousness of the 'modern' world. This is a messy, real and approachable history of China at the crux of its transition from traditional to communist organization.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sun Yat-sen was the first president of the Chinese republic in 1911, yet he is little know around the world and perhaps rightly so. He influenced little the chain of events that led to the Chinese revolution and the downfall of the imperial monarchy. He was instead simply an adventurer and dreamer, incapable of keeping up with rapid changes. He was an opportunist, allying at different points of his life with the Japanese, French and finally the Soviets, constantly making contradictory promises to attract additional financial aid. His ideology regularly shifted and reflected no clear vision, conviction or sincerity. His core three principles lacked originality and substance. He was an ineffective leader, constantly pursing different strategies simultaneously that did not allow the people to effectively unify behind him.

[Anthony Caruso · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing (or translation?) of this book was not the best, and rather frustrating at times. I think that it gives a good view of Sun Yat-sen's career, but it assumes you already are educated on the topic to an extent (have knowledge of manifestos, incidents in history, etc). It's also bazaar that the book portrays itself as an 'unbiased account' but it is, in fact, very partial.

Overall, I wasn't a fan and don't really have more to say because I found myself slamming my head on the coffee table as I slowly trudged through this analysis of Sun Yat-sen's life. I have no idea how people have recommended me this book, but I guess there are not many written on Sun Yat-sen. I'm glad that I read it, but pray to god I will never have to revisit it.

[Patrick · Rating 1 out of 5]

interesting subject. But I find it either poorly written or it may translate poorly from the original french to the english. I am struggling to finish this. There are too few books on SYT so I WANT to finish it, but it's not keeping my interest.

[AskHistorians]

an authoritative portrait of the only man revered by both the Nationalists and Communists as a Founding Father of modern China.

[Kevin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh. I read this to try and learn about the Xinhai Revolution and National Protection War, which turned out to be a waste of time. Unfortunately the book is more focused on other aspects of his life, and even if it wasn't, it turns out he was barely involved in the actual revolution that finally overthrew the Qing dynasty. The revolution begins off-page in between chapters, though the book jumps around so much I figured I'd just missed the pivotal moment Yat-sen had been working towards his entire life.

[Matthew Linton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poor translation. Hard to evaluate the arguments with so much bad prose.