The New International Encyclopædia/Sun Yat-sen

SUN YAT-SEN, sōōn' yät-sĕn' (1866-⁠). A famous Chinese revolutionary leader. He was born at Fatshan, near Canton. His parents took him as a boy to Hawaii, where he attended Iolani College. Later he graduated from the Hongkong School of Medicine, now part of Hongkong University (1892). For a year he practiced at Macao. Afterward he gave himself wholly to the project of driving the Manchu dynasty from China. As early as 1895 he attempted a revolt at Canton, which failed, and Sun alone succeeded in escaping. He fled to Kobe, Japan, and later to Honolulu and San Francisco. He was soon active the world over in organizing and educating Chinese abroad for his Kao Lao Hwei, or reform associations, and in raising and sending money to his agents in China, particularly General Hwang-hsing, for the coming Revolution. He was in constant danger of his life at this time because of the hostility of the Manchu government, and a reward of $50,000 was offered for his death. Finally the Revolution broke out in China in the fall of 1911, and was successful mainly because of the work of Dr. Sun in the years of preparation. He received his reward in his election as Provisional President of the Chinese Republic by the Assembly at Nanking. On Feb. 15, 1912, Dr. Sun resigned as President in favor of Yuan Shih-kai (q.v.), so as to induce the latter and his north China adherents to join the Republican cause. For this act Sun received a remarkable tribute from the Nanking Assembly. Difficulties in the new Republic soon arose from the opposition of the Kuomingtang (the south China party of Sun and Hwang-hsing) in the Parliament at Peking to the policy of President Yuan Shih-kai. Yuan finally expelled these members and later dismissed the entire Parliament. Dr. Sun retired to Japan, but it was believed that his continued active opposition to Yuan Shih-kai was shown in the rebellion of July, 1913, and in the revolt of the southern provinces in 1915-16. Consult: E. N. Bland, Recent Events and Present Policies in China (Philadelphia, 1912); Cantlie and Jones, Sun Yat-Sen and the Awakening of China (3d ed., New York, 1913); J. S. Thomson, China Revolutionized (Indianapolis, 1913). See China, Modern History.