Was Sun Yat-sen a revolutionary?

Essay by banannaB-, April 2006

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In his own 'Three Principles of the People'; Sun Yat-sen claimed "Nothing short of a revolution would provide the remedy" to China's humiliation and backwardness. May Matossian believes that significant revolutions occur in response to historical, social and economic changes. The most challenging of these is when an industrially backward nation meets one more advanced and James Gregor and Maria Hsia Chang clarify this process as reactive nationalism. They depict Sun as Kuo fu, father of the country and to the Chinese he was a "symbol of the virtuous patriot". Someone, as Wilbur wrote, "deeply concerned about the fate of his country" to whom China formed an emotional connection. This essay will outline the common factors associated with Sun, for example his connections abroad and influence within China. It will also examine key historiography in the hope of reaching a valuable conclusion as to whether Sun Yat-sen was a revolutionary.

The 19th century saw the self-strengthening process taking place in China after the Taiping and Boxer rebellions. According to Gregor and Chang, Sun's major intention and greatest goal by far was to bring noticeable change to the psychology of China and to restore traditional loyalty within the nation. Professor Schiffrin believes that Sun's ultimate contribution to the revolution was his un-defeat able optimism. His air and assurance are characteristics that Scalapino also identifies as key to Sun's success as a revolutionary. He ascended to leader of the revolution because of his skill in dealing with foreign powers and his ability as a revolutionary organizer. This is the opinion of J. Kim Munholland in his article about the relationship between Indochina and China, but the last point in the claim is somewhat debatable. It is clear he had skill with foreigners but his rise to revolutionary leader may have more to...