Sun Yat-sen First President of The Republic of China

Sun Yat-sen

Sun Yat-sen (1844-1925) began life as the son of poor farmers, yet became the father of' modern China. A younger son, he was brought to Hawaii by an older brother who had immigrated there as a laborer. Sun studied at a missionary school and ultimately earned a medical degree in Hong Kong. His years in the west induced in him dissatisfaction with the government of China and he began his political career by attempting to organize reform groups of Chinese exiles in Hong Kong. In l895 a coup he plotted failed, and for the next 16 years Sun was an exile in Europe, the United States and Japan. In Japan he joined dissident Chinese groups and soon became their leader. He was expelled from Japan and was in America when he learned of the successful rebellion against the Qing emperor. Sun immediately returned to China, headed the revolutionary movement for a time, and then went back into exile until 1923, when he finally emerged as president of China. He died two years later, having founded the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party). Fundamentals of National Reconstruction are Sun Yat-sen's most important political statement. It enunciates his famous three principles whereby he set China on the road to modernity.