Some people are born to redirect the flow of
history. The father of modern China, Sun Yat Sen had been such
a rare found colossus with unparallel genius and love for
work.
Born in a farmer's family in the Shiang province of China, Sun
did his schooling in Honolulu. Later he converted into
Christianity and was influenced by the ideals of democracy. He
joined a rebel party when he was a student at the medical
college in Honolulu.
Back home he founded Shing chung-hui, an organization to bring
renaissance in China.
He had to flee to Japan for his anti-establishment activities.
He, however, continued his operations from Japan. He called for
making China a modern, democratic nation by ousting the
ongoing Manchu rule. The Manchu government, he believed, was
responsible for the downfall of China.
Inspired by his ideals even the Chinese national army rebelled
against the Manchu rule. Soon it spread across the whole
nation. Expectedly the revolution resulted in bringing an end
to the the Manchu rule. And in 1911 the republic of China came
into being with Dr. Sun as its president.
He worked hard to uplift the Chinese nation. He
introduced three doctrines to unite the nationalists of China.
The doctrines are: People's nationalism, Peoples' Democracy,
and Peoples' Livelihood. The first one called for tuning China
into a sovereign republic. The second one was inspired by the
goal of ensuring equal rights for all under a new constitution.
Though Dr. Sun believed Peoples' Livelihood would be ensured
through bringing social reforms. He was in favor of bringing
certain sectors of industry under national ownership as against
the private ownership.
But all were not loyal to the republican rule under Dr Sun.
When a civil war broke out due to some over ambitious army
generals, he resigned as the president.
Sun Yat Sen was in power for a brief period. But within this
time, he brought in a democratic renaissance that modernized
the Chinese nation with long term effect. It was under his
leadership the people of China woke up after a long period of
slumber being under the regime of medieval darkness and
superstition. Indeed, Dr. Sun Yat sen is rightly called the
father of modern China. The people of China revere him as
such.
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