204 The author cannot give a documentary citation for this observation. It was communicated to him many times by his father, Judge Paul Linebarger, who stated that Sun Yat-sen was most apt to talk in terms of morality and morale by preference. The fact that Sun Yat-sen came from a Chinese Confucian background into a Western Christian one cannot be ignored. He did not permit his Christianity to sway him from what he considered his necessary lines of behavior in politics; it did not, for example, prevent him from being extremely cordial to the Soviet Union at the time that that state was still more or less outcaste. And yet, speaking of the Christian God, he is reputably reported to have said: “God sent me to China to free her from bondage and oppression, and I have not been disobedient to the Heavenly mission”; and, again, to have said on the day before his death: “I am a Christian; God sent me to fight evil for my people. Jesus was a revolutionist; so am I.” (Both quotations from appendix to the d’Elia translation, p. 718.) 205 Sun Yat-sen authorized the biography, cited, which Judge Linebarger wrote of him. It was a propaganda work, and neither he nor the author had any particular expectation that it would ever be regarded as a source, or as an academically prepared document. The last chapter of this authorized biography bears the title, “Conclusion: Sun the Moral Force.” This, perhaps, is significant as to Sun’s own attitude. 206 Note the contrast between the thought of Sun in this respect and that of Tagore or Gandhi. This has been pointed out by many Western writers on China. 207 Linebarger, _Conversations_, cited, Book III, p. 20. 208 Sharman, cited, p. 282.