The Political Doctrines of Sun Yat-sen: An Exposition of the San Min Chu ILinebarger, Paul Myron Anthony
History
The Political Doctrines of Sun Yat-sen: An Exposition of the San Min Chu I
Linebarger, Paul Myron Anthony
Sun, Yat-sen, 1866-1925. San min zhu yi
Since Fascism seeks to reëstablish order and certainty, as does Communism
(although an order and certainty of a different kind), by the extension of
state activities; and since Sun Yat-sen proposed to improve the political
position of China by developing a modern state (of narrow, but intense
activities in contrast to the loose general controls of the old society),
the drift in China may be regarded, in this respect, as Fascism in
reverse. Beginning with the same premises—the regeneration of the
nation—Mussolini was led to a course of policy diametrically opposite to
that plotted by Sun Yat-sen.
Even, however, with his plans for developing a “machine state” in a
society where states had long since perished, Sun Yat-sen did not propose
to destroy Chinese morality and non-political discipline for the sake of
instituting a sharp juristic law-and-order organization. He was anxious
that the old Chinese morality and social knowledge be applied. In this, he
differed from most of the other modern leaders of China, who were for
veneering China with a Parliament and police without delay. Sun Yat-sen
realized that a state was necessary in China, and hoped to establish one;
he also hoped that, beyond the limits of the new state activity,
individualism and disorder would not come to prevail, but that the old
controls would continue to operate.
Accordingly, Sun Yat-sen’s thought cannot be studied as a mere offshoot of
recent Western thought. It must be realized that he proposed two ends
which, of all the countries of the world, would be mutually compatible
only in China: the development of a state, and the full continuation of
non-political controls.(54)
In fostering the continuation of ideological control, Sun Yat-sen hoped to
modify the old ideology so that it would become applicable to the new
situations. As will be made clear later, he was redefining the old
world-view so that, without disturbing the consequences to which it would
lead, it might apply in a novel and unprecedentedly disturbed world. He
was, in short, switching the premises and trying to preserve the
conclusions, modifying the actual behavior of the Chinese only in so far
as it was necessary for the purpose of strengthening and invigorating the
whole body politic of China.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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