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
Sun Yat-sen (in his teachings) completely includes the true ideas
of China as they recur again and again from Yao and Shun,
Confucius and Mencius. It will be clear to us, therefore, that Sun
Yat-sen is the renewal of Chinese moral culture, unbroken for two
thousand years ... we can see that Sun Yat-sen was convinced of
the truth of his own words, and at the same time we can also
recognize that his national revolution was based upon the
re-awakening of Chinese culture. He wanted to call the creative
power of China to life again, and to make the value of Chinese
culture useful to the whole world, and in that way to realize
cosmopolitanism.(89)
Accordingly, Sun Yat-sen’s doctrines may not only be regarded as having
been based upon the tacit premises of the Chinese intellectual milieu, but
as having been incorporated in them as supports. Sun Yat-sen’s theories
were, therefore, consciously as well as unconsciously Chinese.
Sun Yat-sen was proud of the accomplishment of the Chinese in physical and
applied knowledge. He praised Chinese craftsmanship and skill, and
extolled the talents of the people which had invented the mariner’s
compass, printing, porcelain, gunpowder, tea, silks, arches, and
suspension bridges.(90) He urged the revival of the talents of the
Chinese, and the return of material development. This teaching, in
conjunction with his advocacy of Western knowledge, leads to another
suggestive point.
Sun Yat-sen pointed out that _wealth_ was to the modern Chinese what
_liberty_ was to the Europeans of the eighteenth century—the supreme
condition of further progress.(91) The way to progress and wealth was
through social reorganization, and through the use of the capacities of
the people. It may be inferred, although it cannot be stated positively,
that Sun Yat-sen measured wealth not merely in metals or commodities, but
in the productive capacities of the country, which, as they depend upon
the labor skill of the workers, are in the last analysis cultural and
psychological rather than exclusively physical in nature.(92)
China, following the ancient morality, conscious of its intellectual and
social heritage, and of its latent practical talents, needed only one more
lesson to learn: the need of Western science.
Western Physical Science in the New Ideology.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account