Sun Yat-sen, realizing the inescapable necessity of nationalism, did not immediately turn to democracy as a necessary instrument for its promotion. He hated the Manchus on the Dragon Throne—human symbols of China’s subjugation—but at first considered replacing them with a new Chinese dynasty. It was only after he had found the heirs of the Ming dynasty and the descendants of Confucius to be unworthy that he turned to republicanism and found democracy, with its many virtues.(114) He early became enamored of the elective system, as found in the United States, as the only means of obtaining the best governors.(115) In the final stage he had departed so far from his earlier way of thinking that he criticized Dr. Goodnow severely for recommending the re-introduction of a monarchy in China. Sun Yat-sen, as a good nationalist, made earnest efforts to associate his doctrines with those of the sages and to avoid appearing as a proponent of Western civilization. It is, consequently, not unusual to discover him citing Confucius and Mencius on _vox populi vox dei_, and saying, “The government of Yao and Shun was monarchical in name but democratic in practice, and for that reason Confucius honored these men.”(116) He considered that democracy was to the sages an “ideal that could not be immediately realized,”(117) and therefore implied that modern China, in realizing democracy, was attaining an ideal cherished by the past. Democracy, other things apart, was a filial duty. This argument, while persuasive in Chinese, can scarcely be considered Sun Yat-sen’s most important one in favor of democracy.