Sun Yat-sen

Sun Zhongshan (1866–1925), better known in the west as Sun Yat-sen, was one of the many Chinese inspired by the revolutions in Europe. He led the Guomindang (Kuomintang or Nationalist Party) to victory and became the first leader of the new Republic of China. Sun was born near Guangzhou into a farmland owning family. He attended an Anglican boys school in Honolulu. There he came under Western influence and particularly that of Christianity. He later received a diploma from a Hong Kong medical school and began to practice medicine in Hong Kong. After this all his activities were focused on overthrowing the Qing dynasty and establishing a Chinese republic. Sun fled China in 1895 after an abortive revolt. He toured the world a few times to enlist aid from overseas to finance his activities. In 1905 Sun organized a revolutionary league. His political conceptions were based on the three people’s principles: nationalism, democracy, and the people’s livelihood. A revolution erupted in China and Sun was elected president of the new Chinese republic but two months later he resigned, leaving power to Yuan Shikai. After Sun died, Jiang Jieshi emerged as leader of the of the Guomindang.