Sun Yatsen Seeking a Newer China (Library of World Biography Series)

by Gordon, David B.

• ISBN13: 9780321333063
• ISBN10: 0321333063
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-06-18
• Publisher: Pearson

Summary

This biography introduces readers to the life and times of Sun Yatsen (1866-1925), a Chinese revolutionary whose popularity stretches across Greater China and into the 21st century. Concise and incisive, each interpretive biography in the Library of World Biography Series focuses on a person whose actions and ideas either significantly influenced world events or whose life reflects important themes and developments in global history. Sun Yatsen (1866-1925) was ceaselessly dynamic, leading a movement among Chinese to overthrow the last traditional dynasty of Chinars"s history and replace it with a modern-style republic. When this republic became a reality, he briefly served as its president, afterward continuing the influence his country for decades to come through the political party he created, the controversial foreign assistance he accepted, and the many writings he left behind. China is today rapidly transforming itself into the international powerhouse that Sun envisioned. In this respect, Sunrs"s life story-occurring as it did on the dividing line between traditional dynastic rule and the search for what would replace it-enables us to understand a broad swath of Chinars"s road to contemporary prominence.

Table of Contents

Editor's Preface	p. ix
Author's Preface	p. xi
A Note on Chinese Spellings	p. xv
Acknowledgments	p. xvii
High and Dry	p. 1
The Rome of the East	p. 3
The Confucian Heritage	p. 4
Manchu Rule	p. 4
The Frightening Nineteenth Century	p. 5
A Marginal Youth	p. 8
Growing Up Marginal	p. 8
Sun Becomes a Doctor	p. 12
The Failure of Self-Strengthening	p. 13
Sun and China at the Crossroads	p. 15
The Sino-Japanese War	p. 16
Reviving China by Force	p. 17
Kidnapped in London	p. 20
Kidnapped at the Chinese Legation	p. 21
Effects of the Kidnapping	p. 23
The New Imperialism Comes to China	p. 25
The Hundred Days of Reform	p. 27
Sun in Meiji Japan	p. 28
The Japanese Model	p. 29
Sun Meets Miyazaki	p. 30
The Huizhou Uprising	p. 33
Sun's Japan Connection	p. 34
Creating the Revolutionary Alliance	p. 36
Chinese Students in Tokyo	p. 36
The New Climate of Opinion	p. 37
The Russo-Japanese War	p. 40
The Birth of the Revolutionary Alliance	p. 40
Planning China's Future	p. 43
The Principle of Nationalism	p. 44
The Principle of Democracy	p. 46
The Principle of People's Livelihood	p. 48
The Principles in Historical Perspective	p. 50
In Pursuit of Revolution	p. 52
Revolutionaries versus Reformists	p. 53
The French Connection	p. 55
Qing Efforts at Reform	p. 57
Sun Yatsen's Second Wind	p. 58
The News in Denver	p. 61
Running Off the Track	p. 62
Where Was Sun?	p. 64
Sun as Provisional President	p. 66
The Revolution in Hindsight	p. 68
The Dream Goes Awry	p. 69
Sun and Railways	p. 70
Yuan Shikai Becomes a Dictator	p. 72
Sun's Opportunism, Yuan's Fall	p. 74
The Turn to Warlordism	p. 76
Interlude: Sun's Marriages	p. 78
Sun's Relationships Before the Revolution	p. 79
Sun and Soong Qingling	p. 81
The South Secedes	p. 86
World War I, China, and Sun	p. 86
Sun and the May Fourth Movement	p. 89
Sun's Writings at the Rue Moli&egarve;re	p. 92
The South Gains Soviet Help	p. 95
Sun's Second Guangzhou Government	p. 96
The Russian Connection	p. 98
The "United Front" Alliance	p. 101
Sun's Underlying Impatience	p. 105
Sun's Death and Beatification	p. 107
Sun's Beatification, Pre-1949	p. 110
Sun's Beatification, Post-1949	p. 113
Sun as Nationalistic Dreamer	p. 116
Study Questions	p. 118
Chronology	p. 121
Glossary	p. 124
A Note on the Sources	p. 131
Index	p. 141
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