Sun Yat Sen and the Awakening of China

Sun Yat-sen (12 November 1866 12 March 1925) was a Chinese statesman, physician, and political philosopher, who served as the first provisional president of the Republic of China and the first leader of the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party of China). He is called the "Father of the Nation" in the Republic of China, and the "Forerunner of the Revolution" in the People's Republic of China for his instrumental role in the overthrow of the Qing dynasty during the Xinhai Revolution. Sun is unique among 20th-century Chinese leaders for being widely revered in both Mainland China and Taiwan.

Sun is considered to be one of the greatest leaders of modern China, but his political life was one of constant struggle and frequent exile. After the success of the revolution in 1911, he quickly resigned as president of the newly founded Republic of China and relinquished it to Yuan Shikai. He soon went to exile in Japan for safety but returned to found a revolutionary government in the South as a challenge to the warlords who controlled much of the nation.

"For twenty years Sun Yat Sen has devoted every day and almost every hour of his life to one single objectthe overthrow of the Manchu rule in China and the establishment of such representative Government as will insure the people elementary justice, freedom from the extortions of corrupt mandarins, a free press, and facilities for education. He has risked death and torture on innumerable occasions. He has travelled on foot throughout a large part of the four million square miles of China, and, under various disguises, he has penetrated to almost every nook of his native country and left representatives in almost every town, building up, with matchless skill and patience, an organization whose network has gradually spread over the whole of that vast Empire."-Introduction

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