Sun Yatsen

Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925), Chinese statesman.

In Sun Yat-sen's time, China had an Emperor who ruled as if he were a god.

Sun believed that the country needed to be organised in a new way and he planned a revolution.

In 1895, he led an uprising in Canton but it was defeated and Sun left China.

Afterwards he lived in Japan, the United States and Britain. In 1896, he was kidnapped and imprisoned in the Chinese Embassy in London. He managed to smuggle out a letter and British officials saw that he was set free.

In all, Sun organised ten unsuccessful uprisings in China. The eleventh, in 1911, succeeded, and the Emperor gave up the throne. China became a republic but a soldier, General Yuan Shih-kai, became President. He and Sun quarrelled and Sun again had to leave China.

In 1923, he returned and became President of South China where he died in 1925.

Three years later, one of his followers, Chiang Kai-Shek, became President of all China.

See Sun Yatsen: Seeking a Newer China (Library of World Biography Series) ~ David B. Gordon