Sun Yat-sen: A Patriot with Unfulfilled Ambitions

Author: (American) Clarence M. Wilbur, translated by Yang Shenzhi
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-08-01
Features: "Sun Yat-sen, the 'Father of the Nation,' is a controversial figure both in history and in the historical academia. During his lifetime, some people hated him with a vengeance, others mocked and scorned him, while others revered him. After his death, the 'deification' movement of the leader further complicated the evaluation of Sun Yat-sen. Wilbur believed that Sun Yat-sen's imagination and his ambition to transform China greatly exceeded the specific reality of the society he lived in and the forces he could concentrate. The contradiction between his subjective desires and the objective circumstances that repeatedly frustrated him gave rise to questions about the construction of a person's personality, and such personality drove Sun Yat-sen to pursue an unattainable goal. Sun Yat-sen was a transitional figure. He reflected the great transformation from the declining feudal empire tradition to the industrialized, nationalistic society of modern China. In this transformation, he played a political role, helping to bring about a democratic republic and preventing the restoration of monarchy. However, from a historical perspective, he was merely one of the many figures swept away in the same tide.
Author Bio: Clarence M. Wilbur (1908-1997) was a renowned scholar in the study of modern Chinese history. He held a long-term position at Columbia University in the United States and served as the director of the Institute of East Asian Studies at the same university. He also authored works such as Village Government in China (1934), Slavery in China during the Former Han Dynasty (1943), The Nationalist Revolution in China, 1923-1928 (1984), and China in My Life: An Historian's Own History (1996). Together with Julie Lien-ying How, he compiled Documents on Communism, Nationalism, and Soviet Advisers in China, 1918-1927: Papers Seized in the 1927 Peking Raid (1956).