Sun Yat-sen Three Principles Pdf

[Toney Talbot]

TheThree Principles of the People (Chinese: 三民主義; pinyin: Sānmn Zhǔy; also translated as the Three People's Principles, San-min Doctrine, or Tridemism[1]) is a political philosophy developed by Sun Yat-sen as part of a philosophy to improve China made during the Republican Era. The three principles are often translated into and summarized as nationalism, democracy, and the livelihood of the people (or welfarism). This philosophy has been claimed as the cornerstone of the nation's policy as carried by the Kuomintang; the principles also appear in the first line of the national anthem of the Republic of China.

In 1894 when the Revive China Society was formed, Sun only had two principles: nationalism and democracy. He picked up the third idea, welfare, during his three-year trip to Europe from 1896 to 1898.[2] He announced all three ideas in the spring of 1905, during another trip to Europe. Sun made the first speech of his life on the "Three Principles of the People" in Brussels.[3] He was able to organize the Revive China Society in many European cities. There were about 30 members in the Brussels branch at the time, 20 in Berlin, and 10 in Paris.[3] After the Tongmenghui was formed, Sun published an editorial in Min Bao (民報).[2] This was the first time the ideas were expressed in writing. Later on, in the anniversary issue of Min Bao, his long speech of the Three Principles was printed, and the editors of the newspaper discussed the issue of people's livelihood.[2]

The ideology is said to be heavily influenced by Sun's experiences in the United States and contains elements of the American progressive movement and the thought championed by Abraham Lincoln. Sun credited a line from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, "government of the people, by the people, for the people", as an inspiration for the Three Principles.[3] Dr. Sun's Three Principles of the People are inter-connected as the guideline for China's modernization development as stretched by Hu Hanmin.[4]

Because "Mnz" or "People" describes a nation rather than a group of persons united by a purpose, the 'Principle of Mnz' (Chinese: 民族主義; pinyin: Mnz Zhǔy) is commonly rendered as "nationalism".

Sun saw the Chinese Nation as under threat of annihilation by the imperialist powers.[5] To reverse the trajectory of such decline, China needed to become nationally independent both externally and internally.

Internally, national independence meant independence from the Qing Manchus who ruled China for centuries.[6] Sun thought that the Han Chinese people were a people without their own nation and thus strove for national revolution against Qing authorities.[6][7]

Externally, national independence meant independence from imperialist foreign powers. Sun believed China to be threatened by imperialism in three ways: by economic oppression, by political aggression, and by slow population growth.[8] Economically, Sun held the mercantilist position that China was being economically exploited by unbalanced trade and tariffs.[8] Politically, he looked toward the unequal treaties signed by China as the reason of China's decline. Sun envisioned a future China that was strong and capable of fighting imperialists and standing on the same stage as western powers.[7]

The Three Principles of the People were partly related to cultural conservatism (文化保守主義) to defend the virtues of Chinese culture against Western imperialism, while embracing some of the modern elements. Sun Yat-sen defended socialism but distanced himself from dogmatic Marxism, who criticized young people's obsession with Western-style Marxism and saw that similar ideas could be found in Chinese classics. Also, Sun embraced modernism, but at the same time highlighted a positive part of Chinese tradition.

The power of politics (Chinese: 政權; pinyin: zhngqun) are the powers of the people to express their political wishes and keep administrative officers in check, similar to those vested in the citizenry or the parliaments in other countries, and is represented by the National Assembly. The power of the people is guaranteed by four constitutional rights: the right to election (選舉), recalling (罷免), initiative (創制), and referendum (複決).[10] These may be equated to "civil rights".

The power of governance (Chinese: 治權; pinyin: zhqun) are the powers of the administration to govern the people. He criticized the traditional three-branch democratic government for vesting too much power in the legislative branch.[6] He expanded and reworked the European-American three-branch government and the system of checks and balances by incorporating traditional Chinese administrative systems to create a government of five branches (each of which is called a Yuan (Chinese: 院; pinyin: yun; lit. 'court')) in a system known as the Five Power Constitution.[11] The state is divided into five "Yuan"s: Legislative Yuan, the Executive Yuan, and the Judicial Yuan came from Montesquieuan thought; the Control Yuan and the Examination Yuan came from Chinese tradition.[7] (Note that the Legislative Yuan was first intended as a branch of governance, not strictly equivalent to a national parliament.)

The Principle of Mnshēng (Chinese: 民生主義; pinyin: Mnshēng Zhǔy; lit. 'Principle of people's welfare/livelihood') is sometimes translated as "[Principle of] Government for the People" or "Socialism". The concept may be understood as social welfare and as a direct criticism of the inadequacies of unregulated capitalism. He divided livelihood into four areas: clothing, food, housing, and mobility; and planned out how an ideal (Chinese) government can take care of these for its people.

Sun was influenced by the American thinker Henry George and intended to introduce a Georgist tax reform.[12][13] The land value tax in Taiwan is a legacy thereof. Sun said that "[land value tax] as the only means of supporting the government is an infinitely just, reasonable, and equitably distributed tax, and on it we will found our new system."[14]

Sun proposed a land reform system known as "equalization of land rights", which involves the implementation of four different acts: regulation of land price, in which each landowner reports the value of their property sans improvement; taxation of land, which involves a land value tax set on all land properties; purchase of land, which sets up a system where government can purchase land for public use by eminent domain; and profit belongs to the public, in which a 100% tax is levied on all profit gained from trading of land (sans improvement). According to Sun, the existence of land purchase and land taxation guarantees that landowner wouldn't over-report (which would lead to high taxation on land) nor under-report (which would lead to their land being cheaply acquired for eminent domain) their land values.[15]

Sun died before he was able to fully explain his vision of this Principle and it has been the subject of much debate within both the Chinese Nationalist and Communist Parties, with the latter suggesting that Sun supported socialism. Chiang Kai-shek further elaborated the Mnshēng principle of both the importance of social well-being and recreational activities for a modernized China in 1953 in Taiwan.[16]

The most definite (canonical) exposition of these principles was a book compiled from notes of speeches that Sun gave near Guangzhou (taken by a colleague, Huang Changgu, in consultation with Sun), and therefore is open to interpretation by various parties and interest groups (see below) and may not have been as fully explicated as Sun might have wished. Indeed, Chiang Kai-shek supplied an annex to the Principle of Mnshēng, covering two additional areas of livelihood: education, land, and leisure, and explicitly arguing that Mnshēng was not to be seen as supporting either communism or socialism.The French historian of Chinese history, Marie-Claire Bergre's view is that the book is a work of propaganda. Its purpose is to appeal to action rather than to thought. As Sun Yat-sen declared, a principle is not simply an idea; it is "a faith, a power."[17]

There were several higher-education institutes (university departments/faculties and graduate institutes) in Taiwan that used to devote themselves to the 'research and development' of the Three Principles in this aspect. Since the late 1990s, these institutes have re-oriented themselves so that other political theories are also admitted as worthy of consideration, and have changed their names to be more ideologically neutral (such as Democratic Studies Institute).

In addition to this institutional phenomenon, many streets and businesses in Taiwan are named "Sān-mn" or for one of the three principles. In contrast to other politically derived street names, there has been no major renaming of these streets or institutions in the 1990s.

Although the term "Sanmin Zhuyi" (三民主義) has been less explicitly invoked since the mid-1980s, no political party has explicitly attacked its principles with practices under the Martial Law ruling era then except the Tangwai movement groups such as Democratic Progressive Party. The Three Principles of the People remains explicitly part of the platform of the Kuomintang and in the Constitution of the Republic of China.

As for Taiwan independence supporters, some have objections regarding the formal constitutional commitment to a particular set of political principles. Also, they have been against the mandatory indoctrination in schools and universities, which have now been abolished in a piecemeal fashion beginning in the late 1990s. However, there is little fundamental hostility to the substantive principles themselves. In these circles, attitudes toward the Three Principles of the People span the spectrum from indifference to reinterpreting the Three Principles of the People in a local Taiwanese context rather than in a pan-Chinese one.

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