The Early Evolution of Sun Yat-sen’s Political Thought

Sun Yat-sen was born on 12 November 1866 in the village of Ts’ui-heng (Choyhung) in the Hsiang-shan county of Kwangtung province. His father was a farmer who, because of the poor soil in his village and exorbitant taxes, had to supplement his earnings by labouring in nearby Macao. Sun had a traditional Chinese upbringing and is depicted in photographs of his youth wearing a skull cap, queue and a long gown. He had an early education in the classics. He learned about the Taiping Rebellion and its leader Hung Hsiu-ch’üan became his hero. When he was 13 Sun went to join his eldest brother, Sun Mei, who had become a successful businessman in Hawaii. There Sun received a Western education and learned English. 1 These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.