China honors birthday of revolutionary leader China Sun Yat-sen

Chinese Culture

Nov. 12 is the 150th birthday of Sun Yat-sen, one of the most important political figures in the history of modern China.

CCTV’s Xing Zheming reports.

The great forerunner of the Chinese democratic revolution rests in Nanjing, China, where thousands visitors travel to his mausoleum.

Sun Yat-sen is regarded as an outstanding patriot and national hero.

He led the Revolution of 1911 which overthrew the Qing Dynasty, and put an end to over 2,000 years of feudal monarchy in China.

He was appointed to serve as Provisional President of the Republic of China when it was founded in 1912. But he quickly resigned due to pressure from warlords.

He continued his fight to push forward the revolution and founded the Kuomintang, or the “Chinese Nationalist Party”, serving as its first leader.

He brokered a fragile alliance between the Communist Party of China and the Kuomintang in the 1920s, and the two parties worked together in the Northern Expedition against the warlords in an effort to unify the country.

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At the gate of the main memorial hall, there is an engraving of Sun’s major political philosophy: “Nationalism”, “Democracy” and the “People’s livelihood”. He advocated for revitalizing the Chinese nation, separating power from function, and bringing about “the Great Harmony”.

Sun also kept an eye on events outside China, such as the October Revolution in Russia and spread of Marxism.

Within China, he realized the significance of the May Fourth Movement in 1919 and the foundation of the Communist Party of China, which he believed would advance China’s democratic revolution. He then adopted major policies of “Allying with Russia and the CPC”, and “supporting peasants and workers”.

He was buried, according to his wishes, in the Purple Golden Mountain in Nanjing, the city where the provisional government was founded after the 1911 Revolution.

The deep historical significance, magnificent architecture and beautiful scenery make Sun Yat-sen’s Mausoleum a place of pilgrimage for Chinese people.

One notable visit was in 2005, when Taiwan’s Kuomintang chief Lien Chan paid tribute to the first leader of his party. That visit was the first by an incumbent Kuomintang chief in 56 years. On October 30m 2016, the current leader of the Kuomintang Party, Hung Hsiu-chu, visited the Mausoleum as the first stop of her first visit to the mainland as party chief.

Her party has been removed from power in Taiwan, but she says exchanges cannot stop between the two sides.

Sun died at an early age. He was just 58 years old when he succumbed to liver cancer on March 12, 1925. Both the Kuomintang and the Communist Party honor his memory.