Just returned from a short trip to the native village of our nation's father, Dr. Sun Yat Yen (12.11.1866-12.03.1925) in Tsui Heng Chuen, Heung Shan, 香山，翠享村. He got a rather long list of aliases: originally called Sun Wen ( 孫文) alias Tak Ming ( 德明), aka Joy Chi (載之) aka Yat Sen (逸仙) . His infant name is Tai Cheung (帝象) (image of a king?) . He later altered his name to Chung Shan Log (中山樵) whilst an exile in Japan and has since been popularly known by that name.
He got traditional Chinese education from a private school at 9, went to Hawaii at 12 with help from his elder brother, studied at an Anglican school, graduated at 16 and then went to another Anglican high school but 2 years later, his brother cut off his financial support because he was always persuading the workers not to worship Kwan Kung (關公) and sent him home but he went on to destroy an effigy of Kwan Kung at the village with his friend and was then forced to leave. He came to Hong Kong, studied first at Diocesan's Boys School after being baptized as a Christian, then at King's College. At 18, he married Lo Mo Ching upon his father's order but when his elder brother learned of his baptism, he cut off all financial aid and got him back to Hawaii but Sun escaped with the help of his Protestant friends and got enrolled for a course in western medicine at Yan Chai Hospital in Canton and at 21, he entered the The Hong Kong Medical School (the predecessor of what later became the present HKU, established only in 1911 when it merged with the HK Technical School). He graduated as one of the two students there in 1892 after which he practised medicine in Hong Kong and Macau and thought a great deal about starting a revolution in China, In 1984, he petitioned to Li Hung Cheung for reform but was rejected. He was greatly disappointed. He then went to Hawaii to start the Revive China Society (興中會) in Maui,Hawaii to advocate "driving out the Tartars, revive China, establish a republic and divide the land equally" and came to Hong Kong and on 21st February 1895, he established his headquarters at No. 13 Stanley Street,Central under the deceptive title of Kin Hang Hong (乾亨行) and there, he organized a number of abortive revolutions. The first one was on March 16, 1895 in Canton. It failed. He was then put on the wanted list by the Tsing Government. Under pressure, the British Government forbade him to enter Hong Kong for five years. He then went to Japan and continued to foment revolt and revolution but did not succeed until 1911. In the meantime, in 1905, with the assistance of the Japanese government, he merged a number of similarly minded revolutionary organizations to establish the Chinese Revolutionary Alliance (同盟會) in Tokyo with the avowed aims of "rule by law, by constitution and by the military" and advocated the "The three People's Principles/Doctrine" (三民主義) (government of the People (nationalism/populism), by the People (democracy), for the People (welfare of the people) and continued his revolutionary activities. In 1907, because of pressure from the Tsing Government, he had to leave Japan. He went to Hanoi,then under French rule and started another revolution in Chiu Chow in May, the same year, then another one in July in Chun Nam Kwan, It failed again. Then he was driven out of Hanoi and went to Malaya and Singapore where he established the new headquarters of the Chinese Revolutionary Alliance which later changed its headquarters to Penang. I remember being told by my father that there my grandfather, a wealthy insurance broker and owner of a Chinese herbalist shop, donated almost his entire life's savings to Dr. Sen for the revolution. With the money, another revolutionary martyr Wang Hing (黃興) led an army from Anam (安南) to Yen Chow in March 1908 in the 7th abortive revolution . This was followed by another revolution at Ho Hau, Yunnan in April the same year and in February 1910 the 9th one at Canton, a 10th one in April 1910 at Wong Fa Kong where 72 died. On the 10th October, 1911, the revolution at Wuchang, Szechuan succeeded but at that time, Dr. Sen was still working as a restaurant worker in Denver, Colorado! On 24th November, 1911, he left Marseilles for China, after stopping in Penang, Singapore, Hong Kong and landed in Shanghai and in December of the same year, he was elected the first provisional President of the Republic of China.
It is now a hundred years since Sun was born. Had he not lived, it is
possible that we might still be living under some form of Tsing rule.
What prompted him to become a revolutionary. That may be a topic for
historians. But for the people of his native village,everything began
with Sun's fascination with the tales of adventures and heroism told to him as one of
the village kids by an old soldier who returned from the failed Taiping
Rebellion (太平天國) (which started in 1865) under a village tree. There is
now a Memorial Hall, a model traditional village and a restored house
which Dr. Sen's father, a tenant farmer, rented from the local landlord
where they used to live.
This is what it looks like. There is one in Hong Kong too. It's No. 7 Castle Road, Hong Kong. It's is now turned into one of the four history museums of Hong Kong. There are also similar museums in Taipei, Nanjing and Macau. As it was a group tour and we were only given about half an hour, I chose to visit instead the model Hakka village which was formed by the neighboring residences around Sun's rented house,
This is an external view of his former residence.
He got traditional Chinese education from a private school at 9, went to Hawaii at 12 with help from his elder brother, studied at an Anglican school, graduated at 16 and then went to another Anglican high school but 2 years later, his brother cut off his financial support because he was always persuading the workers not to worship Kwan Kung (關公) and sent him home but he went on to destroy an effigy of Kwan Kung at the village with his friend and was then forced to leave. He came to Hong Kong, studied first at Diocesan's Boys School after being baptized as a Christian, then at King's College. At 18, he married Lo Mo Ching upon his father's order but when his elder brother learned of his baptism, he cut off all financial aid and got him back to Hawaii but Sun escaped with the help of his Protestant friends and got enrolled for a course in western medicine at Yan Chai Hospital in Canton and at 21, he entered the The Hong Kong Medical School (the predecessor of what later became the present HKU, established only in 1911 when it merged with the HK Technical School). He graduated as one of the two students there in 1892 after which he practised medicine in Hong Kong and Macau and thought a great deal about starting a revolution in China, In 1984, he petitioned to Li Hung Cheung for reform but was rejected. He was greatly disappointed. He then went to Hawaii to start the Revive China Society (興中會) in Maui,Hawaii to advocate "driving out the Tartars, revive China, establish a republic and divide the land equally" and came to Hong Kong and on 21st February 1895, he established his headquarters at No. 13 Stanley Street,Central under the deceptive title of Kin Hang Hong (乾亨行) and there, he organized a number of abortive revolutions. The first one was on March 16, 1895 in Canton. It failed. He was then put on the wanted list by the Tsing Government. Under pressure, the British Government forbade him to enter Hong Kong for five years. He then went to Japan and continued to foment revolt and revolution but did not succeed until 1911. In the meantime, in 1905, with the assistance of the Japanese government, he merged a number of similarly minded revolutionary organizations to establish the Chinese Revolutionary Alliance (同盟會) in Tokyo with the avowed aims of "rule by law, by constitution and by the military" and advocated the "The three People's Principles/Doctrine" (三民主義) (government of the People (nationalism/populism), by the People (democracy), for the People (welfare of the people) and continued his revolutionary activities. In 1907, because of pressure from the Tsing Government, he had to leave Japan. He went to Hanoi,then under French rule and started another revolution in Chiu Chow in May, the same year, then another one in July in Chun Nam Kwan, It failed again. Then he was driven out of Hanoi and went to Malaya and Singapore where he established the new headquarters of the Chinese Revolutionary Alliance which later changed its headquarters to Penang. I remember being told by my father that there my grandfather, a wealthy insurance broker and owner of a Chinese herbalist shop, donated almost his entire life's savings to Dr. Sen for the revolution. With the money, another revolutionary martyr Wang Hing (黃興) led an army from Anam (安南) to Yen Chow in March 1908 in the 7th abortive revolution . This was followed by another revolution at Ho Hau, Yunnan in April the same year and in February 1910 the 9th one at Canton, a 10th one in April 1910 at Wong Fa Kong where 72 died. On the 10th October, 1911, the revolution at Wuchang, Szechuan succeeded but at that time, Dr. Sen was still working as a restaurant worker in Denver, Colorado! On 24th November, 1911, he left Marseilles for China, after stopping in Penang, Singapore, Hong Kong and landed in Shanghai and in December of the same year, he was elected the first provisional President of the Republic of China.
It is now a hundred years since Sun was born. Had he not lived, it is
possible that we might still be living under some form of Tsing rule.
What prompted him to become a revolutionary. That may be a topic for
historians. But for the people of his native village,everything began
with Sun's fascination with the tales of adventures and heroism told to him as one of
the village kids by an old soldier who returned from the failed Taiping
Rebellion (太平天國) (which started in 1865) under a village tree. There is
now a Memorial Hall, a model traditional village and a restored house
which Dr. Sen's father, a tenant farmer, rented from the local landlord
where they used to live.
This is what it looks like. There is one in Hong Kong too. It's No. 7 Castle Road, Hong Kong. It's is now turned into one of the four history museums of Hong Kong. There are also similar museums in Taipei, Nanjing and Macau. As it was a group tour and we were only given about half an hour, I chose to visit instead the model Hakka village which was formed by the neighboring residences around Sun's rented house,
This is an external view of his former residence.
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回覆刪除[版主回覆11/29/2011 23:09:00]Thanks for visiting
Thank you for the detailed write-up. One hundred years have gone passed and China is no longer the "sickman of East Asia".
回覆刪除[版主回覆11/30/2011 10:31:22]We're no longer physically sick because very few consume drugs as a socially acceptable practice now. We may be strong economically but we've still got a long way to go to re-establish basic human decency.