Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925) was the leading intellectual figure
in the western-influenced nationalist movement which had overthrown the
Manchu dynasty in China in 1911. The lecture from which this extract is
taken was given in 1924.
The population of the world today is approximately a billion and a
half. One fourth of this number live in China, which means that one out
of every four persons in the world is a Chinese. The total population of
the white races of Europe also amounts to four hundred millions. The
white division of mankind, which is now the most flourishing, includes
four races: in central and northern Europe, the Teutons, who have
founded many states, the largest of which is Germany, others being
Austria, Sweden, Norway, Holland, and Denmark; in eastern Europe, the
Slavs, who also have founded a number of states, the largest being
Russia, and, after the European war, the new countries of Czechoslovakia
and Yugoslavia; in western Europe, the Saxons or Anglo-Saxons, who have
founded two large states England and the United States of America; in
southern Europe, the Latins, who have founded several states, the
largest being France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, and who have migrated
to South America forming states there just as the Anglo-Saxons migrated
to North America and built up Canada and the United States. The white
peoples of Europe, now numbering only four hundred million persons, are
divided into four great stocks which have estab-lished many states.
Because the national spirit of the white race was highly developed, when
they had filled up the European continent they expanded to North and
South America in the Western Hemisphere and to Africa and Australia in
the southern and eastern parts of the Eastern Hemisphere.
From San Min Chit I (The Three Principles of the People), by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, tr. F.W. Price, Shanghai, 1929, pp. 77-100.
The Anglo-Saxons at present occupy more space on the globe than any
other race. Although this race originated in Europe, the only European
soil it holds are the British Isles—England, Scotland and Ireland—which
occupy about the same position in the Atlantic that Japan occupies in
the Pacific. The Anglo-Saxons have extended their territory westward to
North America, eastward to Australia and New Zealand, and south-ward to
Africa until they possess more land and are wealthier and stronger than
any other race. Before the European war the Teutons and the Slavs were
the strongest races; moreover, by reason of the sagacity and ability of
the Teutonic peoples, Ger-many was able to unite more than twenty small
states into a great German confederation. At the beginning an
agricultural nation, it developed into an industrial nation and through
industrial prosperity its army and navy became exceedingly powerful.
Before the European war all the European nations had been poisoned by
imperialism. What is imperialism? It is the policy of aggression upon
other countries by means of political force, or, in the Chinese phrase,
"long-range aggression." As all the peoples of Europe were imbued with
this policy, wars were continually breaking out; almost every decade had
at least one small war and each century one big war. The greatest of
all was the recent European war, which may be called the World War
because it finally involved the whole world and pulled every nation and
people into its vortex. The causes of the European war were, first, the
rivalry between the Saxon and Teutonic races for control of the sea.
Germany in her rise to greatness had developed her navy until she was
the second sea power in the world; Great Britain wanted her own navy to
rule the seas 59 she tried to destroy Germany, whose sea power was next
to hers. From this struggle for first place on the sea came the war.
A second cause was each nation's struggle for more territory. In
eastern Europe there is a weak state called Turkey. For the past hundred
years the people of the world have called it the "sick man of Europe."
Because the government was unenlight-ened and the sultan was despotic,
it became extremely helpless and the European nations wanted to
partition it. Because the Turkish question had not been solved for a
century and every nation of Europe was trying to solve it, war resulted.
The first cause of the European war, then, was the struggle between
white races for supremacy; the second cause was the effort to solve
critical world problems. If Germany had won the war, she would have held
the supreme power on the sea after the war and Great Britain would have
lost all her territory, breaking into pieces like the old Roman Empire.
But the result of the war was defeat for Germany and the failure of her
imperialistic designs.
The recent European war was the most dreadful war in the history of
the world. Forty to fifty million men were under arms for a period of
four years, and near the end of the war they still could not be divided
into conquerors and vanquished. One side in the war was called the
Entente; the other side, the Allied Powers. The Allied Powers* at first
included Germany and Austria; Turkey and Bulgaria later joined them. The
Entente Powers** at first were Serbia, France, Russia, England, and
Ja-pan; Italy and the United States joined afterwards. The United
States' entry into the war was due entirely to racial considera-tions.
During the first two years of the war Germany and Austria were in the
ascendancy. Paris and the English Channel were almost captured by the
German and Austrian armies. The Teu-tons thought that Great Britain was
certainly done for, and the British themselves were thoroughly alarmed.
Seeing that the American people are of the same race as they, the
British used the plea of race relationship to stir up the people of the
United States. When America realized that England, of her own race, was
in danger of being destroyed by Germany, of an alien race, inevitably
"the creature sorrowed for its kind" and America threw in her lot with
England to defend the existence of the Anglo-Saxons. Moreover, fearing
that her own strength would be insufficient, America tried with all her
might to arouse all the neutral countries of the world to join in the
war to defeat Germany.
During the war there was a great phrase, used by President Wilson and
warmly received everywhere "self-determination of peoples." Because
Germany was striving by military force to crush the peoples of the
European Entente, Wilson proposed destroying Germany's power and giving
autonomy henceforth to the weaker and smaller peoples. His idea met a
world wel-come, and although the common people of India still opposed
Great Britain, their destroyer, yet many small peoples, when they heard
Wilson say that the war was for the freedom of the weak and small
peoples, gladly gave aid to Great Britain. Al-though Annam had been
subjugated by France and the common people hated the French tyranny, yet
during the war they still helped France to fight, also because they had
heard of Wilson's just proposition. And the reason why other small
peoples of Europe, such as Poland, Czechoslovakia and Romania, all
en-listed on the side of the Entente against the Allied Powers was
because of the self-determination principle enunciated by Presi-dent
Wilson. China, too, under the inspiration of the United States, entered
the war; although she sent no armies, yet she did contribute hundreds of
thousands of laborers to dig trenches and to work behind the lines. As a
result of the noble theme pro-pounded by the Entente all the oppressed
peoples of Europe and of Asia finally joined together to help them in
their struggle against the Allied Powers. At the same time, Wilson
proposed, to guard the future peace of the world, fourteen points, of
which the most important was that each people should have the right of
self-determination. When victory and defeat still hung in the balance,
England and France heartily endorsed these points, but when victory was
won and the Peace Conference was opened, England, France, and Italy
realized that Wilson's proposal of freedom for nations conflicted too
seriously with the interests of imperialism; and so, during the
conference, they used all kinds of methods to explain away Wilson's
principles. The result was a peace treaty with most unjust terms; the
weaker, smaller na-tions not only did not secure self-determination and
freedom but found themselves under an oppression more terrible than
before. This shows that the strong states and the powerful races have
already forced possession of the globe and that the rights and
privileges of other states and nations are monopolized by them. Hoping
to make themselves forever secure in their exclusive position and to
prevent the smaller and weaker peoples from again reviving, they sing
praises to cosmopolitanism, saying that nationalism is too narrow;
really their espousal of international-ism is but imperialism and
aggression in another guise.
But Wilson's proposals, once set forth, could not be recalled; each
one of the weaker, smaller nations who had helped the Entente to defeat
the Allied Powers and had hoped to attain freedom as a fruit of the
victory was doomed to bitter disappoint-ment by the results of the Peace
Conference. Then Annam, Burma, Java, India, the Malay Archipelago,
Turkey, Persia, Af-ghanistan, Egypt, and the scores of weak nations in
Europe were stirred with a great, new consciousness; they saw how
com-pletely they had been deceived by the Great Powers' advocacy of
self-determination and began independently and separately to carry out
the principle of the "self-determination of peoples." Many years of
fierce warfare had not been able to destroy imperialism because this was
a conflict of imperialisms between states, not a struggle between
savagery and civilization or be-tween Might and Right. So the effect of
the war was merely the overthrow of one imperialism by another
imperialism; what sur-vived was still imperialism. But from the war
there was uncon-sciously born in the heart of mankind a great hope the
Russian Revolution. The Russian Revolution had begun much earlier, as
far back as 1905, but had not accomplished its purpose. Now during the
European war the efforts of the revolutionists were crowned with
success. The reason for the outbreak of revolution again at this time
was the great awakening of the people as a result of their war
experience. Russia sent over ten million soldiers into the field—not a
puny force. Without Russia's part in the war, the Entente's line on the
western front would long before have been smashed by Germany; because
Russia was embarrassing the Germans on the eastern front, the Entente
Powers were able to break even with Germany for two or three years and
finally turn defeat into victory. Just halfway through the war, Russia
began to reflect, and she realized that in helping the Entente to fight
Germany she was merely helping several brute forces to fight one brute
force and that no good results would come of it in the end. A group of
soldiers and citizens awoke, broke away from the Entente, and concluded a
separate peace with Germany.
As far as their legitimate national interests were concerned, the
German and the Russian people had absolutely no cause for quarrel; but
when it came to imperialistic designs, they vied with each other in
aggressions until conflict was inevitable. Moreover, Germany went so far
beyond bounds that Russia, in self-protec-tion, could not but move in
accord with England, France, and the others. Later, when the Russian
people awoke and saw that imperialism was wrong, they started a
revolution within their own country, first overthrowing their own
imperialism; at the same time, to avoid foreign embarrassments, they
made peace with Germany. Before long, the Entente also signed a peace
with Germany and then all sent soldiers to fight Russia. Why? Be-cause
the Russian people had awakened to the fact that their daily sufferings
were due to imperialism and that to get rid of their sufferings they
must eliminate imperialism and embrace self-determination. Every other
nation opposed this policy and so mobilized to fight Russia, yet
Russia's proposal and Wilson's . were undesignedly similar; both
declared that the weaker, smaller nations had the right of
self-determination and freedom. When Russia proclaimed this principle,
the weaker, smaller peo-ples of the world gave their eager support to it
and all together began to seek self-determination. The calamitous war
through which Europe had passed brought, of course, no great
imperialis-tic gain, but, because of the Russian Revolution, a great
hope was born in the heart of mankind.
Of the billion and a half people in the world, the most powerful are
the four hundred million whites on the European and Ameri-can
continents; from this base the white races have started out to swallow
up other races. The American red aborigines are gone, the African blacks
will soon be exterminated, the brown race of India is in the process of
dissolution, the yellow races of Asia are now being subjected to the
white man's oppression and may, before long, be wiped out.
But the one hundred fifty million Russians, when their revolu-tion
succeeded, broke with the other white races and condemned the white
man's imperialistic behavior; now they are thinking of throwing in their
lot with the weaker, smaller peoples of Asia in a struggle against the
tyrannical races. So only two hundred fifty million of tyrannical races
are left, but they are still trying by inhuman methods and military
force to subjugate the other twelve hundred fifty million. So hereafter
mankind will be di-vided into two camps: on one side will be the twelve
hundred fifty million; on the other side, the two hundred fifty million.
Although the latter group are in the minority, yet they hold the most
powerful positions on the globe and their political and economic
strength is immense. With these two forces they are out to exploit the
weaker and smaller races. If the political arm of navies and armies is
not strong enough, they bear down with economic pressure. If their
economic arm is at times weak, they intervene with political force of
navies and armies. The way their political power cooperates with their
economic power is like the way in which the left arm helps the right
arm; with their two arms they have crushed most terribly the twelve
hundred fifty million. But "Heaven does not always follow man's
desires." The Slavic race of one hundred fifty million suddenly rose up
and struck a blow at imperialism and capitalism, warring for mankind
against inequality. In my last lecture I told of the Russian who said,
"The reason why the Powers have so defamed Lenin is because he dared to
assert that the twelve hundred fifty million majority in the world were
being oppressed by the two hundred fifty million minority." Lenin not
only said this, but also ad-vocated self-determination for the oppressed
peoples and launched a campaign for them against injustice. The powers
attacked Lenin because they wanted to destroy a prophet and a seer of
mankind and obtain security for themselves. But the people of the world
now have their eyes opened and know that the rumors created by the
powers are false; they will not let themselves be deceived again. The
political thinking of the peo-ples of the world has been enlightened to
this extent.
Now we want to revive China's lost nationalism and use the strength
of our four hundred million to fight for mankind against injustice; this
is our divine mission. The powers are afraid that we will have such
thoughts and are setting forth a specious doctrine. They are now
advocating cosmopolitanism to inflame us, declaring that, as the
civilization of the world advances and as mankind's vision enlarges,
nationalism becomes too narrow, unsuited to the present age, and hence
that we should espouse cosmopolitanism. In recent years some of China's
youths, de-votees of the new culture, have been opposing nationalism,
led astray by this doctrine. But it is not a doctrine which wronged
races should talk about. We, the wronged races, must first recover our
position of national freedom and equality before we are fit to discuss
cosmopolitanism. The illustration I used in my last lecture of the
coolie who won first prize in the lottery has already made this very
clear. The lottery ticket represents cos-mopolitanism; the bamboo pole,
nationalism. The coolie, on win-ning first prize, immediately threw away
his pole* just as we, fooled by the promises of cosmopolitanism, have
discarded our nationalism. We must understand that cosmopolitanism grows
out of nationalism; if we want to extend cosmopolitanism we must first
establish strongly our own nationalism. If nationalism cannot become
strong, cosmopolitanism certainly cannot pros-per. Thus we see that
cosmopolitanism is hidden inside the bam-boo pole; if we discard
nationalism and go and talk cosmopolitanism we are just like the coolie
who threw his bam-boo pole into the sea. We put the cart before the
horse. I said before that our position is not equal to that of the
Annamese or the Koreans; they are subject peoples and slaves while we
cannot even be called slaves. Yet we discourse about cosmopolitanism and
say that we do not need nationalism. Gentlemen, is this reasonable?
According to history, our four hundred million Chinese have also come
down the road of imperialism. Our forefathers con-stantly employed
political force to encroach upon weaker and smaller nations; but
economic force in those days was not a serious thing, so we were not
guilty of economic oppression of other peoples. Then compare China's
culture with Europe's an-cient culture. The Golden Age of European
culture was in the time of Greece and Rome, yet Rome at the height of
its power was contemporaneous with as late a dynasty in China as the
Han. At that time China's political thinking was very profound; many
orators were earnestly opposing imperialism and much anti-imperialistic
literature was produced, the most famous be-ing "Discussions on
Abandoning the Pearl Cliffs." Such writings opposed China's efforts to
expand her territory and her struggle over land with the southern
barbarians, which shows that as early as the Han dynasty China already
discouraged war against outsiders and had developed the peace idea to
broad proportions.
