Sun Yat-sen was leader of bourgeois revolution in China, which is unanimous opinion of academic circles. However, before Sino-Japanese war, Sun Yat-sen had no revolutionary ideas, he was a reformer, like Kang Yuwei and Liang Qichao. In January 1894, Sun Yat-sen wrote The Book of Li Hongzhang, in which length of article was more than 8,000 words. In article, Sun Yat-sen put forward four basic assumptions that "people can make best use of their talents, earth can make best use of them, things can make best use of them, and goods can flow freely." .

Sun Yat-sen

In June 1894, he found Li Hongzhang's assistant Sheng Xuanhuai through his relationship. After reading article, Sheng Xuanhuai thought that Sun Yat-sen had a rare talent and took him to Li Hongzhang. At that time, Li Hongzhang was busy preparing for the Sino-Japanese War, and seeing that Sun Yat-sen was young, he ignored him. Li Hongzhang said, “A young doctor like that also knows how to run a country? What a big joke!" Although Sheng Xuanhuai recommended it many times, Li Hongzhang did not meet with Sun Yat-sen.

Li Hongzhang

In The Book of Li Hongzhang, Sun Yat-sen first proposed construction of schools for cultivating talents. Sun Yat-sen's view of talent is different from traditional: he believes that any person with a skill is a talent and should be valued. Traditionally, those who are familiar with Four Books and Five Classics are considered to be talents. Sun Yat-sen pointed out that “those who are civil servants must go through official colleges; those who are military must go through martial arts school; otherwise, those who are well versed in literature must be scholars; those who are familiar with agriculture should be leaders of agriculture; students are business leaders, and they all take their jobs based on what young people have learned.” talents."

Jingshi Tongwen Museum

In second part, Sun Yat-sen discusses his idea that "the land can make best use of it." The core of this part is agriculture, including construction of water conservation projects, agricultural production planning and appointment of agricultural officials. What is more unique is that Sun Yat-sen advocated promoting mechanization of agriculture, using machines to replace human labor, and emulating large-scale agriculture of Western countries. At that time, China's machine-building industry was still very backward, and Sun Yat-sen believed that purchase of machine tools in Western countries should have developed on their own. Sun Yat-sen saw that agriculture is basis of people's livelihood, and only by solving agricultural problem can social contradictions of late Qing Dynasty be eased and reforms in other areas promoted.

Later Qing dynasty farmers

The third part is "The Best Use of Things". Sun Yat-sen believed that nature is rich in resources, but traditional and backward methods cannot make full use of these resources. Therefore, Sun Yat-sen advocated learning from Western countries, widespread introduction of machine production, and scientific and technological research in physics and chemistry in order to make best use of things. Sun Yat-sen's idea of ​​making best use of everything was a reformist industrial development idea that was implemented as early as Westernization Movement. However, process of Westernization Movement was very slow due to lack of a unified policy of central government of Qing Dynasty. On eve of Sino-Japanese War, there were only over 100 modern factories in China, and there were already more than 4,000 in Japan.

Businesses during Westernization

The fourth part is "an uninterrupted flow of goods." Sun Yat-sen pointed out that traditional "emphasis on agriculture and suppression of trade" in China seriously hindered development of industry and trade, and argued for promotion of mercantilism, abolition of tariffs between inland provinces, and unhindered flow of goods. He proposed vigorously developing modern transportation such as railroads and ships to speed up development of industry and commerce. The development of industry and trade can not only enrich people, but also increase country's budget revenues.

Industrial Rescue

Sun Yat-sen also fully confirmed achievements of Qing Dynasty over past 30 years after Westernization Movement. He said that “there are schools of tongwen and dialects, schools of navy and military equipment to educate talents; create a textile production bureau; for development of trade, Chinese merchant ships and Kaiping railway will be first to shine. Sun Yat-sen believed that main reason was that China did not have an overall plan, resulting in these events being sporadic. He also said that teaching Japan from West means that emperor will coordinate whole country and carry out reform comprehensively, so that whole country can carry out reform vigorously and vigorously, making country grow rapidly.

Naval battle of Sino-Japanese War

Finally, he mentioned agriculture. Sun Yat-sen believes that most important problem in China at present is problem of agriculture. Due to large population, land per capita is small, so people's livelihood is difficult and society is unstable. He argued that "the country is based on people, and people depend on food." China has been learning from West for over 30 years and has made progress in education, industry, trade and politics, but neglected most basic agriculture, which is another serious shortcoming, according to Sun Yat-sen.

Member of Renaissance Society

It can be seen that thoughts of Sun Yat-sen at that time were clearly reformed. However, because Li Hongzhang refused to meet with Sun Yat-sen, Sun Yat-sen did not have opportunity to serve country, and since then he has lost confidence in Qing dynasty. This year, Sun Yat-sen organized Xingzhonghui in Honolulu, which began a break with Qing dynasty and embarked on path of revolution. Sun Yat-sen later led 1911 Revolution, Second Revolution, National Protection Movement, Law Protection Movement, Second Law Protection Movement, and National Revolution. He became a great bourgeois revolutionary in China and one of great men in China in 20th century.