Modernization Lesson 3: The 1911 Revolution
Contents of this file
Notes on implementing the lesson
Document A: Autobiography of Sun Yat-sen (Original)
Document B: The Manifesto of the Chinese United League (or Revolutionary Alliance)
(Original)
Document C: The Three People’s Principles of Nationalism, Democracy, and the
People’s Livelihood (Original)
Document D: An assessment of the 1911 Revolution (Original)
Document E: An assessment of the 1911 Revolution (Original)
Sources
Notes on implementing the lesson
Students should complete Contextualization Lessons 1 and 2 and Modernization
Lessons 1 and 2 before beginning this lesson. Teachers can review the file
“1 Introduction to the Unit” for details on how this lesson fits into the unit “China: The
Struggle for Modernization.”
Like all lessons in this unit, this lesson implements the Reading Like a Historian
pedagogy developed by the Stanford History Education Group. Teachers should be
familiar with the concepts of sourcing, contextualizing, close reading, and
corroborating. Further information is available at sheg.stanford.edu/?q=node/45.
The ultimate goal of this lesson is for students to identify the goals of the 1911
Revolution so that by the end of the unit they can trace the evolution of the
modernization process between 1860 and 2000.
Two worksheets are provided to guide students through the analysis of the documents
below:
Document Analysis Worksheet I, which should be completed separately for
Documents A, B and C, emphasizes sourcing, close reading, and
contextualizing. Close reading at this point should focus on comprehension of
the information in each document. Students should read critically to identify
points where they need additional information to understand the document. They
then practice contextualization by looking for that information in the textbook and
the outline of Chinese history provided in the preceding Contextualization lesson.
CHINESE HISTORY THROUGH CHINESE EYES — The Struggle for Modernization: Lesson 3
Document Analysis Worksheet II is designed to compile information from
Documents A, B and C. It emphasizes close reading and corroborating. At this
point close reading should focus on information in Documents A, B and C that
reveals the goals of the 1911 Revolution. Such information should be recorded
on the chart.
Questions 1 and 2 below the chart on Document Analysis Worksheet II require
students to corroborate information from Documents A, B and C.
Question 3 requires students to read Documents D and E, which are secondary
sources that provide interpretations that historians have made of documents
similar to those the students have just analyzed. Students should read these
professional interpretations only after they have drawn some conclusions of their
own by answering Questions 1 and 2.
Answer keys are provided for all worksheets.
To prepare students for the essay at the end of the unit, ask them to compare the
leadership, goals, and outcome of the 1911 Revolution with those of the previous efforts
to modernize. How has the process evolved from one effort to the next?
See the file “1 Introduction to the Unit” for information on the spelling of Chinese names
and other ways in which the student documents have been edited.
The four Reading Like a Historian skills require students to think in ways that are
probably new for them in history classes. Teachers should not be discouraged by
student resistance to these higher expectations, and teachers should not be surprised if
even at the end of the unit students continue to require support and encouragement to
practice the skills. However, if teachers and students are diligent about following the
procedures outlined in this series of lessons, by the end of the unit they should make
substantial progress in internalizing these important historical thinking skills.
CHINESE HISTORY THROUGH CHINESE EYES — The Struggle for Modernization: Lesson 3
Document A: Autobiography of Sun Yat-sen (Original)
Sun is my surname, and Wen my given name. My alternate names are
Tsai-chih and Yat-sen. I was born on October 16 of the lunar calendar in
the year 1866 in Xiang-shan county of the prefecture of Guangzhou in
Guangdong province. When I was small I studied the Confucian classics,
concluding this study at the age of twelve. At thirteen, I accompanied my
mother to the Hawaiian Islands. There for the first time I saw the wonder of
a steamship and the vastness of the ocean. From that time on, I was eager
to acquire the knowledge of the West and to fathom the mysteries of
nature. That same year my mother returned to China, but I stayed on in
Hawaii, supported by my elder brother. I entered Iolani College in Honolulu,
which had a British governor, and began to learn English. Three years
later, I entered Oahu College in Honolulu, a school established by
Americans and, at the time, the highest institute of learning in the Islands.
Initially, my plan was to graduate from this school and pursue specialized
studies at a university in the United States. However, because I was drawn
to the teachings of Christ, my elder brother feared I might join the church
and, being responsible for me to my parents, ordered me to return to
China. I was then eighteen years of age.
After my return home, however, my parents made no demands on me;
instead, they left me to my own devices. After remaining at home in the
village for a few months, I went to Hong Kong and there again took up the
study of English. … At twenty-one I took up the study of Western medicine.
… After five years I graduated at the top of my class. I was now twenty-six
years old. …
Source: Written in October, 1896, when Sun was in England. Reprinted in Prescriptions
for Saving China: Selected Writings of Sun Yat-sen, edited by Julie Lee Wei, Ramon H.
Myers, and Donald G. Gillin. (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1994, p. 20-21).
Document B: The Manifesto of the Chinese United League (or
Revolutionary Alliance) (Original)
The Chinese United League was founded in 1905 with Sun Yat-sen as chairman. “… it
provided a unified central organization that resembled a modern political party, which
served as a rallying point for all revolutionary progressive forces in the country.”
(Historian Immanuel C. Y. Hsü, in The Rise of Modern China, p. 465)
CHINESE HISTORY THROUGH CHINESE EYES — The Struggle for Modernization: Lesson 3
We proclaim to the world in utmost sincerity the outline of the present
revolution and the fundamental plan for the future administration of the
nation.
1. Drive out the Tartars [Manchu Qing dynasty] …
2. Restore China. … After driving out the Tartars we must restore our
national state. …
3. Establish the Republic … All our people are equal and all enjoy political
rights. The president will be publicly chosen by the people of the
country. The parliament will be made up of members publicly chosen by
the people of the country. A constitution of the Chinese Republic will be
enacted, and every person must abide by it.
4. Equalize land ownership. … We should … assess the value of all the
land in the country. Its present price shall be received by the owner, but
all increases in value resulting from reform and social improvements
after the revolution shall belong to the state, to be shared by all the
people, in order to create a socialist state, where each family within the
empire can be well supported …
The above four points will be carried out in three steps in due order. The
first period is government by military law … so that step by step the
accumulated evils can be swept away. Evils like the oppression of the
government, the greed and graft of officials, the squeeze of government
clerks and runners, the cruelty of tortures and penalties, the tyranny of tax
collections, the humiliation of the queue – shall be exterminated together
with the Manchu rule. Evils in social customs, such as the keeping of
slaves, the cruelty of foot-binding, the spread of the poison of opium, the
obstructions of geomancy (feng shui), should also be prohibited. The time
limit for each district is three years.
The second period is that of government by provisional constitution. When
the military law is lifted in each district, the military government shall return
the right of self-government to the local people. …
The third period will be government under the constitution. Six years after
the provisional constitution has been enforced a constitution shall be made.
Source: Written in 1905. Reprinted in China’s Response to the West: A Documentary
Survey, 1839-1923, edited by Ssu-yü Teng and John K. Fairbank. (Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 1982, p. 227-229).
CHINESE HISTORY THROUGH CHINESE EYES — The Struggle for Modernization: Lesson 3
Document C: The Three People’s Principles of Nationalism,
Democracy, and the People’s Livelihood (Original)
It is not necessary to do research in order to know what nationalism is. A
person always recognizes his parents and never confuses them with
strangers. Nationalism is analogous to this. … Today, more than 260 years
have passed since the Manchus entered China proper, yet even as
children we Han would certainly not mistake them for fellow Han. This is
the root of nationalism. On the other hand, we should recognize that
nationalism does not mean discriminating against people of a different
nationality. It simply means now allowing such people to seize our political
power, for only when we Han are in control politically do we have a nation.
If that political control is in the hands of people of another nationality, then
there is no Han nation.
… Actually, we are already a people without a nation! The population of the
globe is only one billion, several hundred million; we Han, being 400
million, comprise one-fourth of that population. Our nation is the most
populous, most ancient, and most civilized in the world, yet today we are a
lost nation. … The African nation of the Transvaal [in today’s South Africa]
has a population of only 200,000, yet when Britain tried to destroy it, the
fighting lasted three years. The Philippines have a population of only
several million, but when American tried to subdue it, hostilities persisted
for several years. Is it possible that the Han will gladly be a lost nation? …
As for the Principle of Democracy, it is the foundation of the political
revolution. … For several thousand years China has been a monarchical
autocracy, a type of political system intolerable to those living in freedom
and equality. A nationalist revolution is not itself sufficient to get rid of such
a system. … When we overthrow the Manchu regime, we will achieve not
only a nationalist revolution against the Manchus but also a political
revolution against monarchy. They are not to be carried out at two different
times. The aim of the political revolution is to create a constitutional,
democratic political system. …
As for the Principle of the People’s Livelihood, it is so complex a subject
that it has become a science; it can be understood only after considerable
study. … At the same time that we are carrying out the nationalist and
political revolutions, … we must also try to improve the economic structures
of society so as to preclude a social revolution in the future. … Now, let me
CHINESE HISTORY THROUGH CHINESE EYES — The Struggle for Modernization: Lesson 3
begin by discussing the origins of the Principle of the People’s Livelihood
… As civilization advanced [the Industrial Revolution], people relied less on
physical labor and more on natural forces, since electricity and steam could
accomplish things a thousand times faster than human physical strength.
For example, in antiquity a single man tilling the land could harvest at best
enough grain to feed a few people … Now, however, as a result of the
development of scientific agriculture, one man can grow more than enough
to feed a thousand people because he can use machinery instead of his
limbs, with a consequent increase in efficiency. … Both agriculture and
industry are producing surpluses, which necessitates a greater emphasis
on commerce so that the surplus can be sent abroad for sale. The pursuit
of profit is largely true of all the countries of Europe and America. In view of
this, everyone in Europe and America should be living in a state of plenty
and happiness undreamed of in antiquity. If we look around, however, we
see that conditions in those countries are precisely the opposite.
Statistically, Britain’s wealth has increased more than several thousandfold
over the previous generation, yet the poverty of the people has also
increased several thousandfold over the previous generation. Moreover,
the rich are extremely few, and the poor extremely numerous. This is
because the power of human labor is no match for the power of capital. …
The reason that the Socialist party advocates the Principle of the People’s
Livelihood is precisely that it seeks to remedy the unequal distribution of
wealth. …
Source: A speech given December 2, 1906, when Sun was in exile in Tokyo, Japan.
Reprinted in Prescriptions for Saving China: Selected Writing of Sun Yat-sen, edited by
Julie Lee Wei, Ramon H. Myers, and Donald G. Gillin. (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution
Press, 1994, p. 41-50).
Document D: An assessment of the 1911 Revolution (Original)
The Provisional Government at Nanjing headed by Sun Yat-sen was the
product of a bourgeois democratic revolution. Owing to the weakness and
compromise of the bourgeois revolutionaries, it was actually a coalition
government of revolutionaries, constitutionalists and former [Qing] officials
…
CHINESE HISTORY THROUGH CHINESE EYES — The Struggle for Modernization: Lesson 3
The Provisional Government at Nanjing issued many laws relating to
political social, and economic reform. The major ones, like the abolition of
torture, prohibition against traffic in Chinese laborers abroad, abolition of
slavery, prohibition against the cultivation and smoking of opium, and
encouragement of the initiation of industrial and commercial enterprises
and overseas Chinese investment in their homeland, were for the benefit of
democratic politics and the development of capitalism. But because the
government did not touch the basis of the semi-colonial, semi-feudal
society, it could not resolve the immediate concerns of the people,
especially the peasants’ demand for land, and so its mass base was very
weak.
Source: Historian Bai Shouyi, writing in An Outline History of China, published in 2008
by the Foreign Language Press in Beijing (p. 451-452).
Document E: An assessment of the 1911 Revolution (Original)
The rise of the republic was an epochal event in Chinese history, for it
brought an end to more than two thousand years of imperial dynasties.
China no longer belonged to any “Son of Heaven” or any imperial family but
to all the people. …
Yet the revolution was an incomplete one with many unfortunate
repercussions, much to the chagrin of Sun. Most of his followers devoted
themselves to the overthrow of the Manchus and the establishment of the
republic; few paid attention to the more important task of democratic
reconstruction and the problem of the people’s livelihood. … Of the Three
People’s Principles, they discarded the second and third totally and
accepted only part of the first — nationalism against the alien Manchu rule
— without realizing that after the establishment of the republic they must
continue to struggle against foreign imperialism. They ignored Sun’s threestage revolutionary program altogether. Their readiness to cooperate with
the old elements, and their favorable treatment of the deposed emperor,
paved the way for future warlordism and attempts to revive the imperial
system …
Source: Historian Immanuel C. Y. Hsü, writing in The Rise of Modern China (6th ed.),
published in 2000 by Oxford University Press (p. 475).
CHINESE HISTORY THROUGH CHINESE EYES — The Struggle for Modernization: Lesson 3
Sources
Bai, Shouyi. (2008). An Outline History of China. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press.
Document D: Pages 451-452.
Hsü, Immanuel C. Y. (2000). The Rise of Modern China (6th ed.). New York: Oxford
University Press.
Document E: Pages 475.
Teng, Ssu-yü, and Fairbank, John K. (Eds.). (1982). China’s Response to the West: A
Documentary Survey, 1839-1923. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Document B: Pages 227-229.
Wei, Julie Lee, Myers, Ramon H., & Gillin, Donald G. (Eds.). (1994). Saving China:
Selected Writings of Sun Yat-sen. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press.
Document A: Pages 20-21.
Document C: Pages 41-50.
CHINESE HISTORY THROUGH CHINESE EYES — The Struggle for Modernization: Lesson 3