SUN YAT-SEN,
speech given by Emily Dong I want to speak about Sun Yat-sen today not simply because he is revered as the father of modern China but because his legacy is one of commitment to principles of peace for all people, a commitment we need very much today. He shows us that we should look to our own ancient traditions to build a world of peace, that the West is a civilization based in war and subjugation, so why look to them for progress? And he exemplifies lifelong commitment to justice because to win freedom for self is to continue to win freedom for others. Two years after Sun Yat-sen’s death, his widow Song Qingling gave a speech that pleaded to a divided China to remember Sun’s legacy of breaking from millenia of dynasties to build a new, united country for the Chinese people. She began this speech by saying: “Sun Yat-sen came from the people.” |
Sun Yat-sen grew up a peasant in a village in Guangdong province, along the coast of Southern China. His father and everyone in his district were farmers. He didn’t wear shoes until fifteen years old and ate lots of sweet potatoes because his family couldn’t afford rice. He says that it’s because he believed all children, especially those from the peasantry, deserved shoes and rice that he devoted his life to building a new China that could help build a new World. In his own will, he wrote:
“For forty years I have devoted myself to the cause of the people’s revolution with but one aim in view—the elevation of China to a position of freedom and equality among the nations. My experiences during these forty years have firmly convinced me that to attain this goal we must bring about a thorough awakening of our own people and ally ourselves in the common struggle with those peoples of the world who treat us on the basis of equality. The work of the revolution is not yet done.”
He believed China can only be free when there is global peace, and there can only be peace when all people are treated as equals: When countries do not bully others and do not establish unequal treaties to control and dominate others.
During World War I, which Sun calls the European War, a British general approached the Southern government which Sun had set up. They wanted Sun and the Kuomintang to help the British, saying that they would get Tsingtao back from Germany if they fight the Germans. Sun pointed out that the British had colonized Hong Kong, Burma, Nepal, and had eyes on Tibet — why should China help the British for Tsingtao? The British general got very frustrated, saying that he came to “do business.” So Sun Yat-sen said:
"Our civilization is two thousand years ahead of yours. While we are only too happy to help you to advance yours to our stage, we cannot be pulled backward by you. Two thousand years ago we abandoned imperialism and militarism. We have been peace-lovers ever since. We would of course welcome the War if its purpose were peace, justice, and equality; but as a matter of fact you always prefer war to peace, might to right. We consider the brutalities of your might as nothing short of barbarism. So we shall let you alone until you are tired of war. Perhaps the day of real peace will come, and then you and I will work together for the common good of mankind."
Our countries are not two thousand years behind the West. These civilizations have traditions that are morally two thousand years ahead. History shows our modern world is born from the subjugation of Africa, from taking the rich resources of Africa to build Europe and America up to enslaving African people and establishing an organized business of selling humans across the Atlantic Ocean. This modern world is born from the belief that one people has the right to dominate another people for its own gain. And so when we think about the problems of today and the solutions of tomorrow, they are part of a moral question.
Look at the U.S., the wealthiest country on the planet but cities across the nation are split: half glittering in excess decadence, the other half with conditions not so different from so-called Third World. Boston: is seen as a liberal bastion, a city with so many elite colleges and universities, but the Boston Globe reported in 2017 a huge economic gap between white and Black people. Non-immigrant African-Americans in the Boston area had a median net worth of $8.
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“That means they owe almost as much as the combined value of what they own, be it a car, or house, or savings.” White households in Boston, on the other hand, average a net worth of $247,500, or nearly 31,000 times more than African-Americans in Boston. Public education is so bad in the Black parts of Boston that they have to literally bus Black kids who live in Boston to 30 minutes outside of Boston, to Lexington, Belmont, wealthy and white suburbs.
And yet, we’re taught at a young age to look to the West for authority. But even with its science, material advancement, what are the deep morals of humanity guiding society in the West? Is there true progress if there is no moral progress? Our young people who are “given the world” and go to elite colleges end up depressed, anxious, pessimistic, deeply alienated and unhappy. They question the point of their lives and turn to watching Netflix every night in their bed to escape reality for a little while. Maybe getting a few likes on social media makes them feel a little less alienated for a few seconds. This is a crisis of morals and spirit of a society. And it’s a crisis of how people are connected to the world and can live with meaning.
Sun Yat-sen connects the two, that deciding which morals will guide a new society are significant not just in establishing peace among nations but to give people a fulfilling sense of responsibility and connect them to a much greater purpose:
“Gentlemen, we ought to decide at this hour what is to be the fundamental policy for which the nation is to stand, and where our hope and our greatness lie. When the days of our prosperity come, we must not forget the pain and misery which we are now suffering from the pressure of economic and political forces of the Powers. When our country becomes powerful, we should assume the responsibility of delivering those nations which suffer in the same way as we do now. This is what the DaXue means by "securing world tranquillity.” We should use our old moral values and our love of peace as the foundation of national reconstruction; and look forward to the day when we shall become leaders in world reconstruction upon lines of international justice and good will. This is the mission of our 400,000,000. Gentlemen, each one of you is one of the 400,000,000; and you personally should assume this responsibility.”
Sun Yat-sen spoke clearly that human progress is the advancement of moral righteousness rather than the advancement of machines and militaries. He spoke clearly about our inescapable responsibility as human beings to apply our best creative capacities to building a world of peace and justice, a higher plane of being that is very much possible for humanity so we choose it, but has not been shown in the recent past of colonialism, imperialism, and war against the majority of the people of the world. And most significantly he says that not just the point of life but the joy of life comes from commitment to making a better world so other people and children of the future do not face the struggles we faced in the past and face today. He says:
“When China becomes strong again, it will be our duty to help these [colonized and oppressed] nations win back their freedom. This is a great responsibility! If we cannot fulfill this great responsibility, what is the use of China being strong and powerful? Again, if China follows at the heels of the imperialistic and militaristic nations, China's ascendency to power, would not only be useless, but harmful to humanity. The only glorious and honorable path for us to pursue is to maintain in full force the old policy of ‘helping the weak and curbing the strong.’”
And yet, we’re taught at a young age to look to the West for authority. But even with its science, material advancement, what are the deep morals of humanity guiding society in the West? Is there true progress if there is no moral progress? Our young people who are “given the world” and go to elite colleges end up depressed, anxious, pessimistic, deeply alienated and unhappy. They question the point of their lives and turn to watching Netflix every night in their bed to escape reality for a little while. Maybe getting a few likes on social media makes them feel a little less alienated for a few seconds. This is a crisis of morals and spirit of a society. And it’s a crisis of how people are connected to the world and can live with meaning.
Sun Yat-sen connects the two, that deciding which morals will guide a new society are significant not just in establishing peace among nations but to give people a fulfilling sense of responsibility and connect them to a much greater purpose:
“Gentlemen, we ought to decide at this hour what is to be the fundamental policy for which the nation is to stand, and where our hope and our greatness lie. When the days of our prosperity come, we must not forget the pain and misery which we are now suffering from the pressure of economic and political forces of the Powers. When our country becomes powerful, we should assume the responsibility of delivering those nations which suffer in the same way as we do now. This is what the DaXue means by "securing world tranquillity.” We should use our old moral values and our love of peace as the foundation of national reconstruction; and look forward to the day when we shall become leaders in world reconstruction upon lines of international justice and good will. This is the mission of our 400,000,000. Gentlemen, each one of you is one of the 400,000,000; and you personally should assume this responsibility.”
Sun Yat-sen spoke clearly that human progress is the advancement of moral righteousness rather than the advancement of machines and militaries. He spoke clearly about our inescapable responsibility as human beings to apply our best creative capacities to building a world of peace and justice, a higher plane of being that is very much possible for humanity so we choose it, but has not been shown in the recent past of colonialism, imperialism, and war against the majority of the people of the world. And most significantly he says that not just the point of life but the joy of life comes from commitment to making a better world so other people and children of the future do not face the struggles we faced in the past and face today. He says:
“When China becomes strong again, it will be our duty to help these [colonized and oppressed] nations win back their freedom. This is a great responsibility! If we cannot fulfill this great responsibility, what is the use of China being strong and powerful? Again, if China follows at the heels of the imperialistic and militaristic nations, China's ascendency to power, would not only be useless, but harmful to humanity. The only glorious and honorable path for us to pursue is to maintain in full force the old policy of ‘helping the weak and curbing the strong.’”
Sun Yat-sen’s legacy is a vision for a worldwide transformation of moral values, a moving away from the rule of Might and the creation of a world that chooses peace of all people. Like King said in 1967: “Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism. With this powerful commitment we shall boldly challenge the status quo and unjust mores and thereby speed the day when every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain …Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter—but beautiful—struggle for a new world.” Each one of us is one of not just 400 million but one of almost 8 billion in the world. Together, we have a great responsibility to rededicate ourselves to the long and beautiful struggle of winning a world of peace.