FATHER OF MODERN CHINA
STRAUSZ-HUPE, ROBERT
Father of Modern China SVN YAT-SEN; A PORTRAIT. By Stephen Chen and Robert Payne. New Yerkt John Day. 242 Pagee. I Reviewed by ROIERT STKAUSZ-HUPE It. 1 " '«*der of modern times, except perhaps...
...There is also the heavy intellectual debt, cheerfully acknowledged by many of Sun Yat-sen's Chinese admirers and totally ignored by Messrs...
...Yet the series of lectures, in which Sun Yat-sen defined his most precious beliefs, are an amalgam of Chinese and western thought...
...It has been cslled China's greatest contribution to political ' thought...
...Williams, New York dentist and pragmatic critic of Marxist dogma...
...Ik Sun Yat-sen's teachings appear occasionally to lack conciseness, although not nobility and scope, his (dans for the economic reconstruction of China are eminently practical and farsesing...
...The authors write that "his views shifted between at extreme form of state control and a looser, and perhaps more tolerable, 'oi bit of social reconstruction...
...There is the Confucian root...
...Sun Yat-sen probably was not as greut a creative thinker as his biographers believe...
...he did not possess, nor did he claim to possess, encyclopaedic erudition...
...Problems of an Autonomous Economy," by Alfred Biaunthal, and "Challenge of Soviet Conquest," by George Denicke...
...He adds and subtract* and he I rows islher solemn I I As he comes lo the end of the ultimate column...
...American Liberalism Today," by John L. Childs;' "Existentialism: New Trend In Philosophy," by Paul Keeskemeti...
...And like Lenin's, Sun Yat sen's revolutionary bequest, choirs of associates and grandiose schemes still dominate, more than twenty yeais after his death, the life of his people...
...But their program and dialectics make no sense without an understanding of their derivative relationship to the philosophy of Sun Yat-sen...
...Its "three principles," rarede^fmlnstlon, democracy, and people's liv•*» art deeply rooted In the Confucian social concept of the word nun...
...41.1...
...1 " '«*der of modern times, except perhaps Lenin, has left a deeper and more lastf^bJ ing impress upon his people than Sun Yat-sen...
...Should we succeed," continued' the statement, "in infusing, labor, liberal and progressive thought in America with the understanding of man's relationship to society that has emerged out of the sufferings abroad while projecting overseas such concepts of the rights and dignity of man as are rooted in the traditions of this country, we shall indeed have performed a service...
...The Chinese Communists are indeed Communists...
...The Amazing Adams Family Reviewed by BKOADUS MITCHELL THE SELECTED WRITINGS OF JOHN AND JOHN QVINCY ADAMS...
...A unique section in Modem Review is devoted to the "International Press...
...The question of Sun Yat-sen's position on socialism, which is indeed an ambiguous one, is luiiber complicated by historical events...
...The confidences of the ancients makes the strivings of predeceased colleagues seem, if not vain, at least too vigorous...
...Kinder critics would call i; a peculiar consciousness of ¦ ii-itiny...
...Editors: Adrienne Koch ami William I'rdin...
...Russian-Chinese friendship was to furnish the makeweight wherewith Chinese diplomacy could offset the pressure of western and Japanese imperialism...
...TheCrisis In Italian Socialism," by Giuseppe Faravelli...
...The policy of Modern Reoieir is framed to further the fulfillment of thig great task...
...the offerings from the writings of both statesmen are representative here a part of a solemn disquisition, liter* a dash of diary, now a .chatty letter, then .a public paper...
...i And then with a sigh—for hr mire was divine— Hr squiggle* his name on the dolled line...
...Fifty years had obliterated the most vivid hostilities...
...and there is the effusion of Positivist and Marxist philosophy...
...there is the acceptance, deeply sincere and sometimes naive, of the tenets of nineteenth century liberalism...
...Under the circumstances the author* sre to lie commended for a scholarly and highly readable contribution to our ¦parse literature on modern China...
...TlIE American Historical Association, in the program of its latest meeting, listed this as one of the notable historical w rks published dining the year...
...The editors of Modem Review are: Travers Clement, Lewie A. Coser, and George Denicke...
...For at the core of Chlnt'seecoiiomlc and social problems is the terrible inadequacy of transportation and communication...
...jQhe spokesmen of the Central Government clamorously profess unswerving devotion "tjpllla San Min Chu I, Sun Yat-sen's "Three Principles of the People," the ideologues of Yensn take even greater pains to impregnate Marxist dogma with Sunian doctrine...
...Featured articles in the first issue include, "Mahatma Gandhi and Generalissimo Stalin," by Louis Fischer...
...He appears to have approved of Marxism and regarded class war as a disease developed in the course of social progress...
...This anodyne treatment does little towards conveying to the reader Sun Yat-sen's greatness which lies precisely in the contradictions of his character and intellectual evolution...
...The San Min C*u / is the poignant expression of the political and social ferment of China on "the threshold of the machine nge...
...gripped, in critical moments, by strange paralysis of will and insulated by calm courage against the mortt appalling misfortunes;—it is these odd facets, not the polished effigy now enshrined in the official pantheon of Chinese historiagraphy, which explain the live fascination of Sun Yal-*en, the man...
...The Soviet Government hud renounced the imperialist heritage nf the Czarist regime...
...A zest fin all kinds of political and economic ideologies of Western origin, reflecting as eften as not an astounding lack of sophistication, and a bold grasp of Chinese political realities...
...He li-ts his dependents and sums his benevolence (|(e« ret I ing they both had not bad much more prevalence...
...In a preface to this section, lhe editors state: "In this section, it is our aim to present in some detail some articles from the foreign press * also occasionally perhaps from the American press), which seem to ut of particular interest and significance...
...In 11122 Sun Yat-sen concluded an ugrccmci.t with Adolf Joli'e, representative of the Soviet Union, ami committed the Chung Kuo Kuomintang to a pro-Soviet orie\tat...
...gentle ami generous in human relationships and ruthless and enigmatic in the pursuit of political goals...
...But he was most certainly no intellectual snob...
...The Chinese Civil War is not X ~ only a struggle between two political factions, Kuomintang and .Communist j^arty, but also an intricate contest over the political testament of Sun Yat-sen...
...Ideas are as much materials of reconstruction as are bricks and mortar...
...It must be given living content which will stir the hearts and minds of men and inspire voluntary participation and action by broad masses of people seeking a solution to their everyday problems...
...In the first issue, Modern Review expressed its belief tb;.i "out of the rubble and atomized dust of cities, of devastated countryside, shattered economic and social patterns, of torn and bleeding lives must somehow arise a new world of pence, security and freedom for all...
...Sun Yat sen in his preoccupation with and profound insight into vast engineering problems resembles strikingly Nikolai Lenin...
...Ideological affinities were hardly an important issue, for Sun Yat-sen appears to have been engaged in secret negotiations with Germany since "Russia and Germany had more to offer the yortng republic than the Western powfrs...
...His fam in.- lectures coincide with a decisive ¦ 'i.fl of his foreign policy...
...It is a skillful reduction of a score of volumes to one...
...Sun Yatsen possessed a wide knowledge of western literature...
...Vf in York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1946...
...Unfortunately, the result of the authors' labors is a respectful life which Skirts, yet never enters upon, critical reevalu.tion of Sun Yat-sen's political ideas...
...4.50...
...Sun Yat-sen, like Jan Mnsatyk, was able to exchange with ease the role of stem leader of his people for that *i suave international propagandist., The next and last two chapters are eoncerned with Sun Yat-son's teachings •nd the final, the most crucial and tragic, years of his life...
...The portion of the writings of John Adams which illustrate the reconciliation with Jefferson receives emphasis...
...And he woo once pored otrr papers ill stale Now seek- mil his bracket and figures his rate...
...w. I II tines, like death, no re-tin let of persona, I he life of an emperor steadily I worsens...
...Many have said that I In si two hud conceit...
...The dominant note is vigorous eclecticism...
...rskm Yat-sen died on March 12, 1926...
...John Quincy thought that his father's death occurring i "coincidence with the decease of Jefferson" was a "visible and palpable" niiirk of divine favor...
...TlIE first two chapters of Nmm 1'riften...
...Modern Review Makes Its Appearance BrOADLY speaking, Modem Review establishes a new field for cooperation between Americana and Europeans in an attempt to work out a common approach to world problems," declared the editors of Modern Review in a statement in the first issue which has just appeared...
...SuN YAT-SEN probably died a convinced socialist...
...Perhaps this i« asking loo much of a book about a man whose memory has suffered tho bin/lit of premature canonization and over whose grave now fratricidal battle rages...
...The foibles of the Adamses, which were personal rather than political, have not been -pined...
...The sententiousness was geneinl to the ngc, and is not to be charged ii individuals...
...A new biography of Sun Yat-sen, written by so competent a team of scholars as Stephen Chen and Robert Payne, should therefore constitute an important addition to the literature on Chinese politics in English...
...The volume i- full if humanity, which much recorded ]d- i hi y mnnngi s to lack...
...a Portrait csn hsrdly tie called a definitive biography, Had ths authors sucrei-dsd in curbing thru over- 1 whi lining tendency towards delicacy and discretion their portrait would be a more life-like one...
...Richard Armour...
...They present, enlivened by a fine sense for the drama of conspiracies, betrayals and escapes, the desultory developments leading to the overthrow •f the Manchu Dynasty and Sun YatSen's part in the fantastically involved combinations of the revolutionary factions which replaced the cliques of the and sanctuaries and the great contribution of Chinese communities abroad, particularly in America, to the making of the Foreign Concessions and Japan as bases 'sanctuaries and the great contribution •f Chinese communities abroad, particularly in America, to the making of the Republic...
...Man must again lift his head and face the future unafraid...
...John Adams lived to be III, John Quincy Adams to be 81...
...Had Sun Yat-sen done no more-than develop his imaginative and detailed progiam for the improvement of Chinese railways, rivers and ports, his place in history would seem secure for generstion...
...The best explanation is probably that Sun Yat-sen's thought on this, topic had not yet crystallized and that his understanding of Marxist dialectics was less than profound...
...Whatever it was, the manifestations are rein .oil by occasional ingenuous coufi ssions...
...Some of the contributors, as listed in the first issue, are: James B. Csrey, David J. Dallin, Horace M. Kalien, Abba P. Lerner, C. Wright Mills, Solomon Schwartz, Oswald Garrison Villa id, Bertram D. Wolfe, Matthew Well, J. Salwyn Schapiro, and many others...
...It is *t once ths bitter fruit of complete disenchantment end the token of it new, n ii•snquerabls faith...
...Hut the Dagmentary San Min t'hn I part of the manuscript was lost in the bombardment of Canton—docs not contain a rigorous Statement of Sun Yat-sen's ov>n views on socialism...
...The editors, truly sympathetic with I heir subjects, have includeil the affectionate with the stern, fu private with the public, the nusgivings wilh the magisterial...
...The consistency of Marxist dogma in China has been the subject of endless and mostly stultifying controversy in this country...
...On Coalition government, the clever tract of Mao Tse-tung, is a fair example of Communist attempt at synthesis...
...Chon and Payne, to Dr...
...Nun Yat-sen...
...fhje shadow of his heroic figure still jails, over China, and no political leader sr.,party has yet openly challenged the validity of his teachings...
...They tell, with considerable literary distinction, the story of Sun Yat-sen's forbears and childhood and of his Unwliijahrr—Hawaii, Canton and Hongkong — first stages of a life-long quest fm reconciliation between traditional formalism and the "scientific" materialism of the West...
...But democracy, like most general terms these days, needs re-defining as well as re-affirming...
...A Portrait are straight narrative...
...The closing episode of cordial correspondence between constitutional cronies casts other actors, who died earlier, m roles of apparent immaturity...
...Affirming its faith in democracy, the editors said: "We see or seek no solution outside the framework of world democracy...
...His detailed plans for the modernization of Chinese national economy are still the blueprint for national reconstruction after ten years' war against Japan...
...The editorial board consists of: Raphael Abramovitch, John L. Childa, Max Danish, Sidney Hook and Robert M. Ifaclver...
...n. His motives were obvious and mainly power-political...
...The editors by their choices have delineated these full careers and in good measure the first half of our national history...
Vol. 30 • March 1947 • No. 12
