A letter of Dr Sun Yat-sen

[skylee]

A new Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum is open in Hong Kong. I went there yesterday and noted with interested that -

1) he wrote to his nephew in English (!)

2) according to a Macau newspaper, when he returned from Honolulu during his teens his Chinese was so bad (“不識漢人文”)，that he had to spend a year to re-learn it (well this is what I gathered when I glanced through it)

3) on display was a very interesting letter that he wrote to a friend of a church in Hong Kong detailing what he went through when he was kidnapped in London and asked if he could stay at this friend's place. I particularly like the humour of the coloured text -

弟被誘擒於倫敦，牢於清使館，十有餘日，擬將弟捆綁乘夜下船，私運出境。初六、七日內，無人知覺，弟身在牢中，自分必死。此時唯有痛心懺悔，懇切祈禱而已。一連六七日，日夜不絕祈禱，愈祈愈切，至第七日，心中忽然安慰，全無憂色，不期然而然，自云此祈禱有應，蒙神施恩矣。但日夜三四人看守，窗戶俱閉，嚴密異常，惟有洋役二人。前已托之傳書，已為所賣，將書交與衙內之人，密事俱俾知之，防範更為加密！而可為傳消息者，終必賴其人，今蒙上帝施恩，接我祈禱，使我安慰，當必能感動其人，使肯為我傳書。簡地利(Dr James Cantlie, Sun's teacher) 萬臣(Dr Patrick Manson, Sun's teacher)兩師，他等一聞此事，著力異常，即報捕房，即稟外部，初時尚無人信，捕房以此二人為癲狂者，使館全推並無其事，初報館亦不甚信，迨後彼二人力證其事之不誣，報館始為傳揚，而全國震動，歐洲震動，天下各國亦然。沙侯行文著即釋放，不然即將使臣人等逐出英境。此十餘日間，使館與北京電報來往不絕，我數十斤肉，任彼千方百計而謀耳。幸天心有意，人謀不藏，雖清勇陰謀，終無我何。弟遭此大故，如浪子還家，亡羊復獲，此皆天父大恩。敬望先生進之以道，常賜教言，俾從神道而入治道，則弟幸甚，蒼生幸甚！”