The Complete 三民主義 (fan ti)

[Zhende ma?]

At this website

http://www.boxun.com/hero/sanmin/

[roddy]

An explanation of what it is? Reasons people might want to read it? Why you decided to post it? Or do we just become a link directory?

[Zhende ma?]

Sorry Roddy

三民主義, known in English as the Three Principles of the People, is the manifesto of the father of modern China, Sun Yat-Sen. It is read and revered by those in mainland China and Taiwan alike. There are famous ideas and quotes from this book and I thought anyone interested in modern Chinese history would like to know that an edition is available for free electronically.

[roddy]

Cheers. No offense, but plenty of people passing through here wouldn't know that and it would just look like some completely random link to a huge chunk of Chinese text. At least you didn't copy and paste the whole thing into the Reading and Writing forum on the basis that 'Foreign friends can read it.'

There are famous ideas and quotes from this book

Cool, perhaps you can give us some of those quotes

[bhchao]

My family and I had to stand up to the 三民主義 anthem in the movie theater during the martial law era in Taiwan. Looking back, my mom said it was a silly practice. But I actually liked it, especially considering the ruckus in Taiwan politics today.

One of the three principles evidently exists in Taiwan today, but not yet on Mainland.

[kudra]

My family and I had to stand up to the 三民主義 anthem in the movie theater during the martial law era in Taiwan.

With the movie that went with it, with the tanks and missle launches?

[Zhende ma?]

The Three Principles of the People are:

民族 - "Min Zu" Nationalism - Sun Yat Sen envisioned a united China which would embrace all cultures, not just Han, and also have a nationalism that rose above the many regional disparities in economics and culture as well as the strong family clan relationships of the time.

民權 - "Min Quan" Democratic and civil rights - Sun Yat Sen envisioned a democratic China, though a "guided" one, not one of freewheeling factionalism and chaos that would divide the country. Chinese people would be granted civil rights in accordance to modern interpretations of the term (though I don't remember the specifics).

He also outlines the five chambers of government in China: the Executive Yuan, Legislative Yuan, Judicial Yuan (like in many Western countries) and also the Examination Yuan (administers the traditional civil service exams) and the Control Yuan which recalls elected officials. These five chambers are still present in the ROC government though there are motions to write out the Examination and Control Yuan from the constitution.The interpretaion of this principle is the greatest difference between views of 三民主義 in the Hong Kong and Taiwan vs. that of the mainland.

民生 - "Min Sheng" People's livelihood - This was a principle that said that the people should be able to live a dignified lifestyle and have a standard of living not subject to the archaic feudal rule or the freewheeling and corrupt capitalism, particularly subjected by colonial powers. Among these is land reform (not collectives) which was eventually carried out in Taiwan. In 三民主義 he rejects Marx's socialism with its foundation of class struggle for an underpinning of 三民主義 though the CPC would later "correct" this. This section was not finished before he died and is the least concrete and complete of all three ideas.

[HashiriKata]

Cheers. No offense, but plenty of people passing through here wouldn't know that

And the statue in the first 2 photos in my post is of the man in question, Sun Yat Sen:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/12-horse-horse-tiger-tiger-slang-and-idioms207

[bhchao]

With the movie that went with it, with the tanks and missle launches?

Prior to the start of the movie right before the previews, with shouts of "Retake the mainland!" from the audience.

As the anthem was winding down to its very last notes, a super-sized image of Sun Yat Sen appeared on the screen. Everyone then sat down and the previews began.

[Yang Rui]

I'd like to second Roddy's request for famous quotes from the 三民主义！

Also, could anyone provide another link to the complete piece? It would be an interesting resource, but that link isn't working for me (i think i heard Boxun is blocked in China). Maybe i just have a dodgy connection.

On a geeky linguistic note, i've always liked the phrase 三民主义 because it has all the four tones in order. I can't think of any other phrases that do that.

[gato]

You can also find the text here

http://cyc7.cycnet.com:8091/leaders/szs/zzwz.jsp

三民主义

[bhchao]

民生 - "Min Sheng" People's livelihood - This was a principle that said that the people should be able to live a dignified lifestyle and have a standard of living not subject to the archaic feudal rule or the freewheeling and corrupt capitalism, particularly subjected by colonial powers. Among these is land reform (not collectives) which was eventually carried out in Taiwan. In 三民主義 he rejects Marx's socialism with its foundation of class struggle for an underpinning of 三民主義 though the CPC would later "correct" this. This section was not finished before he died and is the least concrete and complete of all three ideas.

民生 is quite vague and hard to define or measure. However if we were to define this principle in broad terms, the land reform program in Taiwan in the 50's would meet the criteria since it narrowed the income gap between the established landowners and the former feudal tenants over the course of 30 years. Its impact on Taiwan society was significant because it helped transform the elite landowners into industrial capitalists, while turning the feudal tenants into landowning entrepreneurs.

Under the program, farmers who had previously worked in servitude status received generous loans to pay for land under the KMT's redistribution program. They were allowed to provide a share of their crop (equivalent to a first time down payment) to the state to purchase this new land, free of interest, provided that the amount was paid in full with cash within 10 years.

The KMT administration ensured that most of the redistribution allocation went to the small farmers instead of the elite landowners.

The elite landowners had to sell a portion of their land to the government in return for stock shares and bond certificates. This left some of them impoverished, but those who were willing to endure these conditions kept these shares and sold them later on.

Eventually these elite landowners needed a medium where they could trade these shares and earn income. Thus the Taiwan Stock Exchange was created in 1961 for this purpose.

For some reason, I'm fascinated with the land reform program. Such programs are usually associated with socialist governments, but the KMT administration in Taiwan was able to implement it with a capitalist formula; while simultaneously creating wealth for both the landowners who had previously been feudal lords in the Japanese colonial era, and for the farmers who had previously been tenants under their feudal lords.

Basically it was a win-win outcome, as appreciating stock and land values generated wealth for both parties. This laid the foundation for Taiwan's economic growth in later decades as it turned Taiwan society from an agrarian society into an industrial one.

Sun's definition of democracy was also a liitle vague, but at least it can be measured to some degree in both Taiwan and Mainland if we were to define it under Western forms/mechanisms of democracy.

[sjcma]

The web site in the original post is in simplified characters, not "fan ti" as claimed in the title. The unnatural vertical format of the text in the forward also makes it hard to read because the spacing is equal top/bottom/left/right.

A fan ti version can be found here: http://www.hxfx.net/bbs/dispbbs.asp?boardID=46&ID=7540&page=7

If you're interested in SYS and his writings (including his own handwriting of the Three Principles), try this website: http://sun.yatsen.gov.tw/