A. Major Sources on Sun Yat-sen Which are Available in Western Languages.
Reading edition
I. Biographies of Sun Yat-sen.
Ponce, Mariano, Sun Yat-sen, El fundador de la Republica de China, Manila, 1912.
A popular biography. Valuable for the period just before 1912.
Cantlie, James and Sheridan-Jones, C., Sun Yat-sen and the Awakening of China, New York, 1912.
Also a popular work. Valuable for the description of Sun Yat-sen's education.
Linebarger, Paul (and Sun Yat-sen), Sun Yat-sen and The Chinese Republic, New York, 1925.
The only biography authorized by Sun Yat-sen, who wrote parts [pg 266] of it himself. A propaganda work, it presents the most complete record of Sun's early life. Does not go beyond 1922.
Vilenskii (Sibiriakov), V., Sun' Iat-Sen—otets kitaiskoe revoliutsii, Moscow, 1925. The same, Moscow, 1926.
Not available.
Lee, Edward Bing-shuey, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, His Life and Achievements(English and French), Nanking, n. d.
A synopsis, by a spokesman for the Nationalist Party.
Wou, Saofong, Sun Yat-sen, Sa Vie et Sa Doctrine, Paris, 1929.
An excellent outline, largely from Chinese sources.
Restarick, Henry Bond, Sun Yat-sen, Liberator of China, New Haven, 1931.
Useful for a description of Sun Yat-sen's life in Honolulu, and of some of his overseas connections.
—— (R.-Ch. Duval, translator), Sun Yat-sen, Liberator de la Chine, Paris, 1932.
de Morant, George Soulie, Soun Iat-sènn, Paris, 1932.
A romantic work based upon Chinese sources, and the Chinese translation of Linebarger's work.
Linebarger, Paul; Linebarger, Paul M. A. (editor), The Gospel of Sun Chung-shan, Paris, 1932.
Sharman, (Mrs.) Lyon, Sun Yat-sen, His Life and Its Meaning, A Criticall Biography, New York, 1934.
The most complete biography of Sun Yat-sen. Well documented and prepared. Mrs. Sharman's work will remain authoritative for many years to come. Its main fault is its somewhat hyper-sensitive criticism of Sun Yat-sen's personality, with which the author never comes in contact.
Linebarger, Paul, The Life of Sun Chung-san, Shanghai, 1932. Fragmentary proofsheets. See note in Preface.
Reissig, Paul, Sun Yat Sen und die Kuomintang, Berlin, n. d. A Lutheran missionary tract.
II. Translations of the Sixteen Lectures on the San Min Chu I.
Anonymous, The Three Principles, Shanghai 1927.
Of no value.
Tsan Wan, Die Drei Nationalen Grundlehren, Die Grundlehren von dem Volkstum, Berlin, 1927.
A translation of the lectures on Nationalism; excellent as far as it goes.
d'Elia, Paschal M., S. J. (translator and editor); Le Triple Demisme de Suen Wen, Shanghai, 1929.
The only annotated translation. The style is simple and direct, and the notes accurate, for the most part, and informative. The [pg 267] uninitiated reader must make allowances for Father d'Elia's religious viewpoints. This is probably the most useful translation.
Price, Frank W. (translator), Chen, L. T. (editor); San Min Chu I, The Three Principles of the People, Shanghai, 1930.
The translation most widely known and quoted.
d'Elia, Paschal M., S. J., The Triple Demism of Sun Yat-sen, Wuchang, 1931.
A translation of the French version.
Hsü, Leonard Shihlien; Sun Yat-sen, His Political and Social Ideals, Los Angeles, 1933.
The most complete selection of the documents of Sun Yat-senism available in English. Dr. Hsü has assembled his materials remarkably well. His chapter “The Basic Literature of Sunyatsenism” is the best of its kind in English.
III. Other Translations of the Chinese Works of Sun Yat-sen.
Anonymous; Zapiski kitaiskogo revoliutsionera, Moscow, 1926.
Not available.
—— Memoirs of a Chinese Revolutionary, Philadelphia, n. d.
Not documented and apparently unreliable. English version of the above.
Wittfogel, Karl; Sun Yat Sen, Aufzeichnungen eines chinesischen Revolutionärs, Vienna and Berlin, n. d. (ca. 1927).
The most complete Marxist critique, containing also an excellent short biography.
Tsan Wan; 30 Jahre Chinesische Revolution, Berlin, 1927.
An excellent translation of one of the short autobiographies of Sun Yat-sen.
Wei Yung (translator); The Cult of Dr. Sun, Sun Wên Hsüeh Shê, Shanghai, 1931.
Also referred to as The Outline of Psychological Reconstruction. It comprises a series of popular essays discussing the problems involved in modernization of the Chinese outlook, and presenting Sun Yat-sen's theory of knowledge versus action.
IV. Works in English by Sun Yat-sen.
Sun Yat-sen; Kidnapped in London, Bristol, 1897.
Sun Yat-sen's first book in English. Expresses his Christian, modernist, anti-Manchu attitude of the time.
—— How China was Made a Republic, Shanghai, 1919.
A short autobiography of Sun Yat-sen; see note in Preface.
—— The International Development of China, New York and London, 1929.
Sun Yat-sen's bold project for the industrialization of China. [pg 268] First proposed in 1919, the work calls for a coördinated effort of world capitalism and Chinese nationalism for the modernization of China. Also called the Outline of Material Reconstruction.
V. Commentaries on the Principles of Sun Yat-sen.
Li Ti tsun; The Politico-Economic Theories of Sun Yat-sen.
This work has not been published, but portions of it appeared in the Chinese Students' Monthly, XXIV, New York, 1928-1929, as follows: “The Life of Sun Yat-sen,” no. 1, p. 14, November, 1928; “The Theoretical System of Dr. Sun Yat-sen,” no. 2, p. 92, December 1928, and no. 3, p. 130, January 1929; and “The Sunyatsenian Principle of Livelihood,” no. 5, p. 219, March 1929. It is most regrettable that the whole work could not be published as a unit, for Li's work is extensive in scope and uses the major Chinese and foreign sources quite skilfully.
Tai Chi-tao (Richard Wilhelm, translator); Die Geistigen Grundlagen des Sunyatsenismus, Berlin, 1931.
An informative commentary on the ethical system of Sun Yat-sen. Tai Chi-tao is an eminent Party leader.
Antonov, K.: Sun'iatsenizm i kitaiskaia revoliutsiia, Moscow, 1931.
Not available to the author.
William, Maurice; Sun Yat-sen Vs. Communism, Baltimore, 1932.
A presentation, by the author of The Social Interpretation of History, of the influence which that work had on Sun; useful only in this connection.
Linebarger, Paul; Linebarger, Paul M. A. (editor); Conversations With Sun Yat-sen, 1919-1922.
For comment on this and the following manuscript, see Preface.
Linebarger, Paul; A Commentary on the San Min Chu I. Four volumes, unpublished, 1933.
Tsui, Shu-Chin, The Influence of the Canton-Moscow Entente upon Sun Yat-sen's political Philosophy, in The Chinese Social and Political Science Review, XVIII, 1, 2, 3, Peiping, 1934.
A dissertation presented to Harvard University. Dr. Tsui covers the ground very thoroughly; his conclusions challenge the general belief that the Communists influenced Sun Yat-sen's philosophy. Ranks with the works of Tai Chi-tao, Hsü Shih-lien, and Father d'Elia as an aid to the understanding of the Three Principles.
Jair Hung: Les Idées Économiques de Sun Yat Sen, Toulouse, 1934.
A doctoral thesis presented to the University of Toulouse, treating, chiefly, the programmatic parts of the principle of min shêng.
Tsiang Kuen; Les origines économiques et politiques du socialisme de Sun Yat Sen, Paris, 1933.
[pg 269]
A doctoral thesis presented to the University of Paris, which deals with the institutional and historical background of min sheng.
Li Chao-wei; La souveraineté nationale d'après la doctrine politique de Sun-Yet-Sin, Dijon, 1934.
A doctoral thesis presented to the University of Dijon, concerning the four popular powers of election, recall, initiative, and referendum.