Dr. Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925, in China called Sun Wen 孫文 or Sun Zhongshan 孫中山 "Nakayama"; the name Sun Yixian 孫逸仙, Cantonese "Sun Yat-sen", is only used in the West) is the most prominent leader of the Chinese "bourgeois" revolution (he called himself a professional revolutionary), he was called the "father of the nation" (Guofu 國父). Being born in the poor town of Xiangshan 象山 near Guangzhou (Canton)/Guangdong he followed his brother to Honolulu as a child where he studied some of the traditional Confucian Classics and obtained his college degree in Hong Kong. He lived in a time when China was again and again defeated by foreign powers and humiliated by the unequal treaties, and Sun concluded that it was time to overthrow the corrupt Manchu Dynasty, like the Taiping rebels had tried. During his studies and practice in medicine in the area of Hong Kong, Macao, and Guangzhou he developed contacts with some of the traditional secret societies by his partner Zheng Shiliang. In Hawaii Sun had learned more about democracy, modern legal systems, modern schools and the need for industrial development, and he became aware that the foundation of a democracy was not a sufficient measure to protect a state against foreign intrusion. Much more important was the creation of a sense of nationalism and the will to support the nation by a people under better social conditions than in actual China.
Sun Yat-sen had contact with reformists among the traditional Chinese elite, the journalist Wang Tao and the doctor He Qi (He Kai). His attempt to reach the important Qing politician Li Hongzhang was fruitless. His help could mainly come the Chinese overseas in America, Japan and Southeast Asia. In 1894 he founded the Revive China Society (Xingzhonghui 興中會) whose goal was to overthrow the Manchus and to found a republic. The symbol of the society was the blue sky-white sun flag later used by the Republic of China. After a revolutionary uprising in Guangzhou Sun had to flee to Japan where he gained also the support of Japanese Pan-Asiatists like Miyazaki Yazō. In 1896 the Qing secret service kidnapped Sun Yat-sen while he was staying in London. Through the intervention of the British foreign office he was released and became famous overnight.
In the following years Sun developed his ideology, the Three People's Principles (sanmin zhuyi 三民主義: nationalism, democracy, people's livelihood - minzu zhuyi 民族主義, minquan zhuyi 民權主義, minsheng zhuyi 民生主義). By national consciousness, the Chinese had to overthrow the corrupt Manchu regime that was held guilty for all the sufferings since the Opium War and to remove the yoke of foreign imperialism. Democracy had to be established in Five Powers, the executive, legislative, juristiction, supervisory control, and officials' examination (the two last being a reminescence of the traditional Chinese bureaucracy and examination system for officials), and modeled after Western democracies, especially the American. People's livelihood was especially meant as the undertaking of social reforms and land reforms. But Sun also developed detailed plans for the period after the revolution. For three years, there would be a military government that should act as military and civil administration. Old political and social evils had to be abandoned during this time, slavery, foot-binding, opium-smoking, and bureaucratic corruption had to be given up. The second stage of about six years should be period of political tutelage during which local selfgovernment and democracy at county level would be established. A provisional constitution should be introduced on national level. After this period the military government should be dissolved.
But Sun did not find large support among the Chinese overseas, and further, he had to cope with the hostility of the monarchist reformists like Kang Youwei 康有為 and Liang Qichao 梁啟超 that did not accept revolutionary activities. Liang Qichao later approached to Sun, especially after the desastrous Boxer Rebellion in 1900. Sun now obtained support by writers and intellectuals within China, like Cai Yuanpei, Huang Xing, and Song Jiaoren. Newspapers spread the revolutionary thoughts, and many revolutionary societies were founded on Chinese soil. These societies were joined in 1905 under the United Leage (Te executive court was the actual government of the one-party state with the National Party (Guomindang 國民黨) as ruling party. It consisted of a court head and nine ministries (bu 部) for national politics (neizhengbu 內政部), foreign affairs (waijiaobu 外交部), war (junzhengbu 軍政部), navy (haijunbu 海軍部), finance (caizhengbu 財政部), industry (shiyebu 實業部), education (jiaoyubu 教育部), traffic (jiaotongbu 交通部), and railways (tiedaobu 鐵道部). Further there was a health department (weishengshu 衛生署) and two commissions for Tibetian and Mongolian (Zang Meng weiyuanhui 藏蒙委員會), and for Chinese Overseas affairs (Qiaowu weiyuanhui 僑務委員會).
The legislative court was not a parliament in the modern sense, because the members were chosen the central comittee of the Guomindang. There existed several standing commissions for law, foreign affairs, finance, economy, and military affairs. The audit court was established in 1930, and its highest members were chosen by the central comittee of the Guomindang. 國民黨中央執行委員會 central executive committee
The censorial court had to control the offials of the government in various layers and should limit the power of other governmental institutions. It was installed 1931 and consisted of a head gremium that was chosen by the central comittee of the Guomindang, and the members were not allowed to occupy other posts.
The regional administration was organized in provinces (sheng 省) a unit inherited the Yuan 元, Ming 明 and Qing 清 epochs. Most of them were identical to the modern provinces, except the north where Hebei is still known as Zhili 直隸 and the capital Beijing administered as Jingzhao 京兆 in the first decade of the Republic. The modern Liaoning was still separated as Fengtian 奉天 (east) and Jehol (Rehe 熱河; west), and it stretches more to the north than today. Jilin is known in the West with its Japanese name Kirin. Modern Inner Mongolia was still administered in the provinces Suiyuan 綏遠 (west) and Chahar 察哈爾 (east). Jehol, Chahar, Suihe, and Eastern Tibet (Chuanbian 川邊) were special administered zones (tebie xingzhengqu 特別行政區). Mongolia, Xinjiang, Qinghai, and Tibet were associated territories with large independance. Taiwan was occupied by Japan since 1896. The first capital was Nanjing, shifted to Beijing by Yuan Shikai where it was used as center of the northern warlords. The center of Sun Wen's military government was Guangzhou, and after the northern campaign 1926-28 Jiang Jieshi shifted the capital to Nanjing again, although there were separate governments in Wuhan and Shanghai. During the war with Japan the capital was moved Nanjing to Wuhan, later to Chongqing. Below the level of province, there existed cities (shi 市) and counties (xian 縣).

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