上一集，老京城上空的天色變了。馮玉祥的槍炮拖出了最後一位皇帝溥儀出來。
《神州大地》系列 總第 25 集：「Patriot or Traitor? Sun Yat-sen in Guangzhou — who bankrolled his presidency? | Shenzhou Dadi Episode 25」是本集影片的完整圖文轉錄，可逐字閱讀，也可前往影片頁觀看對應畫面。
Last episode, the sky
over the old capital
changed. Feng
Yuxiang''s guns
dragged the last
emperor, Puyi, out of
the Forbidden City
and forced
President Cao Kun
from power; Duan
Qirui and Zhang
Zuolin then took
hold of the North. Yet
at that very same
moment of upheaval
thousands of miles
south in Canton
another man was
quietly
reassembling an
army and a party. His
name was Sun Yat-sen
（One aside, so no one
is confused: "Sun" was
his given name
Yat-sen" his
courtesy name. In his
era one addressed a
respected elder by
the courtesy name
not the given name
much as the northern
strongman Duan
Qirui was spoken of
as "Zhiquan." So when
you hear "Sun Wen" and
Sun Yat-sen" used
interchangeably
they are the same man
.） Remember this name
Sun Yat-sen. All his
life he cried "save
the nation." Yet
strangely, all his
life he also
borrowed from
foreigners — money
guns, advisers, and an
entire method for
rebuilding a party
In 1924, in Canton, he
suddenly held all at
once: a brand-new
party, a brand-new
military academy
and endless roubles
and rifles. Yet just a
few years before, to
borrow his first
coin and his first
gun, he had already
pledged away a
stretch of national
territory to a
neighboring power
Was this man a
patriot, or a traitor
This episode draws
no conclusion for
you — it simply lays
the matter out, one
piece at a time
To say "borrowed from
foreigners" is no
metaphor. He truly
traveled far to
write letters and
borrow. He borrowed
from Russia in the
north, and from Japan
in the east. What he
borrowed became
bullets, or the seal
of power, or rights
surrendered on a
signed agreement. A
man who cries "save
the nation," whose
bargaining chips
were so often
foreign money and
guns — that picture
alone is worth a long
look
This episode is not
about a cartoon
villain. Sun had his
obsessions, his
resilience through
repeated failure
and his disgust for a
rotten age. Yet the
same man, to fulfill
his own
presidential dream
also did things
later generations
find hard to excuse
Let us take them one
by one. First, that
letter sent to Tokyo
Turn the clock back
to 1914. That year, Sun
was a broken man. Two
years earlier, the
Second Revolution
his uprising
against Yuan Shikai
collapsed at the
first push. He fled to
Tokyo, living in
exile, waiting for a
chance. A
revolutionary with
no money, no base, no
army, sheltering
under a foreign roof
could do one
practical thing
write letters. On
May 11 he wrote a
long letter. The
recipient was the
Japanese prime
minister, Okuma
Shigenobu
Count Okuma, my lord
Prime Minister: I
hold that Japan
today should assist
China''s renewal, to
rescue the crisis of
East Asia; and
China''s reward
shall be to open her
national market, to
benefit Japanese
industry and
commerce. China may
open her whole
market to benefit
Japanese industry
and commerce, and
Japan shall enjoy
thereby a monopoly
of trading
advantage. If China
possesses the fixed
right of tariff
autonomy, then she
shall enter a tariff
alliance with Japan
manufactures Japan
sells into China
shall be duty-free
and raw materials
China sends to Japan
likewise duty-free
As for the
withdrawal of
consular
jurisdiction, Japan
may first recognize
it, and thereby
Japanese shall
reside and trade
inland in China
furthering China''s
convenience. Thus
Japan, without
Britain''s burden
and cost of garrison
and administration
as in India, gains a
great market in
China, to profit
doubled. Sun Yat-sen
seal: "Seal of Sun
Yat-sen"), third year
of Taisho, May 11
third year of the
Republic
Pause and savor the
contrast. What was
Japan in 1914? It had
swallowed Korea
only years before
and was eyeing the
Northeast with a
watering mouth; its
next move would be
the infamous
Twenty-One Demands
At such a moment, with
a neighbor whetting
his blade, Sun wrote
over: "same race, same
script, mutual
dependence
offering the whole
national market
tariff autonomy, and
consular
jurisdiction to
Japan. A man who cries
save the nation
reached for a knife
held by the very one
most eager to cut
China
This 1914 letter was
no isolated case. In
the years after
similar letters
came in a stream
to Japanese
military men (like
Tanaka Giichi), to
right-wing leaders
like Tōyama Mitsuru
Inukai Tsuyoshi
Sugiyama Shigemaru
The gist was the same
provide money and
guns to help him
unify China, and
concessions on
tariffs, legal
rights, and markets
could be discussed. A
1918 "Sino-Japanese
Alliance" is said to
run the same way
and it too touched
the Northeast. Its
authenticity is
disputed; we rest no
case on it, only note
so it is said." But the
1914 letter to Okuma
is black on white, in
the collected works
undeniable
Some defend him: he
was cornered, with no
outside help the
revolution died
surrendering
tariffs and legal
rights was
expedient, not his
true heart. Others
will not forgive
national
sovereignty is not
Sun''s private
property, to be
traded for his own
political capital
This episode
answers for no one
but this entry is the
earliest and most
glaring stroke of
self-interest." Mark
it down here
The aftershock of
this letter lasted a
decade. By 1924 he
had already allied
with Russia, yet
these early
promises to Japan
followed him like a
shadow. Later
historians dug them
up and asked the same
question: if a man''s
saving the nation
required pawning
the nation''s
sovereignty, then
whose nation was it
Cut to eight years
later, summer 1922
This time, Sun was not
in Tokyo writing
letters; he was in
Canton, under fire. On
the night of June 16
his subordinate
commander Chen
Jiongming
bombarded the
Presidential
Palace. Sun fled in
panic to a warship
the Yongfeng
trapped in the waves
of the Pearl River
for nearly fifty
days. Shells traced
the hull; food and
water came and went. A
man who would be the
nation''s helmsman
was pinned on the
river of his own
capital, unable to
move. （Why did that
shot ring out
In 1921 Sun had
taken office in
Canton as
Extraordinary
President, bent on a
Northern
Expedition
draining Kwangtung
of troops and
provisions to fight
the northern
warlords. Chen
Jiongming instead
argued to first
secure Kwangtung
and let the
provinces govern
themselves. He would
not pour
Kwangtung''s lives
and money into that
northern campaign
Sun wanted
concentrated power
Chen wanted to
devolve it to the
localities. The
clash grew so bitter
that Sun simply
dismissed Chen
stripping him of
both the Kwangtung
army command and the
provincial
governorship. The
troops still sat in
Canton; the general
had been robbed of
his seal. On the night
of June 16, 1922
Chen''s subordinate
Ye Ju surrounded the
Presidential
Palace and demanded
Sun step down. In a
word: this was no
sudden betrayal, but
two roads, two
visions of "China
meeting muzzle to
muzzle.）
A detail, very Sun. On
the cabin wall he
pasted two
characters
Northern
Expedition." He
stared at them day
after day. For fifty
days, the fighting
raged outside, the
words pinned within
a defeated man''s
obsession reveals
sometimes more
clearly than any
victor''s manifesto
what he truly meant
to do. What he brooded
on was "unification
by force, welding
north and south into
a China that
answered to him
Now it is time to do
Chen Jiongming
justice. In this
episode he cannot be
written merely as
the rebel who
bombarded the
palace" — that was a
label others stuck
on him. In the years
Chen governed
Kwangtung he did
real things: he
banned gambling
with an iron hand
sweeping away the
opium dens and
casinos; he promoted
education
vigorously
encouraging
universities and
newspapers; he
pushed local
self-government
letting county
assemblies
actually speak. He
too had a "map of China
only his map
differed from Sun''s
Chen wanted "federal
self-government": a
China where each
province first set
its own house in
order, then joined
loosely — provinces
with their own
charters, electing
their own officials
growing peacefully
into a modern state
Sun wanted
unification by
force": first the gun
then a strong center
kneading the whole
country into one
Which road lay
closer to "saving the
nation"? The debate
rages to this day. Yet
what happened then
was this: Sun wanted
the Northern
Expedition; Chen
would not send
troops. Sun wanted to
concentrate power
Chen wanted to
release it to the
localities — the
divergence widened
until the shell was
loaded
Where did Sun''s
self-interest" hide
Not in the words "save
the nation" — that was
most likely sincere
It hid in the
insistence that
salvation must come
through me": my party
my army, my
legitimacy. The
federal road''s
fatal flaw, to him, was
that it had no need
for a Sun perched
high above. So he
chose the cannon, not
persuasion. That
shot scattered not
only a presidential
palace, but a gentler
less bloody road for
China
Those fifty days on
the Yongfeng were
the lowest point of
Sun''s life. Yet the
defeated Sun was
about to meet an
outside force" that
would turn his
fortunes — not Japan
but Russia. This shot
knocked him from
power; the next turn
delivered him to
another door
January 26, 1923
Shanghai. Sun and a
Soviet named Joffe
signed a
declaration. That
year he had just
escaped the
Yongfeng, returned
to Canton to set up
the Grand Marshal''s
Headquarters, yet
still held few guns
The Russians, eyeing
his banner of
anti-imperialism
anti-warlord
extended a hand
money, guns, advisers
all offered. Sun took
it
Dr. Sun Yat-sen
holds that the
Communist
organization, and
even the Soviet
system, cannot in
fact be applied to
China, because China
does not possess the
conditions under
which such
communism or Soviet
system could
succeed. On this view
Mr. Joffe is in
complete agreement
and holds that the
most important and
pressing problem of
China is the
successful
unification of the
Republic and the
attainment of
complete national
independence. The
Russian government
is prepared and
willing, on the basis
of Russia''s
renunciation of all
treaties and forced
rights inherited
from the tsarist
regime toward China
to open a fresh
Sino-Russian
negotiation. The
present Russian
government has
never had, and never
has had, any
intention of
pursuing an
imperialist policy
in Outer Mongolia, or
of causing it to
secede from China
January 26, 1923
Shanghai
Beyond money and
guns, Russia sent a
man named Borodin
His title was "Sun''s
political adviser
Yet he did far more
than "advise": the
Kuomintang''s
organizational
charter, propaganda
system, and
commissar system
were largely built
by him on the Soviet
template. To speak
plainly — the later
tight
bone-structure of
that party was
fitted by a
foreigner. A party
that cried
independence and
autonomy had a
foreign adviser as
its architect
Some ask: early you
sought Japan, now you
seek Russia — did the
object change, or
that "borrow from
outside" heart? Sun''s
own answer was
roughly: whoever
helps me unify, I go to
them. Yet the
question is
precisely this
when a party''s money
guns, and charter all
come from outside, is
that party still
China''s party, or
whose pawn? We hang
this question here
next act, we see what
it grew into
Borodin reached
Canton in
October 1923. From
that month, Canton''s
streets suddenly
sprouted slogans
and the party''s
newspapers grew
busy — a party rearmed
with printing
presses and
organizational
technique was a
different beast
from the one with a
few broken guns. This
time Sun borrowed
not merely money, but
a whole method of "how
to organize people
January 20 to 30, 1924
at 215 Wenming Road
Canton — the former
hall of the
Kwangtung Higher
Normal School
the Kuomintang held
its First National
Congress. These
twenty days remade
the party. The
congress fixed
three phrases: "ally
with Russia, admit
the Communists
assist workers and
peasants." Sun
reinterpreted his
Three Principles
of the nation, of the
people''s rights, of
the people''s
livelihood — and
stuffed the Soviet
method inside
The most fatal
stroke of this
reorganization was
not the slogan but
the system. From here
the party ceased to
be loose factions; it
gained commissars
political work, and
the rule of "the party
commands the gun." Put
plainly: before this
the country had at
least tried to order
its affairs by
charter, by assembly
by election — that
nascent road
yielded, from this
moment, to "the party
governs all." A party
supplanted the law; a
written charter
lost to a party
statute. Where this
step grew, those who
lived through it
understood
Speaking of guns
That same year, May 3
Sun appointed
Chiang Kai-shek
superintendent of
the Whampoa
Military Academy; it
opened June 16. On
Changzhou Island
the first cadets
about five hundred
reported for duty
and were issued
straw-bound fake
rifles; the real
rifles had not yet
arrived. Only when
the Soviet ship
docked, unloading
several thousand
rifles and dozens of
advisers, did the
cadets first touch
live ammunition. One
detail tells the
whole origin of this
army: first the party
first the outside
funding, then the gun
The saying "power
grows from the
barrel of a gun" must
here be read
backwards — it was the
outside gun that
first fed this army
Linking the first
three acts, Sun''s
method of "borrow
outside, build party
raise army" had a
clear reckoning
with no money or gun
of his own, borrow
from foreigners
with the borrowed
money and guns, form
an army loyal to "the
party"; then use that
army to realize his
ideal of
unification
through me." The ideal
was real, and so was
the calculation
This method took him
in one year, from the
defeated man on the
Yongfeng to one
possessed of party
academy, roubles, and
rifles. Yet it also
planted something
when the gun was no
longer fully in his
own hands, to whom did
that party, that army
truly belong? We
leave that to a later
episode to bear
fruit
Looking back at Act
Two''s federal road
Chen wanted
provincial
charters, peaceful
self-rule, slowly
growing a modern
state — that too was a
charter" road, only
without a strong Sun
at the center. To
unify through me," Sun
cut it down with
cannon; turning, he
used "party governs
all" to replace the
parliamentary road
as well. Two gentler
roads for China were
both severed by his
self-interest." This
is the account this
episode asks you to
see clearly
September 1924, Sun
set up the Northern
Expedition
headquarters at
Shaoguan
personally
directing. This time
he finally had
Whampoa''s fresh
army at his back. But
the North moved
faster: as told last
episode, Feng
Yuxiang''s guns had
forced Cao Kun down
and Puyi out of the
palace. The new men
Duan Qirui and Zhang
Zuolin, both sent
word to Sun: come
north, let us consult
on the nation''s
affairs
The purpose of this
war is not only to
overthrow the
warlords, but
especially to
overthrow the
imperialism on
which the warlords
depend for survival
It especially
represents the
nation abroad
demanding a fresh
review of all
unequal treaties
the abolition of all
privileges thereby
fixed, and the
conclusion of new
treaties of mutual
equality and
respect for
sovereignty. The
purpose of the
National
Revolution is to
build an
independent nation
to uphold the
interests of the
nation and its
people
September 18
thirteenth year of
the Republic
On November 13, Sun
left Canton, heading
north. By then his
liver disease was
already grave. He did
not know that this
departure would be
his last return to
Kwangtung. On
December 31 he
reached Peking; four
months later
March 12, 1925, he
died there. A man who
cried "save the
nation" half his life
exhaled his last
breath in the city he
had striven so long
to unify
On this northern
journey he took an
unfinished
unification" dream
he left a party just
assembled yet
already
party-governs-all
and an army fed by
outside force. Where
that army''s later
wars reached, you
mostly know in
outline — but that is
another story. This
episode stops at the
year 1924, the room in
Canton, and the ship
just delivering
real guns
Do the things left
from that year still
exist? Go to
Changzhou Island
Whampoa''s old site
remains; go to
215 Wenming Road
the congress hall
remains; go to
Zhiti Road, the
Grand Marshal''s
porch remains. Stand
at these three
places and you can
piece together the
shape of 1924 in your
mind: a party set out
anew from here; an
army set out anew
from here; a system of
party governs all
set out anew from
here
This episode laid
out some hard
materials: the 1914
letter
surrendering
tariffs and legal
rights; the two
characters
Northern
Expedition" pasted
on the Yongfeng
in 1922; the 1923
declaration that
wanted neither the
Soviet system nor
Russia''s money and
guns"; the 1924 party
statute replacing
the old charter, and
the cadets with
straw then real
rifles. The
materials are here
we paint none red, we
whitewash none for
you
An old man borrowed
all his life, the
money, guns, and
charters of
outsiders, to
fulfill his own
presidential dream
He pledged away
territory, yet he
truly wished to
remake this nation
Yet consider: when a
party''s and an
army''s money and
guns all come from
beyond the border, is
that party still the
Chinese people''s
own party? In whose
hands that army
later rested, whom it
fired upon, what it
changed — that is a
question left for
you to answer
Patriot, or traitor
You be the judge
▶ 觀看本集影片（含畫面與地圖）：Patriot or Traitor? Sun Yat-sen in Guangzhou — who bankrolled his presidency? | Shenzhou Dadi Episode 25