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social and economic organization, and assess the value of all the land
in the country. Its present price shall be received by the owner, but
all increases in value resulting from reform and social improvements
after the revolution shall belong to the state, to be shared by all the
people, in order to create a socialist state, where each family within
the empire can be well supported, each person satisfied, and no one
fail to secure employment. . . .
The above four points will be carried out in three steps in due order. . . .
Of these three periods the first is the period in which the Military
Government leads the people in eradicating all traditional evils and abuses;
the second is the period in which the Military Government gives the power
of local self-government to the people while retaining general control over
national affairs; the third is the period in which the Military Government is
divested of its powers, and the government will by itself manage the national affairs under the constitution. It is hoped that our people will proceed in
due order and cultivate their free and equal status; the foundation of the
Chinese Republic will be entirely based on this.
J. Mason Gentzler, Changing China: Readings in the History of China from
the Opium War to the Present (New York: Praeger, 1977), pp. 134136.

6. CHEN DUXIUS C ALL TO YOUTH FROM

N E W YO U T H (19 1 5)
The importance of the journal New Youth in awakening students and intellectuals in the May Fourth movement cannot be exaggerated. Here the
founder of the journal challenges Chinese youth to be aggressive in efforts
to change China. Above all, in the face of enormous difficulties and challenges, Chen calls for practicality and the use of science in solving problems.
The Chinese compliment others by saying, He acts like an old man
although still young. Englishmen and Americans encourage one another
by saying, Keep young while growing old. Such is one respect in which
the different ways of thought of the East and West are manifested. Youth is
like early spring, like the rising sun, like trees and grass in bud, like a newly
sharpened blade. It is the most valuable period of life. The function of
youth in society is the same as that of a fresh and vital cell in a human body.
In the processes of metabolism, the old and the rotten are incessantly elim-

280 appendix 2
inated to be replaced by the fresh and living. . . . [I] place my plea before
the young and vital youth, in the hope that they will achieve self-awareness,
and begin to struggle. What is this self-awareness? It is to be conscious of the
value and responsibility of ones young life and vitality, to maintain ones
self-respect, which should not be lowered. What is the struggle? It is to exert
ones intellect, discard resolutely the old and the rotten, regard them as enemies and as the flood or savage beasts, keep away from their neighborhood
and refuse to be contaminated by their poisonous germs. . . . O youth, is
there anyone who takes upon himself such responsibilities? As for understanding what is right and wrong, in order that you may make your choice,
I carefully propose the following six principles, and hope you will give them
your calm consideration.
1) Be independent, not servile.
. . . . Emancipation means freeing oneself from the bondage of slavery
and achieving a completely independent and free personality. I have hands
and feet, and I can earn my own living. I have a mouth and a tongue, and I
can voice my own likes and dislikes. I have a mind, and I can determine my
own beliefs. I will absolutely not let others do these things in my behalf, nor
should I assume an overlordship and enslave others. For once the independent personality is recognized, all matters of conduct, all rights and privileges, and all belief should be left to the natural ability of each person;
there is definitely no reason why one should blindly follow others. . . . [It
should be clear that] loyalty, filial piety, chastity and righteousness are a
slavish morality.
2) Be progressive, not conservative.
Now our country still has not awakened from its long dream, and isolates itself by going down the old rut. . . . All our traditional ethics, law,
scholarship, rites and customs are survivals of feudalism. When compared
with the achievement of the white race, there is a difference of a thousand
years in thought, although we live in the same period. Revering only the
history of the twenty-four dynasties and making no plans for progress and
improvement, our people will be turned out of this twentieth-century
world, and be lodged in the dark ditches fit only for slaves, cattle, and horses. . . . The progress of the world is like that of a fleet horse, galloping and
galloping onward. Whatever cannot skillfully change itself and progress
along with the world will find itself eliminated by natural selection
because of failure to adapt to the environment. Then what can be said to
defend conservatism!

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3) Be aggressive, not retiring.
. . . . It is impossible to avoid the struggle for survival, and so long as one
draws breath there can be no place where one can retire for a tranquil hermits life. It is our natural obligation in life to advance in spite of numerous
difficulties. . . .
4) Be cosmopolitan, not isolationist.
. . . . The prosperity or decline, rise or fall of a nation of today depends
half on domestic administration, and half on influences from outside the
country. . . . If at this point one still raises a particularist theory of history and
of national circumstances and hopes thereby to resist the current, then this
still indicates the spirit of an isolationist country and a lack of knowledge of
the world. When its citizens lack knowledge of the world, how can a nation
expect to survive in it?
5) Be utilitarian, not formalistic.
. . . . The age-long precepts of ethical convention, the hopes and purposes of the peoplethere is nothing which does not run counter to the
practical life of society today. If we do not re-string our bow and renew our
effort, there will be no way to revive the strength of our nation, and our society will never see a peaceful day. . . . Though a thing is of gold or of jade, if
it is of no practical use, then it is of less value than coarse cloth, grain,
manure, or dirt. That which brings no benefit to the practical life of an individual or of society is all empty formalism and the stuff of cheats. And even
though it were bequeathed to us by our ancestors, taught by the sages, advocated by the government and worshipped by society, the stuff of cheats is
still not worth one cent.
6) Be scientific, not imaginative.
What is science? It is our general conception of matter which, being the
sum of objective phenomena as analyzed by subjective reason, contains no
contradiction within itself. What is imagination? It first oversteps the realm
of objective phenomena, and then discards reason itself; it is something
constructed out of thin air, consisting of hypotheses without proof, and all
the existing wisdom of mankind cannot be made to find reason in it or
explain its laws and principles. . . . To explain truth by science means proving everything with fact. Although the process is slower than that of imagination and arbitrary decision, yet every step taken is on firm ground; it is different from those imaginative flights which eventually cannot advance even
one inch. The amount of truth in the universe is boundless, and the fertile

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areas in the realm of science awaiting the pioneer are immense! Youth, take
up the task!
Ssu-yu Teng and John K. Fairbank, Chinas Response to the West: A
Documentary Survey, 18391923 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1954),
pp. 240246.

7. THE THREE PRINCIPLES OF THE PEOPLE,

SUN YAT-SEN (1924)
The Three Principles of the People is the basic ideology of the Nationalist
Party (Guomindang), set forth by Sun and later championed by Chiang Kaishek. It reveals a strong animus against the actions of Western nations in
China as it reflects knowledge about and sometimes appreciation of some
aspects of the Western political system. In its analysis of the Chinese economy, it breaks sharply with the Marxist view in its claim that the root problem
in China is poverty and not the uneven distribution of wealth.

nationalism
. . . . In view of the ruthless exploitation of China by foreign powers, China
is in fact a subcolony, a status that is much worse than that of a colony.
Korea is a colony of Japan and Annam is a colony of France; the Koreans
and the Annamese are the slaves of Japan and France respectively. Though
we often use the terms slaves without a country to describe them, do we
realize that our position is really much worse than theirs? China has concluded unequal treaties with many countries all of whom, because of the
existence of these treaties, are Chinas masters. In fact China has become a
colony of all these countries to whom the Chinese are merely slaves. Which
one is better, to be slaves to one country or to be slaves to many countries?
. . . Today our urgent task is to restore our lost nationalism and to use the
combined force of our 400 million people to avenge the wrongs of the
world. . . . Only when imperialism is eliminated can there be peace for all
mankind. To achieve this goal, we should first rejuvenate Chinese nationalism and restore Chinas position as a sovereign state.

democracy
There is a difference between the European and Chinese concept of freedom. While the Europeans struggle for personal freedom, we struggle for