Sun Yat-sen, also known as Sun Zhongshan, was born into a peasant family in 1866 in Cuiheng Village, Xiangshan (now named Zhongshan in his memory) County, Guangdong Province.

While still a boy he was deeply impressed by stories of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (1851-64) and Hong Xiuquan, hero of the peasant insurgent army, which were told by the old people in the village. When he was 13, his mother took him to Honolulu where he received Western education and converted to Christianity. He returned to China and studied at a medical school run by the Guangzhou and Hong Kong churches. He envisioned reforming China along Western capitalist lines. After he graduated from the Medical College in Hong Kong in 1892 he started practising medicine in Macau, the first Chinese doctor there trained in Western medicine.

He continued to follow current world events and concerned himself with the future of China. He wrote to Li Hongzhang, a high-ranking official in charge of foreign, military and economic affairs in the Qing Court, proposing political reforms in China. He argued that the prosperity and strength of European countries did not lie in their possession of powerful warships and cannons but in their ability to make the best use of every talent, tap the potential of every piece of land, make everything serve its proper purpose and open markets for their goods. These, he said, were the four cardinal principles for running the country. But his proposal was ignored by Li Hongzhang, a defender of the feudal monarchy.

Realizing that there was no hope of peaceful reform in China, Sun Yat-sen turned to revolution. In 1894, he founded Xing Zhong Hui (the Society for the Revival of China) in Honolulu calling for the expulsion of the Manchus, the revival of China, and establishment of a popular government. The next year the Hong Kong Xing Zhong Hui was established. Immediately afterwards the society gained a stronghold in Guangzhou, and prepared for an armed uprising. Sun Yat-sen took an active part in the preparation. But because the plan was leaked, the revolt ended in failure.

The Qing government (1644-1911) ordered Sun Yat-sen's arrest and sent spies to track him down. Sun was forced to leave China for Japan. Later he travelled to America and Europe to propagate his revolutionary ideas and make contact with people who shared his views.

During his stay in London, he read extensively in the British Library and made a study of capitalist society. He was then kidnapped by the embassy of the Qing government in London and imprisoned there. He was released when a cleaner passed a letter to his teacher who alert the public.

In 1905, Sun Yat-sen, Huang Xing and others organized Tong Meng Hui (Chinese Revolutionary League) based on Xing Zhong Hui and a number of other revolutionary organizations. The league's programme was to drive out the Manchus, restore China, establish a republic and equalize land ownership. Sun Yat-sen was elected president of the league. In the introduction to Minquan (Democracy), a magazine published by the league, Sun Yat-sen, for the first time, put forward his three principles of nationalism, democracy and people's livelihood. Through the magazine he conducted a heated debate with conservatives who advocated constitutional monarchy. Revolution and royalism were poles apart he claimed; this was just as clear as black and white which could never be mixed and east and west whose positions could never be reversed. Led by Sun Yat-sen the league launched a number of revolts with the aim of overthrowing the Qing government, building a revolutionary momentum in southern China.

On October 10, 1911, the Wuchang Uprising in central China succeeded, inspiring revolutionaries in many other provinces. Sun Yat-sen, then in the United States, was acknowledged leader of the 1911 Revolution.

The provisional government of the Republic of China was founded on New Year's Day 1912. Sun Yat-sen was elected provisional president of the first bourgeois republican government in China's history. The provisional constitution promulgated by Sun Yat-sen stated: "The sovereignty of the Republic of China belongs to all people of the nation." The provisional government issued a series of decrees for reforming politics, transforming social traditions, and eliminating outmoded conventions and customs.

The Qing government in Beijing was compelled to proclaim the abdication of the emperor, simultaneously ending more than two centuries of Qing Court rule and two millenia of autocratic feudal monarchy in China.

In February the following year, however, Sun Yat-sen was forced to resign when the revolutionaries came to terms with the warlord Yuan Shikai who usurped what the 1911 Revolution achieved and became the provisional president. Not wanting to interfere in affairs of government, Sun Yat-sen took the post of minister of railways.

Yuan Shikai forced the parliament to elect him the formal president, and quickly dissolved it. Sun Yat-sen initiated a struggle against Yuan but failed. After that he fled to Japan, hoping to restart the revolution.