THE HONG KONG ORIGINS OF DR. SUN YAT-SEN'S ADDRESS TO LI HUNG-CHANG 175
college. He therefore laid emphasis on the proper training of talents along Western lines and the full utilization of these talents as essential means of bringing progress to the nation. He advocated education opportunities for all, establishment of different types of schools for people of different potentials, award of academic titles and honours to people with achievement in different subjects of learning, setting up societies of learning, and publishing journals to promote advanced knowledge in various fields. These were, as Sun explained, important reasons which accounted for great advance of new knowledge in the West. He stated, "The system of recruitment in the West was to some extent similar to what was intended in the ancient times of T’ang and Yu; people with training in different fields were selected and assigned to relevant posts of state affairs, so that those learned in the arts were given appointments in the civil service, those from military academies would be in the army service, agricultural colleges in the agricultural department, technical colleges in engineering and commerce in the trading departments ...".
Such information and ideas must have been derived from his personal observation in Hong Kong. The principle of universal education was introduced in Britain by the Education Act of 1870. The award of academic degrees, the establishment of academic societies sponsored by high officials and patronized by the monarch were features of the British system. Since Sun could not, by nature of this presentation, speak critically of the Ch'ing government and its institutions, his emphasis on the selection and appointment of officials from specialists in relevant fields was in effect a proposal for change in the administrative system. Therefore the full utilization of human talent was the first of the four measures which he considered essential for the modernization of China. Human talents were not only to be properly trained but also to be properly used.
Arguing for the full utilization of the land, Sun's special concern was the modernization and improvement of agriculture. He emphasized the need for the appointment of officials with such knowledge to be in charge, provision of modern education for such knowledge and also the use of modern Western techniques. Sun's interest in agricultural improvement, which was later to be further demonstrated by his proposal in 1895 for the formation of an agricultural learning society, seems to have little connection with his urban educational background. It was nonetheless in line with his primary concern for the welfare of the people, as peasants then made up the overwhelming majority of