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the Chinese population. This was to make Sun different from Ho Kai and other intellectual or bourgeois reformists whose interest in economic reform was centred more on industry and commerce. He maintained that improving agricultural productivity was the most urgent and important reform in China. He found it deeply regrettable that in the recent westernization movement undertaken by the Government, agricultural affairs had been neglected as no one was sent abroad or into agricultural college to learn Western techniques. It was perhaps for these reasons that he offered to serve the state, to promote agricultural reforms. He did not claim to have specialized training in this field. But "for many generations my family had been engaged in farming, and I was able to gain some experience in it", and "when I was educated abroad, I often read books concerning Western farming methods, geology and other science subjects". He admitted that practical knowledge was essential and he was ready to go abroad to study sericulture and other Western agricultural methods.
Dr. Sun Yat-sen's years in Hong Kong being an essential part of his formative age, had a significant influence on his intellectual development. He mentioned more than once in his recollections that his revolutionary ideas germinated in Hong Kong, and in his few early essays that can be found, it is evident that he also shared some reform notions of the time. Much of this thinking then, as expressed in his presentation to Li Hung-chang in 1894, was also nurtured by his experience and observations in Hong Kong.
NOTES
1
According to Wang Teh-chao, this was published in the September and October (1894) issues of the Wan-kuo kung-pao. It was then republished in issue No. 19 of Yu-shih. See Wang Teh-chao, “Tungmeng hui shih chi Sun Chung-shan hsien-sheng k'o-ming szu-hsiang ti fen-hsi yen-chiu”, Chung-kuo hsien-tai shih ts'ung-k'an, vol. 1 (Taipei, 1960), p. 66, note 3.
2 ibid. note 4.
3
Feng Tzu-yu, “K'o-ming i-shih” (Taipei reprint, 1957), and K'ai-kuo chien k'o-ming shih (Taipei reprint, 1954); Ch'en Shao-pei, Hsing-Chung hui k'o-ming shih-yao (Canton, 1934). See also Chou Hung-jan, "Kuo-fu 'shang Li Hung-chang shu' chih shih-tai pei-ching”, Ta-lu tsa-chih 23.5, pp. 157–161.
4 The pamphlet, Kidnapped in London, was published in England in 1897. In this, Sun recalled that a Ch'ing official in the Chinese legation said to him, "You have previously sent in a petition for reform to the Tsung-li yamen in Peking asking that it be presented to the Emperor." See Kuo-fu ch'uan-chi vol. 5 (Taipei, 1973), p. 16.
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the Chinese population. This was to make Sun different from Ho Kai and other intellectual or bourgeois reformists whose interest in economic reform was centred more on industry and commerce. He maintained that improving agricultural productivity was the most urgent and important reform in China. He found it deeply regrettable that in the recent westernization movement undertaken by the Government, agricultural affairs had been neglected as no one was sent abroad or into argicultural college to learn Western techniques. It was perhaps for these reasons that he offered to serve the state, to promote agricul- tural reforms. He did not claim to have specialized training in this field. But "for many generations my family had been engaged in farming, and I was able to gain some experience in it", and "when I was educated abroad, I often read books concerning Western farming methods, geology and other science subjects". He admitted that prac- tical knowledge was essential and he was ready to go abroad to study sericulture and other Western agricultural methods.
Dr. Sun Yat-sun's years in Hong Kong being an essential part of his formative age, had a significant influence on his intellectual development. He mentioned more than once in his recollections that his revolutionary ideas germinated in Hong Kong, and in his few early essays that can be found, it is evident that he also shared some reform notions of the time. Much of this thinking then, as expressed in his presentation to Li Hung-chang in 1894, was also nurtured by his experience and observations in Hong Kong.
NOTES
1
According to Wang Teh-chao, this was published in the September and October (1894) issues of the Wan-kuo kung-pao. It was then republished in issue No. 19 of Yu-shih. See Wang Teh- chao, “Tungmeng hui shih chi Sun Chung-shan hsien-sheng k'o-ming szu-hsiang ti fen-hsi yen-chlu”, Chung-kuo hsien-tai shih ts'ung-k'an, vol. 1 (Taipei, 1960), p. 66, note 3.
な ibid. note 4.
3
Feng Tzu-yu, “K'o-ming i-shih” (Taipei reprint, 1957), and K'ai-kuo chien k'o-ming shih (Taipei reprint, 1954); Ch'en Shao-pei, Hsing-Chung hui k'o-ming shih-yao (Canton, 1934). See also Chou Hung-jan, "Kuo-fu 'shang Li Hung-chang shu' chih shih-tai pei-ching”, Ta-lu tsa-chih 23.5, pp. 157 – 161.
4 The pamphlet, Kidnapped in London, was published in England in 1897. In this, Sun recalled that a Ch'ing official in the Chinese legation said to him, "You have previously sent in a petition for reform to the Tsung-li yamen in Peking asking that it be presented to the Emperor "See Kuo-fu ch'ian-chi vol. 5 (Taipei, 1973), p. 16.
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