ABSTRACT
Sun Yat-sen, the leader of the Chinese Nationalist Revolution of 1911 and the founder of the Republic of China, was the most prominent Chinese nationalist leader. He reminded the Chinese of the foreigners' saying that the Chinese were like "a sheet of loose sand." He attempted to exploit the contradictions among the imperialist powers and the conflicts among Chinese warlords and politicians. Sun's emphasis on the revival of ancient Chinese culture set the stage for the conservative development of the Kuomintang led by its right wing. World War I, in Sun's view, was the greatest struggle humanity had ever witnessed up to that time. US President Woodrow Wilson, upon US entrance into the war, proposed the principle of self-determination as a common war objective. In the aftermath of the war, while China was in the throes of internal disintegration and continuing external oppression, Sun insisted that China adhere to a moral course of action in dealing with other nations.
