Author’s Preface
After the
three volumes of my Plans for National Reconstruction--Psychological
Reconstruction, Material Reconstruction, Social Reconstruction--had been
published, I devoted myself to the writing of Reconstruction of the State, in
order to complete the series. This book, which was larger than the former three
volumes, included The Principle of Nationalism, The Principle of Democracy, The
Principle of Livelihood, The Quintuple-Power Constitution, Local Government,
Central Government, Foreign Policy, National Defense, altogether eight parts.
Part One,
The Principle of Nationalism, had already gone to press; the other two parts on
democracy and livelihood were almost completed while the general line of
thought and method of approach in the other parts had already been mapped out.
I was waiting, for some spare time in which I might take up my pen and, without
much further research, proceed with the writing. Just as I was contemplating
the completion and publication of the book, Ch'en Ch'iung-ming(陳炯明) unexpectedly revolted, on June 16, 1922, and turned
his guns upon Kwan-yin Shan(觀音山). My notes and manuscripts which represented the
mental labor of years and hundreds of foreign books which I had collected for
reference were all destroyed by fire. It was a distressing loss.
It now happens that the Kuomintang(國民黨) is being reorganized and our comrades are
beginning to engage in a determined attack upon the minds of our people. They
are in great need of the profound truths of San Min Chu I(三民主義) and the important ideas in The Quintuple-Power
Constitution as material for publicity. So I have been delivering one lecture a
week. Mr. Hwang Ch'ang-ku(黃昌穀) is making stenographic reports of the lectures
and Mr. Tsou Lu(鄒魯) is revising them. The Principle of Nationalism
series has just been completed and is being published first in a single volume
as a gift to our comrades.
In these lectures I do not have the time necessary
for careful preparation nor the books necessary for reference. I can only mount
the platform and speak extemporaneously, and so am really leaving out much that
was in my former manuscripts. Although I am making additions and corrections
before sending the book to the press, yet I realize that in clear presentation
of the theme in orderly arrangement of the discussion and in the use of
supporting facts, these lectures are not at all comparable to the material
which I had formerly prepared.
I hope that all our comrades will take the book as
a basis or as a stimulus, expand and correct it, supply omissions, improve the
arrangement and make it a perfect text for publicity purposes. Then the
benefits which it will bring to our people and to our state will truly be
immeasurable.
SUN WEN, Canton, March 30, 1924.
