Three Principles of the People
三民主義 (in pinyin: san1 min2 zhu3 yi4), translated as Three People's Principles or Three Principles of the People or Sanmin Doctrine, is a political philosophy developed by Sun Yat-sen as part of a program to make China a free, prosperous, and powerful nation. The principles are:
1. 民族主義 (min2 zu2 zhu3 yi4) - nationalism (which Sun meant freedom from imperialist domination)
2. 民權主義 (min2 quan2 zhu3 yi4) - the people's power or democracy (to Sun, it represented a Western constitutional government)
3. 民生主義 (min2 sheng1 zhu3 yi4) - the people's welfare/livelihood or socialism (which Sun understood as an industrial economy and equality of land holdings for the Chinese peasant farmers)
The ideology is heavily influenced by Sun's experiences in the United States and contains elements of the American progressive movement.
The Three People's Principles was claimed as the basis for the ideologies of the Kuomintang under Chiang Kai-shek, of the Chinese Communist Party under Mao Zedong, and of the Japanese collaborationist government under Wang Jingwei.
The Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China largely agreed on the meaning of nationalism but differed sharply on the meaning of democracy and people's welfare, which the former saw in Western social democratic terms and the latter interpreted in Marxist and Communist terms. The Japanese collaborationist governments interpreted nationalism less in terms of anti-imperialism and more in terms of cooperating with Japan to advance pan-Asian interests.
San min chu i is also the title of the national anthem of the Republic of China on Taiwan. The lyrics are from a speech by Sun Yat-sen
English Versification:
San min chu i, Our aim shall be: To found, a free land, World peace, be our stand. Lead on comrades, Vanguards ye are. Hold fast your aim, By sun and star. Be earnest and brave, Your country to save, One heart, one soul, One mind, one goal.
Except for the opening line, this versification is a literal translation of the Chinese lyrics, which are extremely classical and literary. In this respect San Min Chu Yi stands in contrast to the March of the Volunteer which the is national anthem of the People's Republic of China and is written in modern and very colloquial language.