中華民國三民主義

The Three Principles of the People 三民主義 is a political philosophy developed by Sun Yat-sen in the 1890s, consisting of nationalism 民族, democracy 民權, and people’s welfare 民生. They were announced in a speech in Brussels in 1905 and appear in the ROC national anthem.

The first principle, 民族, is often translated as nationalism, populism, or people’s rule, meaning unity of the Chinese people and freedom from imperialism. It is unclear whether he intended to encompass just the Han, or other ethnicities as well.

The second principle, 民權, is translated as democracy or people’s power. Sun intended this to mean a western democratic constitutional government. This ideal was divided into two ‘powers’:• the power of politics 政權 is the power of the

people to express their wishes by election 選舉, recall 罷免, initiative 創制 and referendum 複決

• the power of governance 治權 will be covered in more detail in the next multimedia level

The third principle, 民生, is translated as the people’s welfare, people’s livelihood, or government for the people. This is divided into 4 areas: clothing, food, housing and transportation.

The meaning of the principles is a large point of contention between the two Chinese governments. 民族 is the main point of agreement; 民權 has been completely ignored by the PRC, and the democratic ideal was ignored by the ROC under martial law, but is almost fully implemented by the current ROC government on Taiwan; 民生 has been interpreted by the PRC as Sun’s support for communism, but is also implemented in the ROC’s modern welfare system.

In the next level, you can learn the Chinese names for the Three Principles of the People, as well as the other principles covered in this presentation.