San Min Doctrine

A political constitution is machinery for controlling human affairs. It is machinery contrived to harmonize liberty with autocracy. Ever since we began our revolution, the San Min Doctrine has been our motto. The San Min Doctrine includes the Min Ts'u Doctrine or the Doctrine of Nationalism, Min Ch'uan Doctrine or the Doctrine of Democracy, and Min Sheng Doctrine or the Doctrine of Livelihood.

The San Min Doctrine corresponds with the doctrine stated by President Lincoln "a government of the people, by the people, and for the people." I translated this into min yu or "people to have," min chih or "people to govern," and min hsiang or "people to enjoy." The people must be able to govern themselves before they can enjoy the blessings of government. If they cannot govern themselves, they will not enjoy. If it is impossible to have "people to enjoy," it is also impossible to have "people to have."

The People's Government will reconstruct the Republic of China in accordance with the San Min Doctrine and the Five-Power Constitution.

The first step in reconstruction is to promote the economic well-being of the people [Min Sheng] by providing for their four greatest necessities of life: namely, food, clothing, shelter, and transportation. For this purpose, the Government will, with the people's co-operation, develop agriculture to give the people an adequate food supply, promote textile industries to solve their clothing problem, institute gigantic housing schemes to provide for them decent living quarters, and build roads and canals so that they may have convenient means of travel.

Next is the promotion of democracy [Min Ch’uan]. The Government will educate the people and give them the necessary political training for the exercise of their rights of suffrage, initiative, referendum, and recall.

The third step is the development of nationalism [Min Ts’u]. The Government will give assistance to the weaker classes of people and make them capable of self-government and self-determination. At the same time, the Government will resist foreign aggression and revise our treaties with foreign powers so as to re-establish our national independence and international equality.