The Three Principles of the People - San Min Chu I

I've read Sun Yen's Three Principles of the People before, so I'm familiar with the overall contents. However, on opening this version, the first thing I saw were two broken image icons on the title page. Not a good start for the "publisher." As I looked through the insanely complex Table of Contents, formatting issues made it virtually useless. Certain TOC entries were followed with long text descriptions of what was contained in the particular section, which added to the mind-boggling confusion of the overall TOC. Nothing is linked, making the TOC useless in the first place.For the price of this eBook, $8.99, I expect nothing less than near perfection in the electronic edition. I'd be panning this edition if it were sold for $0.99, that is how bad the formatting is.As I flip through this edition, there are numerous pages that appear blank. When you adjust font size, text "miraculously" appears.As far as the "improvements" from the Chinese edition,-The number of paragraphs has been increased. Really? Did Sun Wen write those paragraphs, or was this an addition by later editors not in the original?-A few brief notes have been added to explain generally unfamiliar names and references. Where? I see nothing.The Romanization of Chinese names used in this edition are very old and do not correspond to any of the currently accepted systems. Again, in a free of $0.99 eBook, I would overlook this flaw. However, in an edition that the publisher is charging $8.99 for, they are inexcusable.As this is the only electronic edition available, I don't have many other options other than to hunt down a paper version, which I very well may do. The publisher of this book needs to understand that simply dropping an electronic scan of a document into an eReader does NOT work. Any idiot who has actually used an eReader knows that.I personally dislike having to pay full price for shoddy work. If the publisher fixes these issues and re-issues this book (and if I happen to notice, as I am planning on reading it in the next month or two.I really do not like having to pan e-editions, but this one is by far the worst non-free eBook that I've bought at ANY price.

interesting read

Excellent book and content. My only complaint is the absolute need for better editing. I wish I could have bought an updated physical version.

I have two editions of this book; the first - which is reviewed here - is the 1981 edition by China Publishing Company. I obtained this from the Free Chinese Centre in London over thirty years ago. The second has two supplementary chapters by Chiang Kai-shek. The former is an easier read, and what a read!Sun Yat-sen was one of the greatest political thinkers of his age or indeed of any age. What are the three principles of the people, the San Min Chu I? Nationalism, democracy and livelihood.Unlike the overwhelming majority of today's politicians and "thinkers", Dr Sun was no fan of equality, "an artificial not a natural thing". He sought instead to give every man an equal standing, and let them all rise as they may.Most instructive, Dr Sun saw government purely as a technical and administrative device. The government had the administrative power, but political power was to remain in the hands of the people for which they needed four rights: the rights to suffrage, recall, initiative and referendum. For the most part we in the West have one of these four every four or five years, although on occasion our governments will listen to "public opinion". This is a book that needs to be read more than once. It is shameful that the drivel of Marxism is today holy writ for many of the "intellectuals" and "progressives" of Western academe while even the name Sun Yat-sen is all but unknown to the vast majority of them.One tiny criticism needs to be made, Dr Sun was not a Social Crediter as can be seen from his claim that "Lazy vagabonds are parasites upon the state and upon the people", nor does he discuss banking, but his goal was the honourable one of securing for every man "a share in production". It would take another great thinker, Major Douglas, to provide the desideratum for Dr Sun's philosophy around the time of the former's death. Today, society would be better off if most of the people working in the abuse industry, the financial services industry and certain so-called think tanks were reduced to the status of lazy vagabonds where they would do far less harm than now.

Please note that as of April 10th 2013, the Kindle version was updated to address the concerns of a previous reviewer.

Not easily understandable but once you reread it you'll understand a lot of ideological thoughts of what Dr Sun Yat-sen wanted China to be and away from Qing's control.