| Dr. Sun Yat-sen is the great forerunner of China's democratic revolution, and he explored and summed up a set of theories on democratic construction, namely, the principles of civil rights, which he adapted to modem Chinese democratic revolution.The principles of civil rights cover such fields as the constitution of five rights, four important civil rights, the distinction of rights and functions, the procedure of revolution, regional autonomy, relying on a powerful party to build the state, the creeds of freedom and equality, and party politics. Dr. Sun Yat-sen formulated the principles according to his understanding of democratic politics combined with his insight into the reality in China of his time, and this set of principles of civil rights is aimed to catch and surpass Europe and the United States. This set of principles, for the first time in China, definitely defines the pursuit of modern democratic politics as the goal and guideline for the revolution, and it is directly aimed against the feudal despotism, which had witnessed thousands of years of the vicissitudes in China. Thus, the revolution led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen has claimed a pronounced difference from all the violent rebellions before it, and exerted a profound influence on the development of modern Chinese society.Dr. Sun Yat-sen designed a rosy blueprint for the political construction in China; however, as a revolutionary, he is very practical, and conceived specific ideas for different revolutionary periods. Therefore, while focused on his theories on revolutionary procedures and the constitution of five rights, this dissertation attempts to render an overview research on Dr. Sun Yat-sen's principles of civil rights in chronological order, present a clear line of evolution of his theories, and conduct an analysis and evaluation on his ideology as objective as possible.The dissertation falls into the following four main chapters:The first chapter makes an introduction to the formulation and development of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's principles of civil rights. Before the year of 1911, when China was confronted with a national crisis, Dr. Sun Yat-sen proposed the goal of building democratic republic in China through a revolution by means of violence, and there emerged the preliminary pattern of his principles of civil rights. In fact, his theories originated from his understanding of European and American political systems, his rebelling against the feudal Manchu government of China, and his idea of "aiming at the best" political system. Nevertheless, his ideology on civil rights was still simple and sketchy, and stressed on the feasibility of democratic republic. And after the revolution of 1911, Dr. Sun Yat-sen learned from the experience of the revolution, enriched and completed his idea on the principles of civil rights.In the second chapter, the paper discusses Dr. Sun Yat-sen's theories on the procedure of revolution. As he realized the various problems facing the democratic and political construction in China, Dr. Sun Yat-sen felt that the democratic construction in China could not be accomplished over a night, and he proposed his theories on the procedure of revolution, dividing the procedure into such three periods as military politics, training politics, and constitutional politics. Among them, regional autonomy and building the state relying on a powerful party were among the mostimportant.The third chapter discusses about the constitution of five rights and the distinction of rights and functions. The constitution of five rights are his project on democratic politics in China, including such fields as the government of five rights, four important civil rights, regional county autonomy, and civil congress. In 1924, he proposed the distinction of rights and functions as an interpretation of his theories on the constitution of five rights, clarifying the relationship between the four important civil rights and the government of five rights, while shifting the emphasis from direct civil rights to government rights. Dr. Sun...
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