Dr. Sun Yat-sen has been given too much credit for the 1911 Revolution that toppled the Ching dynasty. (The Unfinished Revolution: Sun Yat-sen and the Struggle for Modern China by Tjio Kayloe (2017)).
The focus on him and exiled intellectual dissidents like Liang Qi Chao has diverted historians from identifying the real cause(s) for the success of the Xinhai Revolution.
The reality is that though exiled conspirators may shout revolution and raise funds for revolution, they do not fundamentally cause it. The cause(s) must be found within China.
In this excellent book, Reform and Revolution in China: The 1911 Revolution in Hunan and Hubei by Joseph W. Esherick (1976), Esherick examined the internal causes.
He chose Hubei because the revolution began there. He chose Hunan as the revolution spread first to Hunan.
It is worth recalling that when the revolution started in 1911, Mao was then in Changsha, the capital of Hunan, having arrived 6 months earlier from his county to enroll at a secondary school there. Mao was 18 years old.
(P 37 Mao: The Man Who Made China by Philip Short (2017)).
LWH, 18 Oct 2025, Saturday, 3.30 p.m.