Abstract:

November 12, 2016 marked the 150 anniversary of Sun Yat-sen's birthday, who is the forerunner of the China's democratic revolution. By reviewing the thought of the Sun Yat-sen's people's livelihood and welfare, it is not only conducive to the memory of his special contribution to livelihood affairs, but also beneficial for rethinking the people-and-livelihood-oriented welfare system at present. This article uses the literature research method, surveying Sun Yat-sen's most important speeches from 1890 to 1925, and finds that Sun Yat-sen's thought can be divided into four different development stages, namely the nascent stage, the forming stage, the optimization stage and the setting stage, according to the different epochal demands; along with the maturity of his revolutionary thought, Sun Yat-sen's thought of people's livelihood and welfare was gradually transforming from fragments to systematic, from vagueness to particularities, from traditional to modern way, which seems to be more comprehensive, rational and mature in the 35 years. This paper suggests that we should promote "people-oriented" social policy based on correctly understanding and inheriting Sun Yat-sen's thought, actively expand the economic foundation of people's livelihood, and learn relevant development experiences of people's livelihood from home and abroad.

Key words: Sun Yat-sen, thought of people's livelihood and welfare, historical evolution, contemporary reference, 1890—1925