Zhipeng Wu

Zhipeng Wu

Oct. 30, 2026

Sun Yat-sen, Public participation, Literary form, Revolutionary memory, Deliberative standing.

Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary writings placed readers, listeners, and association members in different political positions. Reading testimony, propaganda, poetry, commemorative prefaces, The Doctrine of Sun Wen, and the Primer of Democracy together, this article argues that literary and rhetorical form helped determine how the public could participate: as judges of facts, affective successors to a revolutionary cause, implementers of knowledge, or members entitled to alter proposals. Narrative disclosure, elegy, historical memory, analogy, and procedural rehearsal each opened a distinct route into political action. These routes expanded participation unevenly and left unresolved how claims presented as 'true knowledge' should enter procedures that permit objection, amendment, and vote.

© 2026, the Authors. Published by ISCCAC

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license