Burying Sun Yat-Sen : Sun Yat-Sen Symbol And The Legitimacy Construction Of The Party-State Governing By The Kuomintang Party(1925-1929)

The establishment and growth of a country need to provide a series of symbolic symbols for imagination.In the continuous attempt of modern China’s national morphological transformation,Sun Yat-sen Symbol came into being.The construction of Sun Yat-sen Symbol is a long and complex process,and the death of Sun Yat-sen is undoubtedly a node event.After Sun Yat-sen died,the assessment of his life experience and the formation of his historical status have attracted much debate.Burying Sun Yatsen has gone through four years,during which two grand funerals were held: the funeral in Beijing in 1925 and Feng-an Ceremony in 1929.From the two funerals as the breakthrough point,this paper analyzes how the Kuomintang creates Sun Yat-sen Symbol through a series of political rituals,and then realizes the legitimacy construction of the party’s rule of the country.In this paper,the main point is : with the development of the National Revolution and the Rebuilding the Republic of China movement,Sun Yat-sen Symbol realized the promotion from the “ Prime Minister of the Kuomintang ” to the “ Father of the Party-state ” by focusing on the two funerals.In this process,the KMT has always firmly grasped the dominant power of Sun Yatsen Symbol’s construction,with the goal of completing Sun Yat-sen’s will to rebuild the Republic of China,and realized the progressive legitimacy from “ the Party ” to“ the state ”,that is,the transformation from the revolutionary legitimacy of “ building the state by the Party ” to the institutional legitimacy of “ governing the state by the Party ”.Accordingly,this paper further argues that the promotion of Sun Yat-sen Symbol and the formation of the Party-state are complementary.That is to say,Sun Yat-sen Symbol not only assists the legitimacy construction of the Party-state,but also its connotation is stipulated in the realization of the latter,reflecting the collective needs of Chinese society for the establishment of modern countries and the creation of national idols in the 1920 s.However,at the same time,in this process,due to the abuse of Sun Yat-sen ’ s political thought and the exclusion of dissident interpretation by the dictatorial ruling group with Chiang Kai-shek as the core,the Sun Yat-sen Symbol has been alienated,and the new regime has also deviated from Sun Yat-sen ’ s political idea in practical operation,which has laid hidden dangers for the legitimacy foundation of the party-state governing by the Kuomintang.With the inheritance and transcendence of Sun Yat-sen Symbol,the Communist Party of China embarked on the stage of modern state’s construction of China with a more mature party concept and organizational mechanism.The logical thinking and main contents of this paper are as follows.Firstly,this paper analyzes the construction basis of Sun Yat-sen Symbols from three aspects.First,the relationship between political symbols and legitimacy construction is the theoretical basis for analyzing the formation of Sun Yat-sen Symbols.Second,Sun Yat-sen ’ s thought transformation in his later years and the multiple images left behind after his death became the resource base of Sun Yat-sen Symbol construction.Third,Sun Yatsen’s funerals provide an important way to build Sun Yat-sen Symbol.Based on this,Sun Yat-sen Symbol has achieved adaptive interpretation and dissemination.Secondly,this paper comprehensively discusses the operation and political significance of the two funerals from the external environment,organizational planning and ritual performance.In 1925,the funeral in Beijing became the field where the Northern and Southern regimes fought for Sun Yat-sen Symbols.In 1929,Feng-an Ceremony was the“ political drama ” in which the new Kuomintang regime showed the order of the Party-state.Then,from the vertical perspective,this paper analyzes the connotation changes of Sun Yat-sen Symbols through the two funerals,and then discusses the different stages of the formation of the Party-state,that is,to build “ the party ” first,and then build “ the country ”.On the whole,observing the formation of the party-state from the perspective of Sun Yat-sen Symbol’s construction reveals the cultural operation of political power on the one hand,and confirms the significance of symbol construction for national growth on the other hand.