Sun Yat Sen is a figure that is impossible not to refer to while studying the Chinese Revolution. His involvement in the early days of the revolution is hard to deny but how effective and important his contribution was is arguable. There are many different arguments to whether Sun was a failed revolutionary or well deserving of the title "Father of the revolution".
There is a variance of opinion of how much sun contributed to the 1911 revolution is a great one. By early 1900 Sun had already expressed his need for the overthrowing of the Qing dynasty. To begin this Sun sent followers into China to attempt uprisings to make the most of the turmoil during the boxer rebellion but these uprisings failed. In 1905 two student revolutionary groups in Japan allied themselves with Sun Yat Sen's Revive China Society to form the Tongmenhui. These groups aimed to overthrow the Qing, establish a republic, get rid of foreign powers, develop democratic ideas and distribute land to the peasants. The alliance drew Sun into the mainstream revolutionary activity and provided a platform for his emerging philosophy "The Three Principles" of Nationalism, Democracy and People's Livelihood. The Tongmenhui received support from elite sections of society and their were eight uprisings between 1906 and 1911. The revolution that stared in 1911 though was not intiated by Sun Yat Sen but due to a mutiny in Wuchang . The revolt spread to neighboring cities and provinces. .
Some believe that although Sun wasn't directly involved in the 1911 revolution, his promotion and campaigning for that revolt against the Qing dynasty was the light that ignited flame and he was "the prophet and organizer of the revolution" He made people aware that there was a better way of being governed and the thousands of years of dynastic rule were not granting China's needs. Without Sun's propagandizing it is doubtful whether the revolt against the Qing dynasty would have been as dynamic and rapid as it occurred.