15 Facts About Yau Lit

Yau Lit, born Yau Kwai-bok, courtesy name Tui-hau or Ling-kwai, or Euclid Yau, was a Chinese revolutionary from Shuntak, Guangdong.

Yau Lit is one of the Four Bandits, together with Sun Yat-sen, Chan Siu-bak and Yeung Hok-ling.

Yau Lit entered a private school at the age of 5, and was educated under Luk Nam-long, a famous scholar in his hometown, at the age of 10.

In 1881, the 17-year-old Yau Lit travelled to Shanghai, Incheon, the Three Northeast Provinces and Nanking, joined the Hongmen during the journey and aspired to revolution.

In 1892, Yau Lit worked as a secretary at the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs of Hong Kong.

One day, Yau Lit visited Yeung Hok-ling, his classmate at the Canton Academy of Mathematics, and was introduced to Sun Yat-sen, a medical student from Yeung's hometown.

Yau Lit introduced Yeung Kui-wan, the leader of Furen, to Sun, who had already established the Revive China Society in Honolulu, Hawaii.

In 1897, Yau Lit returned to Hong Kong to found the Chung-wo Tong in Kowloon to advocate revolution; branches were later founded in Yokohama, Japan and Southeast Asia.

In 1900 Yau Lit participated in another unsuccessful uprising in Waichow, and had to flee to Yokohama with Sun.

Yau Lit focused on gaining the support from Chinese people living in Nanyang.

Yau Lit worked as the chief editor of the Thoe Lam Jit Poh, a pro-revolution newspaper circulating in Southeast Asia.

Yau Lit was jailed for several months in Singapore when he came to assist other revolutionaries.

Yau Lit was invited to Beijing by President Yuan Shikai to discuss national issues, but escaped to Tianjin when he discovered Yuan was only using him to restrain Sun Yat-sen.

Yau Lit co-founded the Hong Kong Chinese Herbalist Association to promote traditional Chinese medicine.

In 1936, when China had been reunified by Chiang Kai-shek, Yau Lit visited Nanjing and died there at the age of 72.