Homer Lea Homer Lea ( November 17 , 1876 — November 1 , 1912 ) , was an American adventurer and author . He is today best known for his involvement with Chinese reform and revolutionary movements in the early twentieth century as close advisor to Dr . Sun Yat - sen during the 1911 Chinese Republican revolution that overthrew the Qing Dynasty . Homer Lea was also a prolific author , writing books about China and geopolitics . Early life . Homer Lea was born in Denver , Colorado , to Alfred E . ( 1845 – 1909 ) and Hersa A . ( 1846 – 1879 ; née Coberly ) Lea . He had two younger sisters , Ermal and Hersa . Alfred , a Tennessee native , had a successful real estate , abstract and brokerage business in Boulder , Colorado . After his wife Hersa died from an unexpected illness in 1879 , he married Emma R . Wilson in 1890 and moved his family to Los Angeles , California four years later . Homer came from a pioneering family . His grandfather , Dr . Pleasant John Graves Lea ( 1807 - 1862 ) , helped establish the town of Cleveland , Tennessee , in 1837 , before moving his family to Jackson County , Missouri , in the late 1840s in search of new opportunities . He is the namesake for Lee ’ s Summit , Missouri . The town was named after him in 1868 when the Missouri Pacific Railroad established a station near his property , which was the highest point of its St . Louis - Omaha line , but misspelled his name . In 1884 , Alfred Lea was involved in the establishment of Steamboat Springs , Colorado , and the following year helped his brother Joseph establish the town of Roswell , New Mexico , by surveying and drawing the first plat of the Roswell town site . In 1917 , Joseph C . Lea ( 1841 - 1905 ) became the namesake for Lea County , New Mexico . Homer was born seemingly healthy , but after suffering a drop as a baby , he became a hunchback , eventually standing 5 - foot , 3 - inches in height and weighing approximately 100 pounds . At about age 12 he went to the National Surgical Institute in Indianapolis , Indiana , where he received medical treatment that helped improve his stature . His health began deteriorating further from a degenerative kidney ailment known as Bright ' s disease and he suffered chronic headaches and vision problems that may have stemmed from a diabetic condition . Homer attended Boulder Central School ( 1886 – 1887 ) , East Denver High School ( 1892 – 1893 ) , the University of the Pacific college preparatory academy in San Jose , California ( 1893 – 1894 ) , and Los Angeles High School ( 1894 – 1896 ) . He planned on going to Harvard University and becoming a lawyer , but financial setbacks altered his plans and he attended Occidental College in Los Angeles ( 1897 – 1898 ) for his freshman college year and Stanford University ( 1898 – 1899 ) for his sophomore and junior years , before dropping out of school for health reasons . Homer was an avid reader , a charismatic debater , and an accomplished outdoorsman who refused to be bound by the limitations of his disabilities . He loved reading military history and particularly admired Napoleon , in part because his slight stature was an example of greatness unaffected by physical size . He excelled as a debater and developed effective skills in influencing others . He became president of the Los Angeles High School debating society and later president of the local Lyceum League national debating society chapter . He loved adventure and the outdoors and often went on rugged camping trips where he always carried his own weight . Chinese Affairs . Lea developed an interest in China after his family moved to Los Angeles , seeing in China an opportunity to attain military glory . He often visited nearby Chinatown and also befriended the Reverend Ng Poon Chew , a local Chinese missionary friend of his parents . He met other Chinese through Ng Poon Chew and soon began learning their language ( Cantonese ) . In 1899 , while recuperating from a bout of smallpox , he learned of a recently organized Chinese society called the Bao Huang Hui ( Protect the Emperor Society ; also known as the Chinese Empire Reform Association ) , which Kang Youwei , a former adviser to the Chinese emperor , helped establish to restore the Guangxu Emperor to his throne . The emperor had been deposed in 1898 by Empress Dowager Cixi for instituting Western reforms . Lea saw an opportunity for adventure in China with the Bao Huang Hui rather than returning to Stanford . He convinced local Bao Huang Hui leaders that he was a military expert who could greatly benefit their cause , in part , by falsely claiming Confederate Army General Robert E . Lee as a relative . Chinese officials were also impressed by his extensive Stanford education . The Bao Huang Hui welcomed him into their ranks with promises of becoming a General in their upcoming military campaign to restore the emperor to power . He traveled to China in 1900 , while the Boxer Rebellion was underway , with high hopes of playing a major role in the military campaign . He became a Lieutenant General in the Bao Huang Hui ’ s makeshift military forces , but had a relatively unimportant assignment that involved training rural volunteers away from any active military operations . After the Bao Huang Hui ’ s main military forces were defeated by the imperial army , his military adventures in China came to a virtual end . Lea returned to California in 1901 and continued working with the Bao Huang Hui . He became the architect of a plan to train a Bao Huang Hui military cadre in America whose goal was to return to China and help restore the emperor to power . In 1904 , he began establishing a network of military schools nationwide to covertly train his soldiers . His soldiers wore uniforms similar to those of the U . S . Army , with the exception of having a dragon replacing the national eagle on buttons and hats , and he recruited U . S . Army veterans as drill instructors . While his training scheme received popular attention in the press , it also resulted in a series of unwanted federal , state and local investigations , which subsequently led Kang Youwei to disavow Lea and his training scheme . After breaking with the Bao Huang Hui , Lea again turned his ambitions to China . In 1908 , he unsuccessfully sought to become a U . S . trade representative to China for the Roosevelt administration ; and in 1909 , he unsuccessfully sought to become the U . S . Minister to China for the Taft administration . In 1908 , he also contrived a bold and audacious military venture in China called the “ Red Dragon Plan ” that called for organizing a revolutionary conspiracy to conquer the two southern Guang provinces . He conspired with a handful of American businessmen and Yung Wing , a prominent former Chinese diplomat and scholar living in America . Through Yung Wing , he planned to solicit a united front of various southern Chinese factions and secret societies to organize an army that he would command for the revolution . If successful , Yung Wing was slated to head a coalition government of revolutionary forces while Lea and his fellow conspirators hoped to receive wide - ranging economic concessions from the new government . When Chinese revolutionary leader Dr . Sun Yat - sen came to America in late 1909 on a fund - raising trip , he met with Yung Wing , who convinced him that Lea and the Red Dragon conspirators could benefit his revolutionary movement . The Red Dragon conspirators joined Sun Yat - sen ’ s movement to topple the Manchu Dynasty and Lea became one of Sun Yat - sen ’ s most trusted advisors . Ultimately , the Red Dragon conspirators could not obtain the necessary financial backing for their plans and dissolved the conspiracy after a failed revolutionary attempt by Sun Yat - sen ’ s followers in March 1911 . Lea , however , remained loyal to Sun Yat - sen . In October 1911 , Sun Yat - sen ’ s forces succeeded in their revolution to depose the Manchu Dynasty . Sun Yat - sen was in America on a fund raising trip when he received word that he was to be the president of the new Chinese provisional government . He immediately contacted Lea to help arrange American and British governmental support for the revolutionary cause . Sun Yat - sen and Lea believed in forming an Anglo - Saxon alliance with China that would grant the United States and Great Britain special status for their support . Lea , who was in Wiesbaden , Germany , receiving medical treatment for his failing eyesight , met Sun Yat - sen in London , but they failed to obtain the desired Anglo - American support . As Sun Yat - sen and Lea sailed together for China , Lea ’ s influence on Sun Yat - sen appeared to be growing . As their ship made several port calls along the way , Sun Yat - sen announced plans to make Lea the chief of staff of China ’ s Republican army with authority to negotiate an end to hostilities with the imperial government . Shortly after arriving in Shanghai , China , in late December 1911 , however , Lea suffered a major reversal of fortunes . He received word from the U . S . State Department that he could not be the chief of staff of China ’ s Republican army since U . S . legal restrictions prevented him from aiding revolutionary movements . At the same time , Chinese revolutionary leaders wary of his influence over Sun Yat - sen , considered him an interloper and wanted nothing to do with him , which further marginalized his position . He remained Sun Yat - sen ’ s close unofficial adviser until early February 1912 , when he suffered a near fatal stroke shortly after he heard of Sun Yat - sen ' s resignation that left him partially paralyzed and signaled an end to his stay in China . Writings . Homer Lea ’ s principal writings included three books , " The Vermilion Pencil " ( 1908 ) , " The Valor of Ignorance " ( 1909 ) , and " The Day of the Saxon " ( 1912 ) . His first book , " The Vermilion Pencil " , a romance novel , received critical acclaim . The novel painted a colorful picture of Chinese rural life with a fast moving plot that centered on the relationship and romance of a French missionary and the young wife of a Chinese Viceroy . Lea originally entitled it , " The Ling Chee , " in reference to a brutal type of Chinese execution by dismemberment , which his publisher , McClure ’ s , changed . Lea collaborated with Oliver Morosco , the proprietor of the Burbank Theater , to produce a dramatized version of the " The Ling Chee " in the fall of 1907 , but nothing came of the venture . Lea subsequently wrote a dramatized version of his novel that he renamed " The Crimson Spider . " In 1922 , Japanese - born Sessue Hayakawa , a leading Hollywood film star and movie producer , adapted " The Vermilion Pencil " to the screen . Lea ’ s second book , " The Valor of Ignorance " , examined American defense and in part prophesied a war between America and Japan . It created controversy and instantly elevated his reputation as a credible geo - political spokesman . Two retired U . S . Army generals , including former Army Chief - of - Staff Adna R . Chaffee , wrote glowing introductions to the book , which also contained a striking frontispiece photograph of Lea in his lieutenant general ’ s uniform . The book contained maps of a hypothetical Japanese invasion of California and the Philippines and was very popular among American military officers , particularly those stationed in the Philippines over the next generation . General Douglas MacArthur and his staff , for example , paid close attention to the book in planning the defense of the Philippines . The Japanese military also paid close attention to the book , which was translated into Japanese . Lea ’ s final book , " The Day of the Saxon " , examined British imperial defense and predicted the break - up of the British Empire . It too generated controversy and received most of its critical attention in Europe . In " The Day of the Saxon " Lea believed the entire Anglo - Saxon race faced a threat from German ( Teuton ) and Russian ( Slav ) expansionism . He believed that while Russia moved against India , the Germans would strike at England , the center of the British Empire . He thought the Anglo - Saxons faced certain disaster from their militant opponents . In " The Valor of Ignorance " and " The Day of the Saxon " , Lea viewed American and British struggles for global competition and survival as part of a larger Anglo - Saxon social Darwinist contest between the “ survival of the fittest ” races . He sought to make all English - speaking peoples see that they were in a global competition for supremacy against the Teutonic , Slavic , and Asian races . He believed that once awakened , they would embrace his militant doctrines and prepare for the coming global onslaught . China figured prominently in his world - view as a key ally with the Anglo - Saxons in counterbalancing other regional and global competitors . He had plans for a third volume to complete a trilogy with " The Valor of Ignorance " and " The Day of the Saxon " , in which he sought to advance his social Darwinist beliefs by discussing the spread of democracy among nations , but he died before beginning the volume . Later Life and Death . Lea returned to California in May 1912 to recover his health . He had hopes of rejoining Sun Yat - sen , but he suffered another stroke in late October 1912 , which proved fatal . His final wishes were to be buried in China , but his cremated ashes remained with his family until they arranged for the Republic of China to receive them . In 1969 , his ashes and those of his wife Ethel ( née Bryant ) were interred at Yangmingshan Public Cemetery in Taipei , Taiwan . President Chiang Kai - shek , Sun Yat - sen ’ s brother - in - law , took a personal interest in the arrangements . He believed the interment of the Lea ’ s ashes in Taiwan should only be temporary until they could be transferred to Nanking and interred by Sun Yat - sen ’ s mausoleum , when Taiwan and mainland China were finally reunited . In popular culture . Homer Lea is portrayed by Michael Lacidonia in the film 1911 , released in 2011 .