Summary
8. Ye Wenjie
Wang removes the V-suit and drives to Yang Dong’s mother’s house. He’s annoyed that he can’t figure out the solution to Three Body. Yang Dong’s mother is Ye Wenjie, now in her sixties, and her apartment is full of the neighbors’ young children, whom she cares for while the neighbors work. She clearly understands that Wang is here to snoop into “Dong Dong’s” life, but she doesn’t mind. Yang Dong’s room is covered in bark and tree stumps, seemingly carelessly; she has a childhood journal made of birch bark on the desk, full of abstract random lines. Ye Wenjie regrets teaching her brilliant daughter such ethereal theories, which, when they collapsed, destroyed her as well. When Wang disagrees, Ye Wenjie replies that Dong “was a woman. A woman should be like water, able to flow over and around anything.”
Before Wang leaves, Professor Ye puts him in touch with an old student working in a lab that observes the cosmic microwave background. She gives him ginseng for his health; Wang, very moved, says he will visit her often.
9. The Universe Flickers
Wang Miao meets with Dr. Sha Ruishan, Ye’s student, at the Miyun Radio Astronomy Observatory. Wang and Sha discuss the cosmic microwave background, which fluctuates locally but, universally, would never “flicker” the way Shen Yufei predicted—a million years of observation might not detect any change at all, much less a five-percent fluctuation. They wait together until 1 AM. Sha gives Wang a tour of the facility. They go to a bar, where Sha drinks; he shares that Professor Ye was involved in the notorious Red Coast Project.
At 1 AM, the fluctuation begins, and Wang translates the peaks in the line on the screen as Morse code continuing the countdown: 1108:21:37, 1108:21:36… Sha confirms with other laboratories, then asks Wang if this is connected to the strange things happening to other scientists—if it’s "their turn." Wang replies that it’s his turn, at least. Wang drives to a planetarium to use some 3K glasses, which allow him to observe the cosmic microwave background with his own eyes. He feels that everything around him is trying to send him a message. He calls Shen Yufei, asking what happens at the end of the countdown. She doesn’t know. He drives all night, then parks and wanders aimlessly, ending at a church, where he cries. He’s interrupted by Captain Shi Qiang laughing at him.
10: Da Shi
In his head, Wang now refers to Captain Shi by his nickname, Da Shi ("Big Shi"). Da Shi returns Wang's car keys (turns out Wang parked in an intersection), gives him a cigarette (Wang’s first in years), and takes him drinking (even though it’s morning). Da Shi is unimpressed by Wang’s story of the universe “winking,” calling it bullshit. He tells Wang to drink, then sleep.
Wang sleeps in his car for the day. When he wakes up, he sees the sun set in the Forbidden City, and the world seems classical and stable again. Da Shi visits him, sharing what he understands of the current situation: academics’ suicides, random violence against observatories/academies, bold environmental activists, anti-urban settings in movies, a proliferation of mysteriously wealthy cult leaders… Da Shi believes this is all a plan to completely ruin scientific research. There are over 20 Battle Command Centers like the one General Chang leads worldwide; NATO officers are in the PLA headquarters, and PLA officers are working out of the Pentagon. Armies truly are on high alert. The world is at war—but against what? Da Shi encourages Wang to keep working and playing Three Body, which they’re playing at the Battle Command Center, too. Da Shi tells him to keep his head on straight, then drives away before Wang can thank him.
11. Three Body: Mozi and Fiery Flames
Wang buys a V-suit on his way home, then deals with work calls and has a few drinks, as Da Shi recommended. After his family falls asleep, he logs into Three Body.
Eons have passed since his last game. King Zhou’s pyramid is ancient now, with stairs up to the apex. At the top, Wang (as Hairen) meets Mozi, who tells him that 362,000 years and four civilizations have passed since Civilization Number 137. Mozi shows him the preserved skeleton of Confucius, who incorrectly predicted a Stable Era—instead, the sun rose to the middle of the sky, then dimmed and “went out,” freezing everything abruptly. This ruins Wang’s working theories about the Chaotic and Stable Eras. Mozi has an elaborate model of how he thinks this world works (two spheres with holes in them, contracting and expanding in a sea of fire), and on his recommendation, Emperor Wu of Han is rehydrating the people for a four-year Stable Era. Wang doesn’t believe in Mozi’s theory, but he observes the sun using his technology, finding that, unlike in the real world, in Three Body the sun’s core is visible.
10 days pass in Wang’s astronomical observation, and civilization progresses, but on the next day, the sun doesn’t rise at first; then, it rises too close to the planet’s surface, setting living things on fire. Civilization Number 141 falls to ruin. Three Body invites Wang to log on in the future. Wang again thinks that Three Body is pretending to be an illusion/game but in fact possesses a deep reality—and that reality is superficially complex but in truth rather simple.
The next day, Wang returns to work as normal, which he finds calming. However, he’s unsettled after work, so he visits Ye Wenjie, who (at her insistence) tells him about her years at Red Coast Base.
12. Red Coast II
This section continues the story from the end of Part I (chapter 3). Around 1970, Ye, still a political outsider, is first assigned a few technical tasks at Red Coast Base, under security’s supervision. In college, her advisor was one of the pioneers of Chinese radio astronomy, which makes her very useful at Red Coast Base in the Transmission Department. She excels quickly, but she soon realizes that almost everyone there is highly qualified, too—they’re just pretending not to be so they won’t be permanently stuck at this remote, uninteresting base. She also excels because, mysteriously, Red Coast Base has no real advanced technology at all.
Over time, her security guard is dropped, and she becomes an important technical staff member. She also comes to like Commissar Lei, who is now kind to her. One day, when they’re alone at a cliff by the base, Commissar Lei explains what a microwave is to Ye, then tells her they’re using Red Coast Base to “microwave” enemy space vessels (using radiation to heat/destroy satellites’ radar, comms, et cetera). Yang Weining overhears and is shocked Commissar Lei is telling her this. Ye is disheartened that Chief Yang, who brought her here, still doesn’t trust her.
She is transferred to the Monitoring Department the next day, which is actually closer to the heart of Red Coast Base. It has better technology, with FORTRAN and database-capable software. Against Chief Yang’s wishes, Commissar Lei gives Ye limited access to this software, saying he hopes to one day call her Comrade Ye. She works under Chief Yang in the Monitoring Department, where things don’t make sense to her—for example, they break the encryption on the American KH-9 satellite and intercept valuable info, but Yang Weining orders them to abandon the target after a few days. Another day, she notices that upcoming transmissions are at such low frequencies that they couldn’t possibly be heating a target.
One day shortly after, Ye is summoned to the administrative office. She knows she’s in trouble, but Commissar Lei reveals that this has all been a cover story, which will now be abandoned at Chief Yang’s insistence. (Commissar Lei has actually been the one doubting her, trying to test her loyalty and feed her false stories.) With Ye’s consent, Yang Weining explains the true nature of Red Coast—a fairy tale for the ages, even more incredible than the commissar’s lies.
13. Red Coast III
This chapter consists of excerpts from selected documents from the Red Coast project (with many sections omitted, including authors and dates, which are often written "196X"). It begins by stating that these documents were declassified three years after Ye Wenjie told Wang Miao the inside story of Red Coast, so a few years after the content of The Three-Body Problem.
I: A Question Largely Ignored by Trends in Fundamental World Scientific Research
There are two ways for scientific research to change into practical application: gradualistic mode (one bit at a time, like space travel) and saltatory mode (theory is applied rapidly, creating a technological leap, like atomic weapons). Saltatory-mode improvements in foreign tech pose a major threat to strategic planning. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has the greatest chance of such a leap, with the most important results, so we must think of this matter in depth.
II: Research Report on the Possibility of Technology Leap Due to the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
A summary of international research trends into SETI, focusing on two groups: American Imperialists/NATO, and Soviet Revisionists/Warsaw Pact. Much of this document is redacted, including its predictions about what will happen if either of those groups monopolizes contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. The report recommends sending a message into space, to keep pace with foreign messages and give a complete picture of human society.
III: Research Report on the Initial Phase of the Red Coast Project
Top Secret (only two copies). The goal of the project codenamed “Red Coast”: “To search for the possible existence of extraterrestrial intelligence and to attempt contact and exchange.” The goal is to give a picture of Earth, life on Earth, etc, without giving away Earth’s coordinates in the Milky Way.
IV: Message to Extraterrestrial Civilizations
The complete text of the first draft is included, ending with “We hope you will not listen to their lies. Stand with justice, stand with the revolution!” (This can be found on page 171, and is a fruitful resource for essays on intertextuality, propaganda, “found documents” in sci-fi, and so on.) This is followed by a reaction to the first draft from the central leadership, calling it “utter crap” and recommending a committee draft a careful message, separate from the Cultural Revolution leadership. The second and third drafts are omitted; the fourth draft is longer, though still country-focused, ending with “We look forward to working together with you to build a better life in this vast universe.”
V: Related Policies and Strategies
Thoughts on what to do after contact with extraterrestrial intelligence is omitted. The document ends with a reflection that this project has been a useful break, and that it will be wonderful if the universe does have other societies—bystanders have the clearest view, and they’ll be able to comment on whether “we” (1960s China) are the heroes or the villains of history.
Analysis
In this section, the mysteriously terse Shen Yufei guides Wang Miao toward understanding what she presumably has known for a while: Humanity's knowledge of the universe is incomplete, and there's some higher power out there. While she doesn't explicitly explain, this section jumps quickly into found documents about extraterrestrial life, so the reader is able to make a few educated guesses about who or what has been creating the countdown. It's unlikely Wang Miao himself suspects alien interference at this point; he was "uncomfortable" with Ye Wenjie's enthusiasm for sharing her story, so at the very least he still doesn't realize how pivotal she is.
When Wang sees the cosmic microwave background flicker, he has a bit of a meltdown. This section is full of rhetorical language, dense with metaphors, similes, and imagery: "he was an ant crawling through the cracks in the floor. He felt a giant, invisible hand caressing his trembling heart..." (page 129). Wang's size is dilated here; he is metaphorically compared to a bug (which has some resonances with the novel's conclusion), and then a baby caressed by a giant hand. Liu Cixin relies on devices like this when communicating the abstract, whether that's abstract scientific concepts or large, possibly unrelatable emotions.
This section also features a high concentration of "primary sources": a number of documents are presented but redacted, with "[omitted]" blocking sections of the text. This was not the most intuitive way for Liu Cixin to provide this information, so we should take a close look at it. He could have written the character Yang Weining's explanation of the base's purpose, or he could have had Ye Wenjie explain that purpose to Wang Miao in the present day; instead, Liu presents the reader with documents that were supposedly released three years after their conversation.
A few things are accomplished by shifting the narrative this way. Firstly, it's more interesting than long chunks of dialogue; in general, writers tend to avoid "info-dumping" like that when they can. Secondly, it allows the reader to piece together the documents' meaning themselves, rather than being told—the reader is more engaged this way, playing detective and drawing their own conclusions. And finally, the reader is given the illusion that they now have more access to information than the characters do. While Wang Miao will likely read these redacted reports someday, he can't at the time of his scene with Ye Wenjie, because they're not published yet. The reader is privy to a secret, in a way, giving Wang's choices some dramatic tension.
Wang has now played the game Three Body twice, though he still has no firm idea of a solution. The aesthetic of the game's world changes, but the gameplay itself is the same. These chapters are long and a bit surreal, because the game's purpose is to be on some level incomprehensible. However, using familiar figures like Confucius lets Liu Cixin "ground" these passages in some sense of reality, similar to how he introduces real-world professors at Tsinghua University before transitioning to the fictional Ye Zhetai. The Three Body video game probably uses known figures for this exact purpose, to give players some common ground to start from. It is interesting to compare the video game's narrative devices to those of the novel: they use complementary, but different, techniques to create a sense of either immersion or alienness.
