71 pages • 2-hour read
The Three-Body Problem
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Part 1, Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1: “Silent Spring”
Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary: “The Madness Years”
Content Warning: This section depicts death by suicide.
In 1967, the Chinese Cultural Revolution is in its second year. Two groups of communists face off against each other. The groups are divided into young and old revolutionaries, and the older group feels “anxious” about their younger counterparts. They fear that the young revolutionaries are “crazier than crazy” (4). The older revolutionaries have guns, but the younger revolutionaries have explosives. They could blow everything up whenever they please. On the roof of a nearby building, an attractive young revolutionary teenager waves a flag. A shot rings out, and she falls dead. The woman dies believing that she’s “passionately sacrificing herself for an ideal” (5).
During this time, a group of revolutionary students from the Tsinghua University in Beijing rise up against their lecturers, accusing the faculty of being “bourgeois reactionary academic authorities” (6). Amid the mass campaign of public shaming and torture, many lecturers, professors, and teachers have either renounced their beliefs or “chosen to end their lives” (7). Ye Zhetai is a physics professor with an outstanding reputation. He refuses to cow to the revolutionaries and cooperate with the Cultural Revolution. One technique the revolutionary students use is the struggle session, a violent public spectacle that coerce supposed enemies of the revolution into cooperation. Ye Zhetai is publicly beaten and shamed in front of the whole student body. Four young women and two young men launch a volley of accusations against him, but he refuses to respond. Shao Lin, his wife, is brought on stage. She has already joined the revolution and turned against Ye Zhetai. In front of everyone, she accuses him of teaching the “anti-dialectical” theory of relativity, as developed by Albert Einstein. This theory, she believes, goes against the communist ideology. Ye Zhetai doesn’t respond. He studies his wife. For a long time, he believed that she was too invested in political theory to be a true scientist. Just before the Culture Revolution began, she was engaged in modifying the names of many scientific theories to make them more politically appropriate.
Shao Lin’s father was a famous scholar before the Chinese Communist Revolution of 1949. He once met Albert Einstein, a meeting that became a key moment in his life. Their discussion about starving children made him think that any radical, innovative scientific theories launched in China would fail because the “gravity of reality is too strong” (12). On the stage in Beijing, the students attack Ye Zhetai. They hit him with belts. As they attack him, he argues with Shao Lin about physics and philosophy. Ye Zhetai insists that “experimental results”—not political theories such as Marxism—should guide scientific theory. Shao Lin believes that political theory should guide scientific experiments. When the debate turns to the topic of the Big Bang, Ye Zhetai confesses that he’s agnostic. He refuses to rule out the possible existence of God. This infuriates the students. To them, “all religions are tools concocted by the ruling class to paralyze the spirit of the people” (15). The female students become frenzied. They beat Ye Zhetai to death. Shao Lin bursts into hysterical laughter. The students run away, leaving only one behind. The sole remaining student is Ye Zhetai’s daughter, Ye Wenjie. She reflects on what she just witnessed, knowing that it’ll stay with her forever. At home, her mother can’t stop laughing. Ye Wenjie leaves. She visits Professor Ruan, her “advisor and her closest friend” (17). Like Ye Zhetai, Ruan has been subjected to torture, particularly because she wore makeup and high heels. When Ye Wenjie arrives, however, Ruan has died by suicide. Before taking her own life, Ruan dressed herself in high heels and applied lipstick.
Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary: “Silent Spring”
Two years pass. Ye Wenjie has graduated and is assigned to a job in the “unfamiliar wilderness” of a remote forest in Inner Mongolia. Surrounded by the Greater Khingan Mountains, she fells trees to clear space for grain fields. The project is headed by the Production and Construction Corps, a government organization. Each falling tree reminds Ye Wenjie of her father’s murder. The mass deforestation makes the Cultural Revolution seem relatively minor in comparison. Ye Wenjie can’t fathom the reason for so much environmental destruction. As she’s deep in thought, a local journalist named Bai Mulin talks to a worker. Mulin works for the Production and Construction Corps’ newspaper, and he speaks about how the exposed rings of the felled trees reveal “more than three hundred years of history” (21) that have now been destroyed. Although the workers are largely indifferent, Mulin recognizes Ye Wenjie as sympathetic to his ideas. Both are sad at how much the rich land is being destroyed. They discuss an American book titled Silent Spring. Although it’s widely banned for political reasons, certain members of the government are permitted to own copies. Bai, inspired by the book, has decided to write his own version. He wants to protest the destruction of the environment. He allows Yen Wenjie to read Silent Spring but warns her to “be careful.”
Ye Wenjie reads Silent Spring. The novel portrays the damage caused by chemical pesticides. Humanity, she comes to believe, is evil and can’t be trusted to take care of the planet. She believes that some external force must wake humanity to its evil actions. After finishing Silent Spring, Ye Wenjie visits Bai. He lives near Radar Peak, a “mysterious” military base. On top of the nearby mountain is a massive antenna that causes humans to feel sick and scares animals. According to the “strange stories,” the antenna even affects the weather. The base is under heavy security and is run by high-ranking communist officials. During their time apart, Bai has written a letter of protest. He shows Ye the letter, which he hasn’t sent yet. She admires it but detects anxiety in Bai’s “very sloppy” handwriting. Since his hands are shaking too much, she agrees to copy the letter for him. As Ye writes, Bai thinks about how such an intelligent astrophysicist could have her talents wasted on such a destructive project. Ye notices that, in Bai’s company, she feels a sense of comfort that she hasn’t felt since her father’s murder. As she leaves his house, she catches sight of the “gigantic antenna” on the nearby mountain.
Three weeks pass. Ye meets with the head of the Division Political Department, Director Zhang. He accuses her of writing Bai’s letter. The counter-revolutionary ideals of the letter mean that Ye will be punished. As she begins to protest, Ye realizes that Bai betrayed her. He set her up to take his punishment. Bai’s decision will be “a turning point in humankind’s history” (31) that historians will study in the future. Despite the magnitude of his actions, he’ll lead a relatively inconsequential life and will die of lung cancer after moving to Canada. He’ll never apologize or even acknowledge his betrayal of Ye Wenjie. Ye is sent to prison. Because of her family background, she has already been labeled “politically suspect.” A young, beautiful woman named Cheng Lihua interviews Ye at the prison. She believes that Ye is overeducated, having read too many books. She presents Ye with a document to sign, and Ye insists on reading it. The document is an account given to the government by Ye Wenxue, her younger sister, concerning their father. Ye Wenxue is now a fervent member of the Red Guard. She has issued scathing comments about her father. As Ye Wenjie reads on, she’s surprised to learn of her father’s involvement in a secret 1964 double-bomb project. Since the document’s accusations may lead to the torture and murder of her father’s former colleagues, Ye Wenjie refuses to sign. Cheng offers Ye immunity in exchange for her signature. If Ye Wenjie doesn’t sign, Cheng continues, she’ll be “ruined.” Ye Wenjie refuses to sign. Cheng pours ice water over Ye Wenjie. In the cold mountain air, Ye Wenjie begins to see things. She imagines her young sister waving a flag on a rooftop. Ye Wenjie imagines her mother, Bai, and Cheng, all waving the same flag. She falls unconscious.
Part 1, Chapter 3 Summary: “Red Coast I”
Ye Wenjie wakes up “on a helicopter” (39). She still feels sick. On board the helicopter, two men from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) greet her and quiz her about a scientific paper she authored while she was a student. One of the men introduces himself as the Political Commissar for the Red Coast Base. His name is Lei Zhicheng. The other man is Yang Weining, the base’s head engineer. Ye Wenjie recognizes Yang as one of her father’s former students. She’s surprised to see him. She remembers how he differed from her father, as he favored real-world experiments over discussions about theory for fear of making “ideological mistakes.” He distanced himself from Ye Zhetai after Ye Zhetai’s execution. Ye Wenjie begins to lose consciousness again as the two men talk about her. They’re concerned about bringing her on to the project because her political background may not be trustworthy. However, they have no other option. Whoever is hired for the “unconventional” project won’t be permitted to leave the base. As Ye Wenjie falls unconscious, she hears the two men talking about a secret project.
The helicopter lands. Ye Wenjie wakes up and realizes that she’s at the summit of Radar Peak. Although she has been accused of serious crimes, Lei explains, she has the “opportunity to redeem [herself] through hard work “ (43). After Lei departs, Yang warns Ye that anyone who joins the secret project can “never leave.” Ye doesn’t care. She happily accepts the role and the separation. Yang explains that they’re working on “a large-scale weapons research project” (45). As Yang gives Ye a tour, she’s too focused on the huge antenna. She can’t stop staring at it. As she stares, the “chaotic” machinery whirs into life. Everything becomes quiet as the antenna sends out a signal. Ye’s face itches and, in the distance, the sky seems to glow. A “flock of birds” (47) falls dead while flying past. Ye can’t comprehend where the antenna is pointing.
Part 1, Chapters 1-3 Analysis
The Three-Body Problem uses a linear narrative. Although flashbacks are incorporated in later chapters of the book, Part 1 unfolds in chronological order, beginning during the China Cultural Revolution. This chaotic period of Ye Wenjie’s life is told from the perspective of a third-person omniscient narrator. Given the traumatic nature of these events and the impact that they’ll have on Ye’s understanding of humanity, the objectivity of this third-person narrator is important. The narrator doesn’t editorialize, censor, or withhold the reality of the struggle session that killed Ye’s father. The audience sees events just as she did, allowing the audience to function as the external force that judges the actions of the humans. In effect, the use of a third-person omniscient narration style turns the audience into the external alien force that Ye believes will validate her view of humanity. In a similar fashion, the chaos of the Cultural Revolution foreshadows the Chaotic Eras of Trisolaris. Part 1 reveals how rapidly a civilization can switch between Stable and Chaotic Eras.
When Ye graduates from the university, she isn’t permitted to use her education for any meaningful purpose. Instead, she’s sent to a labor team and forced to clear forests as part of a social project. While working with this deforestation team, she loses even more faith in humanity as the theme of Politics and Science emerges. She doesn’t trust that humans can take care of the planet they inhabit. This disgust with humanity heightens the intrigue around Radar Peak and the Red Coast Base. The mystery of the base creates a contrast between the terrible reality that Ye has come to understand and the potential of the unknown. Throughout the chapters, Ye is tempted further away from humanity and toward the unknown. She’s sent away from her home in Beijing to an unknown part of China. Then, she’s offered the chance to join an unknown project on a mysterious base with a powerful antenna. Later, she’s tempted to look to the stars to study the unknown in search of potential life. In this journey, Ye seeks to leave behind everything that she finds disgusting in the hope that something—anything—might exist that can either restore her faith in humanity or provide the external judgment she craves. For Ye, these mysterious unknowns suggest that answers and catharsis are always just out of reach.
The actions of other people justify Ye’s growing distrust of humanity. After witnessing her father’s murder, she struggles to trust people. When she finally opens up to Bai Mulin, she feels as though she has found someone who understands her, hinting at the fundamental shared experiences that inform the theme of Universality. Bai gives her access to forbidden books and apparently shares her loathing for the destruction of the environment. They seem like equal partners in a fight against injustice. Then, Bai betrays Ye. He doesn’t plan to frame her for politically incorrect actions, but he does so to save his own career. The one person who seemed to understand Ye is quick to betray her as soon as his own well-being is threatened, introducing the theme of Perspective and Subjectivity. Bai is like too many humans who claim to be working for the benefit of others, only to reveal themselves as selfish and cowardly. The irony of Bai’s actions is the diverging paths of their lives. Bai grows old and dies in Canada after an uneventful life. He betrayed Ye to protect his career, only to spend his life achieving nothing. In contrast, Ye accepts his betrayal and—after becoming even more disillusioned with humanity—becomes one of the most significant people in human history. Bai felt that he had the potential to achieve something important but, in historical terms, is remembered only for his cowardice and his betrayal.
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