摘 要

宇宙观，是现代哲学的朴素形态。人类文明的发展和科技的进步，为探索宇宙提供了可能。以此为基础的后现代科幻作品蓬勃发展。由刘慈欣著、刘宇昆译的《三体》标志着中国历史上科幻文学的里程碑，讲述了一段地球文明在宇宙长河中的兴衰历程。本文旨在从宇宙观视角出发，分析《三体》中的个体对整个宇宙以及个体与宇宙关系的总的看法和根本观点。本文分为五个部分：第一部分介绍《三体》三部曲的创作背景和主要内容；第二部分介绍第一部小说中体现的人类和三体文明对宇宙其他文明的看法；第三部分介绍《黑暗森林》中的宇宙观主旋律，黑暗森林法则及其猜疑链、技术爆炸；第四部分介绍第三部小说中低等文明与高等文明间的博弈；最后一部分是总结主要观点及思考其现实意义。

关键词：三体；文明；宇宙观

Abstract

The concept of the universe is the simple form of philosophy. The development of human civilization and the progress of science and technology, provide chances for human beings to explore the universe. On the base of that, the industry of post-modern science fiction is booming. Written by Liu Cixin and translated by Ken Liu, The Three-Body Problem is the milestone in Chinese science fiction literature, and tells the story about the rise and fall of human civilization in the universe. From the cosmic view, this paper aims to analyze the general point of the individual in The Three-Body Problem about the whole universe, as well as the relationship between the individual and the universe. This paper will generally be divided into five parts. The first part is introduction to the background information of The Three-Body Problem. The following part will focus on the different attitudes towards universe civilization of human beings and trisolarans, which is stretched from the first section. In the third part, the dark forest rule, suspicion chain and the technological explosion will be introduced, which constitute the masterstroke that influence the direction of the second section. the fourth part is the introduction of the game between inferior culture and superior culture in Death’s End. The last part summarizes the main viewpoints and thoughts on its practical significance.

Key Words: Three-Body Problem, civilization, cosmic view

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Attitudes Towards Another Civilization 3

2.1 Of Human Beings 3

2.2 Of Trisolarans 5

3 Dark Forest 7

3.1 Dark Forest Rules 7

3.2 Chains of Suspicion 8

3.3 The Technological Explosion 9

4 Game Between Inferior Culture and Superior Culture 10

4.1 The Dimension War 10

4.2 The Fermi Paradox 11

5 Conclusion 13

References 15

Acknowledgements 16

Interpretation on the cosmic views of

The Three-Body Problem – a post-modern science fiction

1 Introduction

Liu Cixin, a great science fiction writer, born in Shanxi, China in 1960s. After graduating from North China Institute of Water Conservancy and Hydroelectric Power in 1985, he became an engineer at a power plant. His first short story The Whale Song was published in 1999 and in the same year, Take Her Eyes got the first prize of the Chinese Galaxy Award for Science Fiction. In 2007, he published the novel Three Body, which made him the first Asian writer who won the Hugo Award.

The Three-Body Problem, tells the rise and fall of earth civilization and the three body civilization in the universe. Human history, physics, astronomy, social theory and philosophy are all have involved, and from the angle of science fiction, human nature is deeply discussed. With ambitious patterns and approach, this novel is known as the most prominent science fiction so far in the history of Chinese literature. It is the milestone of the Chinese science fiction that improves the level of Chinese science fiction to a much higher standard.

The novel describes a story that human beings notice the existence of the three-body world, and successfully have a contact with it. The scientific and technological level of the three-body is far higher than human, but the natural environment of the three-body world is worse than that of the earth. So the three-body civilization decides to invade the earth. As a result, the war between earth and three-body world lasts for hundreds of years, which is the main point that support the story. Because two coordinates are both exposed to the universe, three-body civilization and earth are destroyed during the fight against the dark forest by more advanced civilization -- singer civilization, and surviving individuals continue the civilization in the form of the Starship.

The significance of Liu Cixin's Three-Body Problem lies not only in literary creativity, but more generally, in the truth that this novel has changed the nature of Chinese science fiction literature to a certain extent. From the day when science fiction literature come into China in 1990s, it bears the burden that writings are for conveying truth, and too much social functions are forced on it. Liang Qichao regarded science fiction as a part of new novel to develop people’s wisdom. While Lu Xun paid more attention to the science education function of science fiction literature. Under the influence of the change of regime and social change, science fiction literature begins to swing between ideological tool and popular science tool.

At the beginning of the 1990s, because science fiction had been placed expectations of popular science and modernization, science and technology associations around the country established many popular science magazines one after another. science fiction literature was booming. The most eye-catching magazine was sponsored by Sichuan Provincial Association named Science Fiction World. It was once the most influential periodical with the highest circulation in China.

The Three-Body Problem makes science fiction literature more adult-oriented. it triggers the spontaneous response made by science-fiction fans and other groups such as literature lovers, scientist and entrepreneurs. The effect is far away from the sense of convoying truth.

This paper, by means of text analysis, presents the writer’s view on the origin and progress of the universe as well as the impact and the transformation of intelligent beings on the universe. Then, based on its analysis of the book’s comic views revealed during the protagonists’ exploration into the unknown worlds and mysterious universe, the paper manifests the main characteristics and developments of the cosmic views in post-modern science fictions.

2 Attitudes Towards Other Civilizations

2.1 Of Human Beings

A desperate time will easily produce a desperate idea. The macro-background of this novel was set during the cultural revolution. Ye Wenjie, one of the main characters of the first edition, had a rough life. she experienced the cultural revolution, witnessed her father’s death, and was repeatedly framed by other people. Ye Wenjie hated human beings because of her tragic first half of life. This concept was not changed until the reform and opening up. But she has been desperate to human beings and always held the idea that human beings cannot help themselves unless there was the aid of other kind of power in order to get salvation. These ideas directly led she to exposing the universe coordinate of earth to Three-Body World. Even though she has been warned by an observer in Three-Body world that response would cause great disaster to earth, Ye Wenjie still didn’t change her mind and replied. This was the direct cause of the war between earth and Three-Body World for hundreds of years. Then, the ETO-Earth Three-body Organization was established, and Ye Wenjie became its leader, to assist the three-body world to defeat the earth. The ETO was divided into three forces, the Adventists, the Redemptionists and the Survivors.

The Adventists was the most primitive part of Three-Body rebels, which was mainly constituted by the believers of Evans species communism. They have been completely desperate for human nature. This desperation was originally derived from the extinction of the earth species caused by the modern civilization, whose typical representative was Evans. Later, the hatred of the Adventists started to develop in different directions, no longer been limited to environment protection and war, and some have reached the standard of abstract philosophy. Unlike others' impressions towards them, the majority of these people are realists. They are not optimistic about the extraterrestrial civilization either although they are serving for it. The only source of their betray is their desperation and hatred to mankind. Mike Evans's words have become the motto of the Adventists: “we don't know what the extraterrestrial civilization looks like, but we know human beings.”(Ken Liu, 2014, p. 128).