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Chapter 6
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Three-Body Problem, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Technology, Progress, and Destruction
Scientific Discovery and Political Division
Trauma and Cyclical Harm
Theory vs. Lived Experience
History and Legacy
Summary
Analysis
To find a place where he can observe the cosmic microwave background, Wang calls Ding Yi for help. Ding again advises Wang to consult Yang Dong’s mother, who is herself a retired astrophysicist. After he hangs up, Wang’s mind drifts to Shen Yufei and the video game she was playing on www.3body.net. He decides to grab a V-suit from his office and play the game himself. He logs on with the ID “Hairen.”
In order to understand what is happening around him, Wang has begun building a network of confidantes—again, he is a more social creature than many of his fellow scientists. Wang’s first username “Hairen” is a Chinese word that translates to “man of the sea.”
Themes
As soon as Wang enters the game, he feels his V-suit turn cold. The landscape appears deserted and barren until two men approach and introduce themselves. One of the men explains that he is King Wen of the Warring States Period, while the other introduces himself as Wen’s Follower. Wang is confused—in real history, King Wen lived long before the Warring States Period began. But rather than clarifying, King Wen and Follower just show Wang their complicated sand clock (which is like a giant hourglass); though the clock is heavy and they are on a long journey, they tell Wang this is their only way of measuring time.
V-suits are useful because they give players the ability to feel completely immersed in the environment of their game; therefore, every time Wang is playing the Three Body game, he is experiencing the game’s temperature. Just as the suit modulates Wang’s temperature, his introduction to the game immediately toys with his sense of time. King Wen is a real historical figure—he was a nobleman in King Zhou’s court in the 10th century B.C.E.—but here, he is in the wrong era.
Themes
Wang suggests that rather than using the sand clock, King Wen and Follower could just tell time by the sun. Wen is shocked by this idea, as he reminds Wang that they are “in the midst of a Chaotic Era.” Follower complains of being unbearably cold, and Wang assures him that he will get warmer when the sun comes up—but this, too, is greeted with shock. Wen informs Wang that in this world, time is divided into Chaotic and Stable Eras. There is no way to know when the sun will rise in a Chaotic Era, as it does not follow any regular pattern. And though the sun rises consistently in a Stable Era, there is also no way to know when a Stable Era is about to end and a Chaotic Era is about to begin.
This critical passage begins to break down how the world of the Three-Body game operates. Sometimes, the sun rises and falls with regularity, just as it does on earth. But sometimes, the sun abandons all rhythm entirely; it could rise or fall at any minute, throwing the world into chaos. In addition to the rapid heating or cooling that can occur when the sun appears or vanishes too quickly, this constant instability takes an emotional toll.
Themes
Wang notices the sun start to rise and set in several different points in the sky, surprising him. Because the three men are not speaking to each other much, Wen flips the sand clock up and down, speeding up the passage of time in the game. Wang checks the game sidebar and notices that his health bar is getting dangerously low.
Just as the sun changes its timing, it also changes its directionality (whereas on earth, it always rises in the east and sets in the west). But in a neat twist, though time on the Three-Body planet is unreliable, the game can be sped up or slowed down with regularity to allow players to maximize their experience.
Themes
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All of a sudden, the sun rises. Before Wang can celebrate, however, he realizes that the sun is getting closer and closer, scorching the earth; the three men have to find shade behind a rock to avoid being burned alive. Follower declares that living in a Chaotic Era is like “walking through hell,” and King Wen decides that the only option is to dehydrate Follower.
Wang is beginning to experience the constant fear of living in a Chaotic Era—at any moment, the world could freeze or begin to burn up. It follows, then, that someone like Follower has begun to despair that they are in “hell.”
Themes
Follower lays down on the ground and discharges all the water from his body, until his form has “lost its shape like a melting candle.” King Wen picks up Follower and asks Wang to carry him to their destination, explaining that when a dehydrated body is placed in water, it rehydrates again. Wang realizes that all the man-shaped wisps he has been seeing along their journey are in fact dehydrated bodies.
In order to survive the harsh conditions of a Chaotic Era, the residents of this planet have evolved to be able to dehydrate and rehydrate their bodies. Dehydration is basically a kind of hibernation; the dried-out bodies do not feel hot or cold or hunger, and so can survive even the worst climate shifts.
Themes
The two men continue along their path, and game time speeds up. Eventually, King Wen notices two flying stars in the sky and he celebrates: two flying stars always heralds the return of a Stable Era. Wang wonders if the appearances of three flying stars would be even better, but King Wen gets scared at the very idea (though he will not say why).
These flying stars will prove to be an important clue as Wang begins to figure out what is happening in this odd world. It is critical to remember that there is some correlation between the presence of two flying stars and the sun’s stable rising and falling.
Themes
As Wen predicted, a Stable Era has begun. Wen explains that during a Chaotic Era, all of humanity is dehydrated; during a Stable Era, they rehydrate and return to build cities and farms. Therefore, a Stable Era is the only time when civilization is able to advance, and so it is of utmost importance to predict when such an era will begin and end. King Wen explains that the goal of the game is to be able to create a calendar of Chaotic and Stable Eras. Wen has his own idea for a calendar, and right now, he is visiting King Zhou at his palace at Zhao Ge in order to share his vision.
Here, the goal of the game comes into focus: as a player, Wang’s objective is to create a calendar for this tricky solar system. Because dehydration is a kind of hibernation, the people of this planet can only create life and make discoveries when they are rehydrated into a prolonged Stable Era—but not every Stable Era is prolonged. For civilization to advance, therefore, it is essential to know not only when a Stable Era is approaching but how long that era will be.
Themes
As they at last approach King Zhou’s palace, Wang hears a sound like thunder—and he realizes it is actually the sound of many giant pendulums swinging in the air. Wen shows Wang the thick walls of King Zhou’s palace, explaining that these walls allow him to survive the Chaotic Eras, when all of the other citizens are dehydrated.
Wang has arrived in the capital. He learns that this planet is ruled by a single leader, who takes responsibility for giving the orders to dehydrate and rehydrate the populace—and who therefore must survive even the most awful Chaotic Eras.
Themes
The two men arrive in the Great Hall, where they see King Zhou on his throne. Next to him there is a man clad in all black. Zhou explains that Fu Xi, the man in black, believed that the sun was an angry god. By building the pendulums, Fu Xi claimed, society could tame the sun and make it appear at regular intervals. However, the Chaotic Eras returned—and to punish Fu Xi for being wrong, Zhou orders him to jump into the boiling cauldron. Fu Xi follows the order and submerges himself in the scalding water.
Now, Wang understands that the giant pendulums reflect an old religious system; however, the Chaotic Eras have persisted, so this religion has collapsed. As Fu Xi is killed, Wang also realizes that the punishment for making an incorrect guess about the nature of the solar system is certain death—and that King Zhou is a brutal, unsympathetic leader.
Themes
King Wen then presents his own calculation, which relies on the ancient Chinese oracle, The I Ching, and the philosophy of yin and yang. After performing a series of calculations, Wen gives King Zhou a rough calendar. Using the sand clock, Wen speeds up time in the game long enough for several of his first predictions to come true with at least some degree of accuracy. King Zhou vows to build a monument to Wen.
Since Fu Xi’s belief system has been disproved, Wen now gets a shot at explaining the universe. Here, it becomes clear why game time must be able to speed up: in order to verify peoples’ predictions, the game must jump months or even years into the future to track the sun’s movement and see if it aligns with the proposed calendar.
Themes
Eventually, the sun rises at the beginning of what Wen has predicted will be a prolonged Stable Era. Zhou gives the order to rehydrate, and Wang watches as soldiers enter thick-walled buildings known as dehydratories to haul the dried bodies out. When the bodies are thrown into a nearby lake, they rehydrate and rejoice, hugging each other and dancing (though some notice that pieces of their bodies are missing, having been torn while they were dehydrated). Immediately, the rehydrated people begin to plant food on farms and rebuild cities.
For the first time since playing the game, Wang sees a joyful, populated version of this planet. Immediately, the rehydrated people do the work of creating a civilization: there is limited time in this Stable Era, so the society must do as much as it possibly can to progress.
Themes
Eight days later, however, the sun does not rise—Wen was wrong, and the Stable Era is already over. Zhou gives the order to dehydrate, and he tells Wen that he, too, must jump into the scalding cauldron. Just then, someone sees three flying stars in the sky, which King Wen explains signals a period of extreme cold. King Zhou advises Wang that he should leave the game as it's “no longer fun after it gets to this point.”
There are three key things to note in this passage. First, every time people are rehydrated, they run the risk of being exposed to dangerous solar conditions—so rehydrating for eight days is almost tragic. Second, like Fu Xi, Wen is going to be put to death for his incorrect theory; science and violence, not for the last time, are linked here. And most crucially, while two flying stars signal a Stable Era, there is also some correlation between three flying stars and a period of extreme cold.
Themes
After several weeks of intense snow and dry ice, civilization freezes to death. A game pop-up tells Wang that “Civilization Number 137 was destroyed by the extreme cold. The civilization had advanced to the Warring States Period before succumbing.” The game invites Wang to log on in the future. Before he signs off, he notices the three flying stars, spinning around him in the night.
In the game, each new civilization advances to a different stage before it collapses due to a particularly brutal Chaotic Era. Every time a player logs on, then, they are entering a new civilization at a new level of progress. And every time a civilization ends, the game (temporarily) ends, too.
Themes
