Liu Cixin's "Three-Body Problem" Book Review II: The Cultural Revolution

(2) Cultural Revolution

The mention of the Cultural Revolution in "The Three-Body Problem" was regarded by some book critics as a major breakthrough in contemporary literature, and it also became a major selling point of "The Three-Body Problem". Some people who don't know much about the details think that Liu Cixin is a great writer who dares to touch sensitive issues and reflect on history. It is speculated that the first "Three-Body Problem" won the Hugo Award that year, which may have something to do with the book daring to mention this political taboo in China.

Indeed, the scale of the crazy years and fighting scenes mentioned in the article is shocking. Among the best-selling literary works publicly released in China, few directly present the tragic scenes of the Cultural Revolution like "Three-Body Problem". The book also depicts the destruction of knowledge, the persecution of scholars, and the human tragedy of family separation and friend betrayal under political struggles.

However, all these are just phenomena, phenomena. What about the essence? why? Who caused such a tragedy? Liu Cixin never made any unfavorable judgments on the regime and the ruling group that led to the Cultural Revolution, both in the book and in reality. While depicting various phenomena during the Cultural Revolution, it completely avoided reflection and criticism on related systems, characters, and culture. There is only a statement of the phenomenon. This statement and tone seem to tell people that this is a tragedy destined to happen in history, and there is no one responsible.

If Liu Cixin's calm narration of the Cultural Revolution cannot fully explain his political attitude, then his attitude towards the "initiator" of the Cultural Revolution is enough to reflect the problem.

In some documents about the "Red Shore Base", we can find a comment that clearly implies that it was written by Mao, the excerpt is as follows:

“The [instructions] have been read, and the shit doesn’t make any sense! Just post the big-character posters on the ground, and don’t send them to the sky. Discussed and approved at the Politburo meeting."

There is also this paragraph: "In this era, if you want to bring down a person with a high position, you must obtain his black materials in various fields in charge of him, but the two-bomb project is a tricky field for conspirators. Under the key protection of the central government, they were able to avoid the wind and rain of the "Cultural Revolution", and it was difficult for them to intervene."

It's the shameful logic of "it's the bottom people who do bad things, the emperor is enlightened". After the reform and opening up, the "first thirty years" of worshiping Mao Zedong as a "great and righteous" saint ended (although it has risen again in recent years), and it was replaced by some anecdotes and personalized speeches of Mao. Create an approachable, far-sighted, sharp-edged image, and skillfully avoid his great crimes, so as to attract the love and even admiration of those who don't know the whole picture. It has to be said that this way of describing is very confusing, and it is far better than the images of "Wei Guangzheng" and "Gao Quan" to capture the hearts of contemporary youth. As for the "key protection" of some scientists described, it is also a common method of washing the ground, picking up rice grains in the shithole, praising the "grand grace of the emperor", and shifting the responsibility to the "conspirator".

What's more, in fact, the personnel who developed the two bombs were not spared during the Cultural Revolution, and they were also brutally persecuted. Some scientists such as Yao Tongbin were beaten to death, Zhao Jiuzhang was forced to commit suicide, and Deng Jiaxian, the "father of the two bombs", and many other researchers involved in the work It has also been criticized, and the description in "Three-Body Problem" is a blatant falsification of history. Similarly, according to relevant historical facts, it is impossible for Mao to make such "enlightened" instructions on the field of two bombs (Zhou Enlai had relevant protection, even if it was not at the beginning but after the scientist was killed or committed suicide), This so-called "instruction" is also a fabrication (Mao did give instructions with a similar tone on other matters, but one cannot cover up his heinous crimes, and the other cannot explain that he did the same in the case of the two bombs, and historical facts clearly prove He didn't do it). Literary works can of course have reasonable fictions, but when they involve specific real historical events, they must conform to the basic facts, otherwise they are tampering and fabrication.

Liu Cixin used these methods in the book, not only writing off Mao's heinous crimes, but also endowing Mao with an enlightened, pragmatic, and de-ideological image. In this way, although Liu Cixin's "Three-Body Problem" mentioned the cruelty of the Cultural Revolution, it not only did not lead to reflection on Mao's totalitarian tyranny, but instead added color to the devil and gilded the dark age. This is also in line with the fact that many young people adore Mao who don't know the truth, so that even though "Three-Body Problem" mentions the Cultural Revolution, it is still well received by young people with many Mao fans.

Liu Cixin's description of the Cultural Revolution in this way is to some extent more abhorrent and has a worse influence than those authors who avoid talking about the Cultural Revolution in their works. Borrowing Mao’s words, “Fighting the red flag against the red flag”, Liu Cixin’s portrayal of that period of history is very similar to “opposing the red flag on the surface, but actually raising the red flag” or saying “a little scolding but a big help”. It seems to be talking about the tragedy of the Cultural Revolution, but in fact it is Excusing the relevant responsible persons, using a superb writing method to avoid sensitivity but drawing opposite conclusions, people feel that Mao and others are really enlightened and innocent even when they know the cruelty of the Cultural Revolution. Obviously, this is also the reason why the book was published in mainland China without a lot of deletions and revisions to the plot involving the Cultural Revolution.

There are also passages in the book that show Liu Cixin’s affirmative attitude towards Mao, such as what Luo Ji said when the United Nations wanted Luo Ji to move to a residence more in line with the status of an important person like the Wallfacer:

"Do you know Xibaipo? It's not far from here. It's a smaller village. More than two centuries ago, the founder of this country commanded a national war there. The scale of those battles is rare in the world."

From the tone of this paragraph and the context, you can smell the disgusting smell of hair powder. The thoughts, policies and actions of this "country founder" have killed and killed tens of millions of people (including Liu Cixin's hometown of Henan, and most of the victims are Luoshan County, Liu's hometown, and Xinyang, which belongs to the county. City (then called Xinyang District)), destroyed tens of thousands or even countless cultural relics and historical relics, and also plunged China into a decades-long autocratic and brutal government, the rights of ordinary people were lost, and the disadvantaged groups suffered terribly , the legacy still exists today. But Liu Cixin doesn't care about these things, and today's vested interests don't care about these things either. They enjoy superior material and non-material supplies, and then put on the cloak of patriotism and grand historical narrative for their luxury and lust, and are proud of being a big devil and national sinner. This is not only a symptom of social Darwinism, but also a typical manifestation of slave psychology.

Of course, some people will justify it by saying that "China is an autocracy today, and Liu Cixin has no choice but to do so." But at least he can use neutral words to describe Mao Zedong and related content, instead of describing it in a praise way. It's perfectly possible to do it, but he didn't do it. Therefore, Liu Cixin's praise is very worthy of criticism.

(It is worth mentioning that there is another section in this part, which is about Mao’s negation of the ultra-left speech, and then someone wrote a message to send to aliens, the content is as follows:

Best wishes to the world that receives this message.

Through the following information, you will have a basic understanding of Earth civilization. After a long period of labor and creation, human beings have established a splendid civilization, a rich and colorful culture has emerged, and a preliminary understanding of the laws of the operation and development of nature and human society. We cherish all of these.

But our world still has great flaws. There are hatred, prejudice and wars. Due to the contradiction between productivity and production relations, the distribution of wealth is seriously uneven. A considerable number of human members live in poverty and misery.

Human society is working hard to solve various difficulties and problems it faces, and strive to create a bright future for earth civilization. The cause of the country sending the message is part of that effort. We are committed to building an ideal society, so that the labor and value of every human member are fully respected, so that the material and spiritual needs of all people are fully satisfied, and the earth civilization becomes a more perfect civilization.

With good wishes, we look forward to establishing connections with other civilizations in the universe, and looking forward to working with you to create a better life in the vast universe.

     Such a passage is again whitewashing the Cultural Revolution and embellishing Mao. In fact, under the kind of political fanaticism during the Cultural Revolution, it is more likely to be written by the original ultra-left fanatics:

Please pay attention to the world that has received the above message, the message you have received is sent by a country that represents revolutionary justice on earth! Before this, you may have received a message from the same direction, which was sent by an imperialist superpower on the planet, which is vying for world supremacy with another superpower on the planet, in an attempt to push back human history. I hope you will not listen to their lies and stand on the side of justice and the side of revolution!

This is exactly in line with the political rhetoric and diplomatic rhetoric of the Cultural Revolution period. Liu Cixin deliberately compiled these two paragraphs and compared them, intending to say that "Mao and the regime are neither bad nor crazy, only the following people are crazy" this old trick of defending the Cultural Revolution. But this old trick has been tried and tested, and under Liu's artistic processing, it can be more false than the real one. It is especially confusing to those who are not particularly clear about the historical facts of that period and only have a half-knowledge.)