Liu Cixin and his "Three-Body Problem": the Coexistence of Conscience Pollution and Grandeur Deep（2）

(Continued from Part 1)

   This again resonates wildly with Liu Cixin’s fans. On China’s Internet platforms, the most reviled people are “white leftists”. Not only environmentalists and animal rights activists will be regarded as "white left", but those who advocate increasing social welfare, taxing the rich, racial equality, women's rights and LGBT rights, accepting immigrants, abolition of the death penalty... will all be labeled as "white left" The name. Socialists regard social equality and fraternity as enemies. They believe that these policies in the name of "love" and "equality" have obliterated the value of survival of the fittest through natural selection and led to the degradation of people and society.

     Liu Cixin created the image of an extreme environmentalist and animal activist like Evans to convey the idea that the "white left" is causing harm to the human world. Of course, he also created Cheng Xin, a more typical "white left" who is very caring but prone to corruption, which will be discussed later. It is true that I am personally opposed to extreme environmentalists and animal rights activists, and cannot agree with some of the values 鈥嬧€媋nd behaviors of the so-called "white left". However, Liu Cixin's deliberate exaggeration of generalizations and extreme examples to imply universality is even more disgusting.

    There is a quote from an ETO member in the book that is worth pondering:

     "This is not a rumor!" a European said loudly, pushing forward at the same time, "My name is Rafael, an Israeli. Three years ago, my fourteen-year-old son encountered a car accident, and I donated the child's kidney to A Palestinian girl suffering from uremia, to express my wish for the two peoples to coexist peacefully. For this wish, I would even sacrifice my life, and many Israelis and Palestinians are also doing the same thing. I made the same sincere efforts. But it was all in vain. Our homeland was still sinking deeper and deeper into the quagmire of retribution. This made me lose faith in mankind and join the Trisolaran organization. Despair turned me from a pacifist to a pacifist. As an extremist, it may also be because of my huge donation to the organization that I was able to enter the core of the Adventists. Now I tell you, the Adventists have their own secret program, which is: human beings are an evil species, and human civilization They have committed a heinous crime against the earth and must be punished for it. The ultimate goal of the Adventists is to ask the Lord to carry out this divine punishment: the destruction of all mankind!"

    In Liu Cixin's view (or what he wants readers to think), if those who strongly pursue world peace and beauty cannot achieve such goals, they will turn to disgusting humanity and try to destroy everything out of despair and anger. Therefore, these advocates of love and The peaceful "white left" are essentially potential terrorists, and they can do more harm than ordinary bad guys who seek self-interest and have low morals. And some "white left" persistent and firm beliefs, passionate emotions, and behaviors that do not hesitate to change reality will be regarded by Liu Cixin and others as madness or a precursor to madness, as destroyers of order or outright lunacy. It should be alerted, extinguished and destroyed. As for the "white leftists" like Evans and Rafael who are rich and have the ability to more actively put their ideals into practice, Liu Cixin and others believe that they should be vigilant and extinguished because these people are more realistically dangerous. In the book, the tragic collective deaths of Evans and the "Adventists" in "Operation Guzheng" revealed Liu's resentment towards the "White Left". Even though Liu Cixin does not believe that Bai Zuo will destroy the world, he believes that Bai Zuo's various behaviors and tendencies will eventually objectively lead to the destruction of the world.

    Of course this is not the case for the "white left" in the real world, or at least most of them are not like this. Although there are many left-wingers who go to extremes, they are very marginalized, such as the Japanese Red Army, Red Brigades, ETA, and some particularly extreme (especially violent) environmental and animal rights activists who resort to violence for their extreme ideals. , completely cannot represent the mainstream left that advocates transformationalism, love and peace above all else. As for the "left" or idealistic radicals like Marxism-Leninism-Mao, their values 鈥嬧€媋nd behaviors are obviously very different from the "white left" described by Liu Cixin, and there is no comparison.

    Of course, the mainstream left will indeed be disappointed and even despair after being unable to solve the ugliness of human beings after continuous efforts, and will also breed a mood of "just destroy the world", but this mood does not mean that they will really choose this in reality. . Just like when you have conflicts with others or encounter grievances, it is normal for you to want to kill the other person or break the relationship for a certain period of time (or just a thought for a few seconds), but most of them will calm down and it is impossible to actually practice it. . Just like Lu Xun often made ugly and despairing remarks about human nature, and also said, "If you don't explode in silence, you will perish in silence." But does he really want people to destroy the world? No, on the contrary, he is calling on people to firmly pursue truth, goodness, beauty, fairness and justice. The "white left" are generally very concerned about the issue of climate warming and preventing its deterioration. If they really want to destroy mankind out of despair and think the world is dirty, or feel that the destruction of mankind is not a pity, then they should advocate giving up saving climate warming in order to expect some The land will be submerged in the next year, and the high temperature will heat humans to death. Moreover, with the development of the times and social progress, the left or "white left" has become more and more moderate. After some extreme attempts failed in the 20th century, they now choose a more eclectic and rational way to solve problems, without seeking absolute perfection. .

     (6) Dark Forest

      "The Law of the Dark Forest" is the theme of Liu Cixin's second part of "The Three-Body Problem" and directly expresses his socialist philosophy. The so-called "dark forest" means that people (or the entire human civilization) are in a limited and dark space, and there is a life-and-death competition between people (or planets and planets). In order to compete for living space and eliminate potential threats, these people (planets) are trying their best to get rid of or conquer each other. He also highlighted the "Dark Forest Law" by describing star fleets fighting among themselves to compete for resources.

     Liu Cixin's dark forest theory is obviously not mainly to explain the relationship between planets, but to metaphorically refer to the relationship between people, ethnic groups, and countries. Although Liu Cixin once denied this in an interview with him, he did not mean what he said. The content described and the values 鈥嬧€媝romoted by Liu Cixin in "The Three-Body Problem" are all metaphors for the real world and human society, rather than science fiction for the sake of science fiction.

     Values 鈥嬧€媗ike Liu Cixin's, which pit different people or groups against each other, regard competition as a zero-sum game, and believe that only by annihilating or conquering the other party can one be safe, are different from those that prevailed around the world from two or three centuries ago to the middle of the last century (and were once popular in China). Social Darwinism, which is popular among academic circles, has a lot in common. In today's world, although this theory is no longer publicly recognized in temples, it is popular everywhere. From Russia to India, from Nigeria to Indonesia, socialist trends of thought exist in the form of nationalism and populism. In China, it generally exists in the form of respecting power and institutions, discriminating and bullying the weak among compatriots, and is closer to the true nature of social Darwinism: bullying of the weak and survival of the fittest. For example, Zhihu, a forum where China's elite groups gather, is a stronghold of socialism and a gathering place for fans of "The Three-Body Problem" and Liu Cixin himself.

    The fundamental flaw of the "Dark Forest Law" is that it ignores mutual assistance and cooperation between people or groups of people, spreads civilized goodwill, ignores the existence of moral, right and wrong, and humanitarian factors, and ignores the possibility that there will be better values 鈥嬧€嬧€嬧€媋nd ways to improve the status quo in the future. possibility (Liu even strongly opposes this improvement in the book, for reasons that will be mentioned in the next section), ignores the necessity of pursuing humanity, equality, and mutual trust, and treats interpersonal, interethnic, and international relations as completely inhumane The cold and naked interest relationship replaces the rationality and sensibility of human nature with mechanistic rationality, which is not completely consistent with the reality of interpersonal, inter-ethnic and international relations.

    Of course, I do not mean to deny that there are games, confrontations or even zero-sum aspects in interpersonal, inter-ethnic and international relations, nor do I deny that there is widespread intrigue, insidiousness and violence in relevant relations (even on the contrary, I am quite sure that these exist, and Its dominant role in human social relations in history and reality). Typical examples include the nuclear deterrence between the United States, the Soviet Union, India, Pakistan and other countries, as well as among the world's nuclear powers, which is the realistic version of "dark forest deterrence". In real life, there are also situations where various parties, from officials to ordinary employees, hold each other's "dark materials" to threaten each other. There are often gains and losses in games and struggles between people based on strength, unknowns, scheming, etc. It can be said that many situations in the "dark forest" have already occurred between countries, groups, and people on the earth.

    However, this is not all, just a part and an aspect. More importantly, evil is a reality, but it does not mean that it is reasonable and should be, let alone that such evil should be promoted. Liu Cixin's "The Three-Body Problem" amplifies this aspect into all social relations, and affirms it as the basis of survival and the criterion of game, and implies that only by being so evil, losing humanity and abandoning warmth can human civilization be preserved. This is poisoning people's hearts, destroying goodwill and trust, stopping people from exploring a more reasonable way to resolve disputes and living life, and leading people really into a social environment guided by the dark forest law.

   However, we cannot deny the objective existence of this situation and cannot abandon the necessity of using chips to retain deterrence capabilities. This is indeed the nest of the "dark forest", but we cannot completely escape from this reality. Only flowers protected by swords and shields can bloom for a long time. However, we should not get completely lost and indulged in this "dark forest"-style social relationship.

    (7) The two periods after the Great Trough to the destruction of Starfleet and the late Deterrence Era

    These two years were described by Liu Cixin as very beautiful, with abundant material resources, social harmony, and full respect for human rights and freedoms. For example, a highly humanized lifestyle brought about by full automation and digitalization; condemnation and termination of human rights violations, abuse of power, and lack of supervision caused by the "Wall-Facing Project"; financial compensation can be obtained for accidents in life; banks Provide generous and huge deposit interest for hibernators... In short, let people live comfortably and with dignity.

    However, all of this is an attempt to suppress the situation, or to pave the way for the tragedy that will follow. At this time in Liu's writing, people have become overconfident in human civilization, and as a result, they have developed too much sympathy and empathy, and have lost their vigilance and crisis awareness, which ultimately led to the subsequent destruction of the Starfleet and the The agony of human despair before the Era of Deterrence. The depiction of the later era of deterrence (when deterrence fails) is also similar. Here are some typical paragraphs for analysis.

    Before the Starfleet came into contact with the "water droplets" sent by Trisolaris, there was this description:

    "The public's feelings towards Trisolaris have begun to shift from hostility and hatred to sympathy, pity and even admiration. People are also aware of the fact that the ten water drops of Trisolaris were emitted two centuries ago, and humans have not until now Only then can we truly understand their meaning. This is certainly because the behavior of the Trisolaran civilization is too implicit, but also reflects the mentality of human beings distorted by their own bloody history. In the global online referendum, the support rate of the Sunshine Project It has risen sharply, and more and more people are leaning toward using Mars as a strong survival option for Trisolaran settlement."

     This passage reflects the fundamental change in mankind's views on the Three-Body Problem and the Three-Body World after the end of the Great Trough and the "Second Enlightenment/Renaissance/Great Revolution" and "giving civilization to the years." The reason for this transformation is precisely the product of its own material wealth, military power, and ideological civilization. The changes in the human condition and the re-civilization of society have turned humans from fear, hostility and high vigilance towards the Trisolaran world to one of sympathy and compassion. The human mentality at this time was in sharp contrast to the despair that occurred later when the interstellar fleet was almost completely annihilated.

   Take this description of the attitude of officials at a government meeting in Shi Qiang's region as an example:

   "This was a meeting of the community government. District administrative officials were present. About two-thirds were hibernators, and the rest were modern humans. They can now be clearly distinguished: although they are all in an extremely depressed state, the hibernators The former officials maintained their normalcy in a low mood, while modern people showed more or less signs of collapse. Since the beginning of the meeting, their emotions had been out of control many times, and Shi Xiaoming's words once again touched their fragile nerves. The chief executive of the district covered his face with tears and started crying again, causing several other modern officials to cry with him; the official in charge of regional education laughed hysterically, and one modern man roared in pain, Throwing the cup on the ground..."

    This is true even for officials, let alone common people. Later, there are descriptions of tens of thousands of people engaging in collective fornication and Luo Ji being first worshiped and then expelled, etc., which reflects the despair of mankind.

    The ups and downs of human mentality from despair to confidence and then to despair are saddening. The "compassion" for the Trisolaran world when we were confident has also become a huge joke, a cruel irony that humans have placed on themselves. He speculated on his opponent with good intentions, but ended up facing destruction. The destruction of the Earth Fleet was largely due to human beings' underestimation and credulity. This kind of credulity also comes from the fact that people have lived in civilization for a long time, have lost their vigilance to the dangers of the universe, and think that their enemies are too beautiful and benevolent.

    Liu Cixin's satire on human beings who are kind but deceived and whose good intentions lead to disasters does not end here. On the contrary, the human beings in "The Three-Body Problem" have repeated such a tragedy since then, which is the period of history that occurred in the later period of the Deterrence Era.

    After the destruction of the Earth fleet and the remaining fleets killing each other, mankind was already in despair and was just waiting for the earth to be invaded and mankind to perish without being able to reproduce. However, scientist and wall-facer Luo Ji cleverly used the "Snow Project" to set up a system that transmits the location of the solar system and the Trisolaran galaxy to the universe, and successfully forced Trisolaran to give up its invasion of the Earth. After that, the Trisolaran and the Earth reached a peace agreement. The Earth and the Trisolaran transferred their advanced knowledge to each other, allowing the Earth to set up several deterrence systems that can launch "spells" that can lead to strikes in the dark forest. The two sides achieved a similar "nuclear deterrence" "balance. Humanity finally turned the corner.

    However, after deterrence was established and security returned, humans became "restless" again. Cheng Xin hibernated in AD 61 and woke up in 61 AD. When she woke up, she saw someone on TV denouncing Luo Ji for being involved in the "crime of world genocide." Immediately afterwards, she was embraced by the public as the "sword bearer". One of the reasons why the public supports her is that they are afraid of a ruthless sword holder like Luo Ji, and they are afraid of the absolute power that Luo Ji represents:"Luo Ji's image changed from a savior day by day to an unreasonable monster and a tyrant who destroyed the world.". People have shifted from focusing on solving basic survival problems to focusing on human rights and opposing totalitarian rule. Therefore, it is necessary to replace people like Luo Ji (not to mention "barbaric" AD people like Wade and Cao Bin) and choose a kind-hearted woman like Cheng Xin who represents love and peace to take on this deterrence task.

    As this description says:"Look, she is the Virgin Mary, she really is!" the young mother shouted to the crowd, then turned to Cheng Xin, clasping her hands with tears in her eyes, "Beautiful and kind-hearted Virgin, protect this world, don't let those barbaric monsters Bloody men destroy everything beautiful."People have forgotten the tragedy of the destruction of the Earth Fleet, and the pursuit of beauty and kindness once again exceeds the importance of survival and safety. After the handover between the old and new sword holders, Luo Ji was also arrested for the crime of "world genocide".

    Just fifteen minutes after Cheng Xin held the button to emit the gravitational wave signal that should be emitted as a deterrent in the event of an invasion from the Trisolaran world, the Trisolaran "water droplet" pounced on the transmitter. Unable to face the consequences of the destruction of the two planets, Cheng Xin gave up on launching the gravitational wave signal that would lead to the exposure and destruction of the two galaxies. The invasion of the Three-Body Problem was inevitable.

    However, people who showed up for a long time did not show any particular panic. When Trisolaris asked people to immigrate to Australia, there was no response.“Until this time, people still imagined a peaceful life for at least one generation, so after Tomoko's speech was published, no country responded, and no one started to immigrate. "Human beings still had an ostrich mentality of taking chances. It wasn't until "water droplets" hit several cities, killing more than 300,000 people, that people began to migrate in fear.

    However, people's luck mentality has not been completely shattered. People also believe what Tomoko said,"After the Trisolaran fleet arrives, it is fully capable of enabling the four billion people in Australia to live a comfortable life. At the same time, the occupiers will also help humans build living spaces on Mars and in space. Five years after the fleet arrives, it will be able to send people to Mars and large-scale space immigration will be basically completed in fifteen years. By then, humans will have a relatively large enough living space, and the two civilizations will start a new peaceful life in the solar system."

    However, the Trisolaran World does not give humans a chance to survive. Instead, it gradually destroys humans' ability to resist and survive. Destroy Australian industry and infrastructure as people disarm and emigrate. Then, they cut off electricity and agricultural production capacity and forced "people to eat each other."Tomoko looked around at all the people in the hall, "Food?" Isn’t this all food? Everyone, look around you. There is food, living food. "Only then did human beings know what a life-and-death struggle was.

    This passage from Sophon's mouth can reflect Liu Cixin's views on human survival issues:

    "Survival is inherently a kind of luck. This was true on the earth in the past, and it is true everywhere in this cold universe now. But I don't know since when, human beings have an illusion that survival has become something within easy reach. This is you The root cause of failure. The flag of evolution will rise again in this world, and you will fight for survival. I hope everyone here is among the last 50 million people. I hope you can eat food instead of Eaten by grain.”

    The process of human ups and downs described by Liu Cixin is shocking. The compassion he depicts when humans are safe and happy, the relaxation of vigilance, the despair and madness of humans when they are on the verge of extinction, and the ingenious design of the Three-Body Problem to push humans into extinction step by step, all reflect the weaknesses of human nature. For example, the process of human beings being exterminated by the Three-Body Plan in Australia (the attempted extinction), and the process including the Roman massacre of Carthage and the Jingkang disaster (the Jin army conquered Kaifeng)锛夈€乀he processes of the Nanjing Massacre and other massacres are quite similar (you can read the relevant accounts and compare them. Perhaps Liu Cixin wrote similar plots in "The Three-Body Problem" after reading these accounts). This all reflects Liu Cixin’s profound understanding and vivid interpretation of human nature, human psychology, and the cruelty of the struggle for survival in human history.

    In this section, I have quite a positive opinion of Liu Cixin. But this article is mainly for criticism, and of course this paragraph also needs criticism.

    In fact, the above content is the continuation and embodiment of Liu Cixin’s dark forest theory. Liu Cixin's descriptions and analyzes are indeed profound and consistent with part of human history and reality. However, as said before (and will be said many times later), while Liu Cixin accurately depicts a certain dark fact, he rationalizes this darkness, hints or even expresses the unchangeable nature of this reality, conveying A value that can survive only by giving up kindness and compassion and choosing cruelty and viciousness.

    The same facts and principles, with different emotional tendencies and description emphasis, can lead to different conclusions and achieve completely different goals. Based on Liu Cixin's description between the lines, as well as the whole book and even his personal words and deeds on other occasions, it is enough to draw the conclusion that he advocates abandoning goodwill, treating people with evil, using deceit and cruelty in interpersonal, ethnic, international relations and competitive matters. . In addition, he also wanted to express or imply other things, which will be discussed later.

    When describing this part of the content, there is also an intriguing passage:

    "Some scholars believe that science and technology were once one of the forces that eliminated totalitarianism, but when a crisis threatens the survival of civilization, science and technology may become the soil for the birth of new totalitarianism. In traditional totalitarianism, dictators can only be controlled through other people. Achieving rule faces low efficiency and countless uncertain factors. Therefore, in human history, a 100% dictatorship system has never appeared. But technology has made it possible for the realization of this super dictatorship. Wall-facers and persistence Swordsmen are worrying examples. The combination of super technology and super crisis may push human society back to the Dark Ages."

    It is difficult to judge what Liu Cixin actually meant by this statement. According to Liu Cixin's usual political views, he is not opposed to totalitarianism in China today. However, the situation described in this passage is very similar to the reality in China in the past ten years. This passage accurately discusses the evolution of the relationship between technology and totalitarianism. When the Internet emerged, people thought it would break the information blockade and promote freedom and democracy. However, now technological totalitarianism and digital totalitarianism have been established in many countries, including China, and even democratic countries cannot escape the specter of surveillanceism. The high-intensity control that authoritarian countries such as China are using technology to carry out during the COVID-19 epidemic, as well as the centralized and digital management that countries must adopt to curb climate warming in the future, are both highly consistent with Liu Cixin’s words that “threaten the survival of civilization.” When a crisis occurs, technology may become the soil for the birth of a new totalitarianism." So does Liu Cixin agree with this kind of technological totalitarianism? This is a question that is not easy to judge, or Liu does not simply agree or disagree with it.

   (8) Thomas Wade

    The creation of this character best reflects Liu Cixin's social Darwinism thoughts, and can also give a glimpse of Liu Cixin's standards for judging human quality and value.

     Thomas Vader's first words after appearing on the scene were shocking enough:"Would you sell your mother to a brothel?" Wade asked(Ask Cheng Xin). Through this shocking sentence and side description, the image of a cold and cruel intelligence agent is portrayed, and it also reveals Vader's sinister character.

     To achieve the goal by any means is a typical feature of social Darwinism. Liu Cixin said it powerfully through the words of Wade:He suddenly changed his usual calm and cold tone and roared like a mad beast, "Forward! Forward!! Forward by any means necessary!!!"

    When the plan to send humans to contact the Trisolaran world was blocked due to carrying weight restrictions, Vader said coldly, "Just send the brain”銆

    There is also this side description:"There were two male prisoners who were obviously from AD, and Cheng Xin whistled frivolously, but when they saw the person Cheng Xin was looking for, they immediately became more serious, and they all hurriedly lowered their heads to work, as if they were a little afraid of what they had just done.

    The first time Cheng Xin saw this man (Vade), she knew that he had not given up. His ambitions and ideals, his insidiousness, and many other things that Cheng Xin had never known before, he had not given up on anything. "

   Of course, these alone cannot fully portray Vader's ruthlessness. Liu Cixin still has more words to describe Wade. But just from these few sentences, people can understand what kind of character, image, and characteristics Vader is. Characters like Vader are not just literary figures, there are also similar real people in reality. From leaders of a country to local powerful men and gang leaders, to even ruthless and capable figures in schools and workplaces, they all fit in with certain aspects or even the entire image of Vader. When ordinary people come into contact with such a person, they will inevitably break out in cold sweat on their chest, back, head and feet, and will unconsciously become afraid of him. Even people with some spirit and ability will shrink a bit in front of such a vicious person. If you are not afraid of him at first, then after he performs some tricks on you, you will be more afraid of him than ordinary people.

    However, characters like Vader portrayed by Liu Cixin are the saviors of mankind, or at least one of the saviors. Vader not only promoted the Ladder Plan and sent Yun Tianming's brain to the Trisolaran world, but most importantly, he researched the light speed spacecraft, allowing humans to retain the fire of life. And if it hadn't been for the "destruction" caused by Cheng Xin, Vader and others would have been able to bring humanity out of the danger of being two-dimensionalized, and even the Trisolaris would not have been able to break through and threaten the earth in the first place. All subsequent disasters would have will not happen.

    Liu Cixin endowed a devil-like figure with angelic saving power precisely because he wanted to express what he said through Wade's mouth"If you lose your humanity, you will lose a lot; if you lose your bestiality, you will lose everything", and "advance by any means necessary".Or to combine the two sentences, it means that only by unscrupulous means and regardless of human nature and human rights can we win. If we care about morality and means and are bound by human nature and human rights, we can only fail. This is a typical view of Social Darwinism, or not only a view of Social Darwinism, but the most sinister aspect of Social Darwinism, that is, evil must triumph over good, and only by eliminating good and promoting evil can we survive.

    This point is shown many times in Liu Cixin's The Three-Body Problem, and the depiction of Wade is a concentrated expression of this point of view.

    So, is this view correct? If we look at the history of mankind and even all things, this is indeed an objective reality to a large extent. Let’s not talk about anything else but human beings. In history, are there more examples of barbarism defeating civilization, or are there more examples of civilization destroying barbarism? Undoubtedly the former. Exquisite Athens perished at the hands of capable Sparta, Rome perished at the hands of barbarian invasions, and the Song and Ming dynasties perished at the hands of the Jin, Yuan, and Manchu Qing dynasties. These are all well-known examples. Even those self-proclaimed civilizations have indeed created the power of civilization. Isn't their rise and glory based on barbarism, cruelty and unscrupulous means? For ancient Rome, the treacherous massacre of the Carthaginians after they disarmed was the key to its domination of the Mediterranean; Li Shimin struck preemptively (of course, some historical data see it as a "self-defense counterattack," but...) and launched the Xuanwu The Gate Incident killed Li Jiancheng, Li Yuanji and his descendants, which led to the later Zhenguan rule of "Tian Khan". In addition to these magnificent histories, how many examples are there in the market that "good people don't live long, and bad people do harm for thousands of years"? "Despicability is the passport of the despicable, and nobility is the epitaph of the noble." Someone has long made an incisive and profound summary of this.

    Therefore, what Liu Cixin said through Wade's mouth is indeed reality to a certain extent.

    But reality does not mean what is right or what should be. On the contrary, the development of human civilization to this day has been achieved precisely through the lashing of barbarism and the overcoming of ugliness. Without criticism and restraint of evil, human beings would still attack each other day after day, and beheadings, amputations, and gunfire would still be commonplace, and it would be impossible for human beings to bask in relative peace and development. It is the persistence of countless people that allows evil to be restricted and compressed step by step. At least great evils and disasters only unfortunately happen to a small number of people in a small number of areas, while most people can live their lives in relative peace and tranquility. .

    Therefore, we can only "abandon" the extreme socialist views hinted and even promoted by Liu Cixin in The Three-Body Problem (yes, it is extreme socialist rather than ordinary socialist). We know its reality but must also curb its reality. After realizing the horror of unscrupulous means, we must stick to conscience and rationality to restrain the growth of ugliness and the rebirth of cruelty. Even if we are the products left by evil, we should not continue evil to survive. Just like to a certain extent, we are all the descendants of various acts of rape (or, to be precise, non-consensual sex) from ancient times to modern times (who dares to say that all of their ancestors were the product of consensual sexual intercourse?), we are all rapes Descendants of the crime, but we certainly should not praise rape, but resolutely criticize and despise it. The live human experiments conducted by Japan's Unit 731 and Nazi Germany have achieved great medical and scientific research results, and have benefited mankind today, but this cannot be whitewashed, beautified, justified or rationalized. , let alone allow similar atrocities to happen again.

    Liu Cixin is not (or at least will not publicly admit to being) a proponent of extreme socialism, but objectively he undoubtedly implies or even expresses such a value orientation and value choice. Different from many literary and artistic works in Europe, the United States and even China that depict darkness and bad guys' unscrupulous tactics, which are meant to lash out ugliness and praise justice, Liu's "The Three-Body Problem" depicts darkness and unscrupulous tactics while doing everything possible to rationalize and even praise and express them. It is a tragic, great, and only understandable value and practice for the continuation of human survival and development. This is worthy of vigilance and criticism.

   Regarding Liu’s socialist values, I will criticize them later, but now I will return to my comments on Weide.

   Liu Cixin's portrayal of the character Wade is also very positive. Although he depicts so many evil and sinister aspects of this man, he does so to highlight the greatness of his purpose, the correctness of his direction, and the legitimacy of his actions. Moreover, everything Vader does as described by Liu Cixin is not for Vader himself, but is related to the future and destiny of mankind. Vader has become a person who cannot be said to be "not self-interested" but is clearly "benefiting mankind" and not " He is a heroic figure who is "righteous" but obviously "clean on both sleeves". Everything he does is not for personal gain but for the public interest. Moreover, such a hero is feared by others, but he never bows to any pressure, and is not afraid to flatter anyone or even alien creatures (for example, he speaks boldly when being monitored by sophons and everyone is cautious, but deliberately takes advantage of this surveillance. ), is an out-and-out hero. This makes all his "anti-humanity" and "anti-human rights" actions look more just, selfless and necessary.

    But in reality, is a person like Wade really always upright, persistent, determined, and hard-core? From some aspects or on the surface, this is indeed the case. The people I mentioned above, from the head of state to the gang leader, to the ruthless people in the school unit, are often majestic, quite powerful, capable, and fearless. But the vast majority of them (unless they are truly invincible) are often more groveling than ordinary people when facing someone who is more "tough" and "awesome", because they know better than ordinary people how terrible their own kind is. You can't offend those who are stronger than you. In the face of the system, although they sometimes make provocative and rebellious actions to show their strength and power to others or just for their own comfort, more often they obey the system, flatter the system, and act against those with coercive power. There is an unusual piety to the systems and rules that underlie it. Because they know that the energy of the system is infinite, which individuals can use but cannot overturn. They are by no means rigid and arrogant towards anyone or anything, but because of their personality traits and survival needs, they are more bullying and fearful of the hard, adapt to the situation, and are refined and self-interested than ordinary people. People like Beria and Goering don't look like Vader? What kind of moral character did they have in front of Stalin and Hitler (of course they changed their moral character before the latter died)? Faced with the evil system and environment, will they rebel and confront, or will they submit and take advantage?

   Also, even if Thomas Vader becomes (represents) a supreme leader or dictator (rather than a thug) like Stalin, Mao Zedong, Hitler, and Putin, is he really pure and brave? According to various information now disclosed, they are often far more frightened and weak than the leaders of democratic countries. For example, Stalin showed fear when Germany invaded and before his death, and it was not true that he would never fall down even if he died. Although the movie "The Death of Stalin" is a bit dramatic, the facts reflected are basically correct. And what about Mao Zedong? Li Zhisui's disclosure is not an isolated evidence, but can be verified with information from multiple parties, and the sincerity of the record has been affirmed by well-known mainstream scholars such as Li Anyou. This "tough guy" can also be seen in Putin's behavior after his failed invasion of Ukraine. The image of Thomas Wade created by Liu Cixin is actually similar to the superficial images of these dictators, such as fortitude and courage, but he deliberately avoids the inner weakness and fear of such people.

   Also, are people like Wade really honest, selfless, and dedicated to their ideals? There are indeed such people, but they are rare. The vast majority of people who think and act like them have no less desires than ordinary people, and their abilities and means are enough to obtain more illegal benefits. How can they live clean in power, money, and beauty like Liu Xiahui? Let’s take those sanctimonious and ruthless top leaders of the Burundi Party and Nazis, such as Yagoda and Goebbels, as examples. If you look at the history books and memoirs about them, you will know that they are more dirty and blatant than the dirty people who can be seen at a glance. People who are greedy are even more greedy (of course in comparison, the Bolsheviks are more inconsistent and shamelessly greedy than the Nazis). Will they make sacrifices for the people? Maybe it will happen at some point in time, but it will definitely be after he is greedy for pleasure and uses various methods to benefit himself at the expense of others to make sacrifices. It will never be as tragic a sacrifice as in "The Three-Body Problem". The collapse of the Nazis and the Soviet Union and the revelation of the inside story also proved that what they sacrificed to defend was not something worthwhile, but something downright dirty. In other words, people like Tojo Hideki and Nogi Nogi are indeed selfless, but they earned their "selflessness" and their devotion to Japan with the lives of tens of millions of Chinese, Americans, Russians/Soviets. The "greatness" of man. Do we want such people? (The most important thing is that this kind of dedication and survival is not the only way in this world)

    But Liu Cixin did not describe these. Instead, he described Wade and the previous Shi Qiang as very honest, devoid of desires, not afraid, and not flattering. Of course, this can be said to be because their conduct is not the focus of "The Three-Body Problem", so there is no need to write about their greed, fear, and flattery. Therefore, a cruel and cruel figure like Vader appears to be very great to mankind, and an image like Shi Qiang appears imperfect but more complete and real. If Liu Cixin writes about these people being greedy, fearful, and flattering, his good image will collapse and he will lose the set of moral conduct that Liu Cixin and the socialists think the characters should have (at least on the surface). They can no longer create the ideal hero in their minds.

    This is again the way historical figures are described in today’s Chinese propaganda system. In the past, that is, the "first thirty years", especially the ten years of the Cultural Revolution, all important figures and positive figures were presented in a "great and upright" image, without any flaws (at most, they would have a somewhat approachable description). But now it is different. For those great men, heroes, and positive figures, we will deliberately highlight some of their wild, unruly, low-quality, poor knowledge and other characteristics, but at the same time, we will never "smear" the "major issues" involving fundamental integrity. In this way Make the positive image more humane, real, and flesh-and-blood. But this kind of humanization, realness, and flesh and blood actually avoids many more important facts of evil and even crime. It uses small "flaws" to cover up the real filth and filth, and uses dramatic naughtiness to overcome the bloody situation. Outright brutality. I mentioned this kind of depiction earlier in this article when it came to "Mao Zedong's Instructions." Liu's depiction of characters like Weide and Shi Qiang is in the same vein, as are his attitudes and motivations.

    Characters like Wade portrayed by Liu Cixin, and other related descriptions and narratives, all reinforce the ideas of "advancing by any means necessary" and "losing beastliness and losing everything". Liu is not only describing an objective fact, but also giving subjective approval and praise. This is the biggest difference between him and other masterpieces of literature handed down from ancient times, and it is also the most worthy of criticism.

    Also, as mentioned before, the characters like Wade and Shi Qiang depicted by Liu Cixin represent the violent machines of the ruling institutions (or one of them) and are the defenders of the system, not Lin Chong and Yang. Rebels of the system like Zhi Zhi and Lu Zhishen, and those who oppose the state’s violent machine. In "The Three-Body Problem", Liu Cixin criticized Ye Wenjie and other victims and rebels, but he did not hesitate to praise the defenders of the human order. This can also reflect Liu Cixin's conservative nature and the conservative stance of "The Three-Body Problem" . They are indeed social Darwinists, but their social Darwinism is not for change, but for the purpose of making the old order more stable. This further demonstrates the ugliness and reactionary nature of Liu Cixin and the values 鈥嬧€媜f "The Three-Body Problem".

    What is very ironic is that Liu Cixin and "Three-Body"'s conservative reaction to defend the system and the old order is in sharp contrast to the anti-traditional and anti-order ideas held by Mao Zedong that they praised. Liu Cixin has repeatedly praised Mao Zedong (or at least mentioned it without being disparaging and critical) in her books and interviews. Mao Zedong’s crimes are too numerous to list, and the Cultural Revolution was an unprecedented catastrophe. However, there is one redeeming feature, which is his resistance to systemic oppression and his rebellion against traditional order and ideology (although this process and subsequent establishment of a bad system and more tyrannical The order has also resulted in more cruel oppression, but after all, it is a rebellion and rebellion against the unreasonable and even ugly old rules, orders, and orthodoxies), a spirit of resistance that breaks the shackles of the old nest. This can be said to be the only bright spot in the brutal Cultural Revolution during the Mao era. Liu Cixin has repeatedly lauded Mao Zedong and cleared away the perpetrators of the Cultural Revolution and related systems and organizations, but it runs counter to Maoism and the only admirable thing about the Cultural Revolution. It can be seen how "coincidentally" it is completely contrary to the trend of humanitarianism and progress. How highly consistent with the ugly reactionary conservatism.