The Dark Forest: Pages 354-369 Summary & Analysis

Zhang Beihai has recently awakened from hibernation. He goes to see the commander of the Asian Fleet to report for duty. The commander tells Zhang Beihai that he and the 30 or so men from the space force who entered hibernation at the same time as him have all been awakened to carry out a special mission. He explains that following news about Hines’s imprinting people with defeatist attitudes, they now must try to ferret out any defeatists among their ranks and prevent any possible sabotage. To do that, the commander explains, Zhang Beihai and people in his cohort will take commanding roles on the fleet’s warships. The previous commanders will stay in place on the warships and issue orders. But if any of those orders seem suspicious, then Zhang Beihai and other members of his cohort will ensure they aren’t carried out.

Zhang Beihai is then flown to the Asian Fleet base on Jupiter. He sees the giant spaceship, called Natural Selection, where he will work. That ship can travel at 15% of the speed of light. As Zhang Beihai approaches the base, he sees a procession of soldiers. In the middle of that procession is a young woman whom Zhang Beihai assumes is the captain of the Natural Selection. When Zhang Beihai lands, the woman approaches him. She says her name is Dongfang Yanxu and that she is the captain of the ship. She then hands Zhang Beihai a pistol and says that if he finds that she is a defeatist or escapist, then he should use it to kill her.

Shi Qiang and Luo Ji take an elevator from the underground city to the surface. On the surface, sand covers everything, and many buildings look deserted. The sun is barely visible through a thick haze. Shi Qiang and Luo Ji meet up with Shi Qiang’s son, Shi Xiaoming, who entered hibernation after being released from prison. Shi Qiang and Shi Xiaoming greet each other excitedly. Shi Xiaoming is now only five years younger than his father. Shi Xiaoming takes Shi Qiang and Luo Ji back to his house, where he lives with his wife and their four-year-old son. Xiaoming says that people on the surface get by through farming, which is lucrative for them now that surface-grown crops are a luxury in underground cities.  

Some of Shi Xiaoming’s neighbors come to see Luo Ji and Shi Qiang. Luo Ji eventually asks about the Great Ravine. Shi Xiaoming and his neighbors explain that things took a turn about 20 years after Luo Ji went into hibernation. At that point, environmental degradation began to take a serious toll as people overlooked environmental regulations because they thought the Trisolarans would destroy Earth anyway. That degradation led to climate change and desertification. Economic resources were disproportionately funneled into the war effort, and people began to starve. The Great Ravine lasted about 50 years, and during that time, the world population shrank from 8.3 billion people to 3.5 billion.

During the Great Ravine, people began to think differently about the war effort against the Trisolarans. Because the war effort had been so damaging to humanity, humans decided to shift their priorities so that humanity came first and ensuring the survival of the civilization came second. After that, there came a time of remarkable technological innovation. Once humans had that technology, they devoted themselves again to preparing for the Trisolarans, but after the Great Ravine, humans decided that funding for the war effort needed to stay within a designated range.