The Three-Body Problem

The Three-Body Problem

by

Liu Cixin

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Three-Body Problem makes teaching easy.

Yang Weining Character Analysis

Once a student of Ye Zhetai’s, Yang Weining has always successfully avoided getting in any political trouble. As a leader at the Red Coast Base, Yang Weining pushes to reveal the base’s true purpose (the search for extraterrestrial life) to Ye Wenjie. Eventually, close collaboration with Ye causes Yang to fall in love with her, and their marriage soon leads to the birth of a daughter, Yang Dong. Unfortunately, however, Yang’s romantic feelings were never reciprocated, as Ye felt that their marriage was “the loneliest time” of her life. Ultimately, Ye murders Yang along with Lei in an attempt to keep communicating with the Trisolarans.

Yang Weining Quotes in The Three-Body Problem

The The Three-Body Problem quotes below are all either spoken by Yang Weining or refer to Yang Weining . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Technology, Progress, and Destruction Theme Icon
).
Chapter 8 Quotes

Her father left behind some records. She listened to all of them and finally picked something by Bach as her favorite, listening to it over and over. That was the kind of music that shouldn't have mesmerized a kid. At first, I thought she picked it on a whim, but when I asked her how she felt about the music, she said she could see in the music a giant building, a large, complex house. Bit by bit, the giant added to the structure, and when the music was over, the house was done […] I failed. Her world was too simple, and all she had were ethereal theories. When they collapsed, she had nothing to lean on to keep on living.

Related Characters: Ye Wenjie (speaker), Wang Miao, Yang Weining , Yang Dong
Page Number: 65
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 22 Quotes

“You want to aim a super powerful radio beam at the red sun. Have you thought about the political symbolism of such an experiment?”

Yang and Ye were both utterly stunned, but they did not think Lei’s objection ridiculous. Just the opposite: they were horrified that they themselves had not thought of it. During those years, finding political symbolism in everything had reached absurd levels. The research reports you turned in had to be carefully reviewed by Lei so that even technical terms related to the sun could be repeatedly revised to remove political risk. Terms like “sunspots” were forbidden.

Related Characters: Commissar Lei (speaker), Ye Wenjie , Yang Weining
Page Number: 264
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Three-Body Problem LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Three-Body Problem PDF

Yang Weining Quotes in The Three-Body Problem

The The Three-Body Problem quotes below are all either spoken by Yang Weining or refer to Yang Weining . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Technology, Progress, and Destruction Theme Icon
).
Chapter 8 Quotes

Her father left behind some records. She listened to all of them and finally picked something by Bach as her favorite, listening to it over and over. That was the kind of music that shouldn't have mesmerized a kid. At first, I thought she picked it on a whim, but when I asked her how she felt about the music, she said she could see in the music a giant building, a large, complex house. Bit by bit, the giant added to the structure, and when the music was over, the house was done […] I failed. Her world was too simple, and all she had were ethereal theories. When they collapsed, she had nothing to lean on to keep on living.

Related Characters: Ye Wenjie (speaker), Wang Miao, Yang Weining , Yang Dong
Page Number: 65
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 22 Quotes

“You want to aim a super powerful radio beam at the red sun. Have you thought about the political symbolism of such an experiment?”

Yang and Ye were both utterly stunned, but they did not think Lei’s objection ridiculous. Just the opposite: they were horrified that they themselves had not thought of it. During those years, finding political symbolism in everything had reached absurd levels. The research reports you turned in had to be carefully reviewed by Lei so that even technical terms related to the sun could be repeatedly revised to remove political risk. Terms like “sunspots” were forbidden.

Related Characters: Commissar Lei (speaker), Ye Wenjie , Yang Weining
Page Number: 264
Explanation and Analysis: