Liu Cixin was born in Beijing in the midsummer of 1963 to a cadre at the Beijing Coal Design Institute and a demobilized mother. Later, my parents were transferred due to work relations and came to Yangquan, Shanxi. Liu Cixin completed primary and junior high school and high school in Yangquan City. In the middle school years, Liu Cixin's liberal arts and sciences grades were all at the upper middle level, not a top-notch student, and did not receive too much attention from teachers and classmates. After graduating from high school, Liu Cixin was admitted to college to study hydropower engineering.
Liu Cixin later told people many times that whether or not he could be admitted to college was the feng shui ridge that determined the fate of a person's life.
When I was in elementary school, Liu Cixin first read Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth, "and suddenly there was a kind of excitement that I had never had before, and I felt that this book was written for people like me, like in a dark room, and the window was suddenly opened."
In 1978, Ye Yonglie's "PHS Roaming the Future" was published, and it exploded. Liu Cixin, who was only fifteen years old and was in the third year of junior high school, read it and began to try to write science fiction. Hopefully, he pitched his debut to a magazine, but received a rejection slip.
One winter night in 1981, Liu Cixin watched Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey, walked out of the house, looked up at the deep and endless starry sky, and suddenly felt that everything around him had disappeared, and the ground under his feet had become an infinitely extending snow white smooth pure geometric plane." Under the magnificent starry sky, I was the only one standing, standing alone in this huge mystery that human beings could not grasp."
In 1985, Liu Cixin graduated from university and was assigned to work at a power plant in his hometown. The chimney of the power plant spewed gray smoke into the air day and night, confusing the earth and the sky, and his heart was also confused. He lived a nine-to-five life, commuting to work, walking from the dormitory to the office, and then from the office back to the dormitory, two points and one line. Because of the serious and responsible work, within a few years, it became the technical authority in the unit, "there is a problem, look for Liu Gong".
Colleagues get together every day after work to chat and play cards and kill time, and he is not exempt from it. He lives in a single dormitory, has no girlfriend, and plays poker and mahjong with his colleagues every day. One night, he lost more than eight hundred dollars, equivalent to a month's salary. He thought that he couldn't go on like this anymore, and he had to find something else to do, "even if you can't make money, at least you don't lose money." So I thought of writing science fiction. I started writing short stories, and then I tinkered with long stories. The road to creation is difficult and long, and what is more desperate than creation is that it cannot be published. After writing it, I voted for several publishing houses, and it was not surprising that they were all returned.
He often lay alone in a rocking chair, drinking a cup of tea, looking up at the vast sky, and the silent thunder sounded in his heart.
He would often stop at work on his bike, stop by the side of the road, and gaze at the night sky for a long time. It was a kind of romance that he felt was the most extreme.
Ten years of sharpening the sword, there is finally a try. In 1999, Liu Cixin's debut work "Whale Song" was published, and since then he has entered the circle of science fiction literature. He went to a PEN meeting and met a pair of young boys and girls at the reception desk, the handsomeness of the boy and the beauty of the girl, which he had never seen in his life, as if they were characters from mythology. He involuntarily leaned in and asked, you are also here to start a pen meeting? They laughed and said, no (probably a student couple who came out on vacation to play). Years later, Liu Cixin was not impressed by the other details of the pen meeting, but he still remembered the young boys and girls, and eventually became the prototype of his character in "The Wandering Earth".
In 2006, Liu Cixin wrote huanghuang's masterpiece "Three-Body Problem", which is 880,000 words long, "thick and heavy, and the weather is thousands". Liu Cixin believes in the book that human beings should not easily expose the existence of the earth in the universe, because human beings do not understand alien civilizations, and contact with alien civilizations is a very dangerous thing, and it may encounter unpredictable disasters. It is very frightening for humans to provoke aliens with a very naïve attitude.
Four years later, the famous British physicist Hawking claimed that for extraterrestrial civilizations, what humans should do is not to actively try to contact them, but to avoid contact with them as much as possible. At that time, "The Three-Body Problem" had not yet been translated into foreign languages and exported overseas, so Hawking and he belonged to the "hero's vision".
The "Three-Body" series created by Liu Cixin in the year of confusion was unanimously regarded by critics as "a milestone in the history of Chinese science fiction literature".
A hardcore science fiction fan said that after the advent of the "three-body" series, the world was divided into three kinds of people: those who had not seen "Three-Body", those who had seen "Three-Body" one or two, and those who had seen "Three-Body" three.
On the eve of the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2010, Liu Cixin and a colleague exchanged complaints about each other's distress. Liu Cixin said that the unit leaders did not support his writing, and he could only write secretly. After saying that, he smiled bitterly, and his smile was in the yellow autumn, as if it would wither away at any time.
On Christmas Eve in 2010, Liu Cixin went to Vietnam with a group of colleagues to collect wind and drink wine at night, and someone asked him why don't you quit your job and specialize in creation. Liu Cixin said that science fiction is not easy to grasp, and no one knows whether it can sell well. Readers like this book, will they like the next one? He said that at an event organized by a bookseller, he met Han Han, Guo Jingming, the third uncle of the Southern Sect, Mingyue and other best-selling authors of that year, and Mingyue's "Those Things of the Ming Dynasty" had sold more than 10 million copies, but he did not resign, so it can be seen that there is still a (stable) job guarantee.
Some people advised Liu Cixin to apply for the Mao Dun Literature Award, but Liu Cixin did not report it, first, he felt that he could not evaluate it, and second, he wanted more than thirty books to register, and it cost a lot of money.
In 2015, Liu Cixin went to Beijing to attend a dialogue and exchange meeting, the organizer bought him a high-speed rail business seat, he changed to a first-class seat, recovered more than two hundred yuan, and returned it to the organizer. He said it was only a little more than two hours in total, no need to fly in business class, not tired. The organizer arranged to stay in a five-star hotel, he said, does not need such a good hotel, ordinary hotels can be.
As a "science and engineering otaku", Liu Cixin wears the standard for science and engineering men: black sneakers, gray jacket, black and white plaid shirt.
After Liu Cixin burst into flames, colleagues still knew nothing. One day, a good colleague told him that I saw a person who wrote science fiction on the Internet who was very popular, and his name was Liu Cixin. Liu Cixin listened and smiled.
Liu Cixin said, "Mainstream literature describes the world that God has created, and science fiction literature creates the world like God and then describes it."
Yan Feng, a professor at fudan university's department of Chinese, spoke highly of Liu Cixin: I have no doubt that this person has single-handedly elevated Chinese science fiction literature to a world-class level.
Nobel Laureate mo yan spoke highly of Liu Cixin: he used profound scientific knowledge as the basis of imagination, blending human life with imaginary life, resulting in a unique interest. I don't have that kind of [creative] ability.
Liu Cixin said: If the universe is the Sahara Desert, then the earth is a grain of dust, and human beings are bacteria attached to the dust.
Liu Cixin was deeply influenced by Russian literature since childhood, and the works of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky and others were painful and thick, allowing him to understand society more thoroughly and learn how to express.
Liu Cixin said that as a science fiction writer, there must be "copper money" in his eyes. The "copper coin" here is not to look at the money, but to "look at the outer circle and the inner square". First of all, there must be passion and obsession with science fiction, and secondly, there must be curiosity about the unknown world, a sense of awe for nature, and a desire to constantly explore the world of the universe.
Liu Cixin said that if I didn't write science fiction, I wouldn't be a writer. I love science fiction to write science fiction, from science fiction, to science fiction.
Liu Cixin was impressed by a famous quote on Clark's tombstone: I have never grown up, but I have never stopped growing.
Liu Cixin said that writing science fiction is "more conceived than written." The ideation process includes, but is not limited to, setting the idea, unfolding the story, logical reasoning from a scientific point of view, etc., and it may take only a few months to write.
Liu Cixin said that my daughter does not like science fiction, and I will not force her to do so. Of course, I'll take her to the cinema to see some sci-fi blockbusters and cultivate her sense of responsibility, love, and heroism.
Liu Cixin said that I am a particularly realistic and sober person. I'm not a genius, I have to have a stable job before I come back to doing what I love. I can walk step by step to today and realize the ideals of my youth, which can be said to be very lucky. A person must first be able to ensure that he has no problem surviving, and then he can chase his dreams.
Liu Cixin said that I am not a highly intelligent person because I failed to get a high score in college. A high score does not necessarily mean a high IQ, but a high IQ can definitely get a high score.
Liu Cixin said, I am not diligent. I've only written four million words in fifteen years, and the word "diligent" is too much to be ashamed of compared to the online fiction writer who now updates ten thousand words a day. The reason why I have been able to get to this day is that I saw the truth of life clearly when I was a teenager, and made a sober and wise life plan, and then I was lucky to succeed on this road.
"Success is the result of one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent sweat, but it's that one percent inspiration that determines whether you succeed or not."
Liu Cixin said that the sooner you find what you like and are good at, and keep doing it, the sooner you can realize your dreams.
Liu Cixin said that work can be spent more time writing than professional writers can spend writing. I get up at seven o'clock every day, and after going to work, I have to stick to my post, I can't leave people, I have to stay in the office, I can't go out and walk around, I can only stay in front of the computer. If you are a professional writer, no one is restrained every day, can you get up in the morning, can you stay at home, can you stay at home and write? Besides, work is a window into the outside world. People like me are not sociable, if they don't work, they will completely become otaku, don't have contact with people, don't understand society, how can they write good works?
Liu Cixin said that I have no interest in literature. I don't get good at small language literature, my foundation in ancient literature is even worse, and I never get high marks for writing essays.
Liu Cixin said that in fact, the level of many science fiction writers has reached a considerable height, but the influence is not as great as mine, and this reason is due to opportunity.
Liu Cixin said that living in small places in second- and third-tier cities, commuting to work every day, buying vegetables and cooking, picking up and dropping off children, day after day, this is the most life state that people live. Very ordinary, not fast, not slow. It's very dull, and everyone is running away from or dissolving it in their own way. Someone plays cards, someone fishes, someone watches the ball, someone plays chess, someone drinks and chats, and so on.
Liu Cixin said that my works are aimed at older readers, junior high school students can, but primary school students can't.
Peer comments Liu Cixin: Liu Cixin is always compassionate and compassionate, and it is a kind of great compassion, like the Buddha. Sometimes like Newton, not like Einstein. He is a person with experience, and this experience is not to travel through thousands of mountains and rivers, but to taste the bitterness of life in ordinary life. There is a sense of simplicity and directness in his body and a taste of vicissitudes.
Liu Cixin does not read philosophy books, "it is too difficult to understand."
Liu Cixin insists on running ten kilometers a day, going to the stadium in the warm weather and going to the nearby highway in the cold weather.
Someone invited Liu Cixin to travel to space for only four minutes, but Liu Cixin refused. He wished he could stay for a week.
Confucius said that in the ten rooms, there will be herbs. In fact, there are many people like Liu Cixin in our lives, living an ordinary and mediocre life, doing trivial and repetitive work, earning a salary that is only enough to make ends meet, but there are unattainable ideals in our hearts, and we do not want to waste time and do not want to live in vain. So I chose to use writing to beat time and defeat the ordinary. Yu Hua was like this, Mingyue was like that year, Wang Xiaobo was like this, and Liu Cixin was like this. The difference is that some people have succeeded after years of struggle, and some people have not succeeded in their lives.
Successful people are lucky, and if they are not successful, they don't have to sigh sadly, at least they can say to themselves, I have written, lived, and worked hard.
"Three-body" and "The Wandering Earth" are Liu Cixin's famous works, like friends to buy a set to go home to see it, click the link below to buy directly.
Three-body set of three volumes + Wandering Earth [there is a book] ¥36 to buy