刘慈欣：当《三体》走向世界

赵青奇

2015年，劉慈欣写的科幻小说《三体》获得了世界科幻文学最高奖“雨果奖”，他是第一个获此殊荣的亚洲作家。能以一己之力打入西方科幻文学界，受到欧美读者的肯定和欢迎，并为中国科幻作品赢得了西方世界的重视，刘慈欣的作品无疑是强大的。我们都知道，由于不同语言文化之间的巨大隔阂，中国的优秀文学作品总是难以在西方世界受到认可，那为什么《三体》能获得如此大的成功？难道《三体》就是中国最优秀的文学作品吗？这显然不可能。实际上，其成功或许与科幻小说这种文体的迷人特质息息相关。那么，科幻小说究竟为何如此迷人？它如何影响着我们的现实生活？它又预测了人类怎样的未来？看完本专题，相信你心中会有一个满意的答案。

When he was a schoolboy， Liu Cixin&apos；s favourite book was Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne. He found the book hidden in an old box that once belonged to his father. "This very book turned me into a sci-fi fan，" Liu says.

Now 53， Liu is a science-fiction writer of some renown， both in China and in the English-speaking world. His novel， The Three-Body Problem， won a Hugo award in 2015. His sequel， The Dark Forest， was published in English in 2015， and the third book， Death&apos；s End， has just been translated and released in the UK.

In the 1970s， science fiction was translated widely into Chinese. With this came a sudden surge1） of Chinese authors writing in the genre—and Liu wanted to be one of them. But instead of studying literature， he got a job as a power-plant engineer in Yangquan. But what looks like a career diversion was entirely strategic： the stability of his career meant he could write， he says.

"For about 30 years， I stayed in the same department and worked the same job， which was rare among people of my age. I chose this path because it allowed me to work on my fiction，" he says. "In my youth， when I tried to plan for the future， I wished to be an engineer so I could get work in technology while writing sci-fi after hours. I figured that if I got lucky， I could then turn into a full-time writer. Now looking back， my life path has matched my design almost precisely. I believe not a lot of people have this kind of privilege2）."

His first novel， The Devil&apos；s Bricks， came out in 2002， but it wasn&apos；t until 2006 that he had his breakthrough， with The Three-Body Problem. The novel， initially serialised in the Chinese magazine Science Fiction World， takes its title from a physics question in orbital mechanics and contains three intertwining3） plots， set during 1971， in the mid-2000s and on a distant world in a three-sun system respectively.

Seven years after its initial publication， The Three-Body Problem was brought to a western audience by Tor Books in New York in 2013. It was translated by the Boston-based author Ken Liu. In his translator&apos；s note， Ken writes： "The act of translation involves breaking down one piece of work in one language and ferrying4） the pieces across a gulf5） to reconstitute them into a new work in another language. When the gulf separating the two is as wide as the Pacific Ocean ... the task can be daunting6）. The Chinese literary tradition shaped and was shaped by its readers， giving rise to7） different emphases8） and preferences in fiction compared to what American readers expect."endprint

What western readers expect of Chinese science fiction is a curious issue. Western eyes have a tendency to view China as a dystopia9）， or full of "eastern" mysticism10）. But Liu says it&apos；s a mistake to think that Chinese sci-fi doesn&apos；t share common tropes11） with its western equivalents12）. "We can safely say that all themes once explored in the American and European sci-fi genre have found their manifestation in the Chinese counterpart—things like space exploration， alien contact， artificial intelligence， and life science. Problems of modern development are also addressed13）， like environmental hazards14） and the negative effects coming from new technologies. Yet Chinese sci-fi does have its own unique themes as well， such as the attempt to re-deduce15） and re-display the ancient history of China from a sci-fi angle."

Just two years ago， the Three-Body Problem was the first full-length Chinese sci-fi work to be translated into English. But a wide and burgeoning16） school of sci-fi writing dates back to as far as 1978， with the publication of the short story Death-Ray on the Coral Island by Tong Enzheng in China&apos；s prestigious literary magazine， People&apos；s Literature.

Liu says that a national obsession with sci-fi began around 1983. "Some of the works even sold as many as four million copies. There were even debates on whether sci-fi ought to belong to the domain of science or of literature； Chinese authors made efforts to pull it back to its literary origin， attempting to change the way that sci-fi had been treated as a mere tool for disseminating17） scientific knowledge."

Liu remains mildly18） surprised by the success of The Three-Body Problem outside China. "All we had hoped for was just to let American readers become aware that there is sci-fi in China. Now that it has been embraced19） by readers in the UK and the US， it supports an idea I once had： sci-fi as a literary vessel20） is the most global， the most universal [storytelling]， with the capability to be understood by all cultures. Sci-fi novels are concerned with problems faced by all of humanity. Crises in sci-fi mostly threaten humanity as a whole. This is a unique and treasurable trait21） inherent22） in the genre—that the human race is perceived as a single entity23）， undivided，" Liu says.

劉慈欣还在上学的时候，最喜欢看的书是儒勒·凡尔纳的《地心游记》。他发现这本书藏在曾属于父亲的一个旧箱子里。“正是这本书把我变成了一个科幻迷。”刘慈欣说。

现年53岁的刘慈欣是一位科幻小说作家，在中国和英语国家都颇有名望。他的小说《三体》在2015年获得了雨果奖。其第二部续作《黑暗森林》的英文版于2015年出版，而第三部《死神永生》也已被翻译成英文，刚刚（编注：英文原文发表于2016年12月）在英国出版。endprint

20世纪70年代，大量西方科幻小说被翻译成了中文，随之突然掀起了一场中国作家创作科幻小说的热潮。刘慈欣也想成为其中一员。但他并没有去研究文学，而是在阳泉的一个发电厂找了份工作，当了工程师。这看上去好像是南辕北辙，实际上却完全是很讲求战略的一步：有了一份稳定的工作就意味着他可以写作了，刘慈欣说。

“我在同一个部门同一个岗位干了大概有30年，这在我的同龄人中间是非常少见的。我选择走这条路是因为这样我就能写小说了，”他说，“年轻那会儿我试图规划未来的时候，我就曾想过以后当工程师，这样我就能干与技术有关的工作，同时在下班后写写科幻小说。我盘算着如果幸运的话，我到时可以变成全职作家。现在回头看看，我走的人生道路跟我规划的几乎完全一致。我觉得并不是很多人都能有这个荣幸。”

他的第一部长篇小说是《魔鬼积木》，早在2002年就出版了，但直到2006年发表《三体》之后（编著：这里指的是第一次發表时间，正式作为书出版是在2008年），他才取得了突破。这部小说最初以连载的形式刊登在中文杂志《科幻世界》上。小说的名字源自轨道力学里的一个物理问题，情节方面包含三个相互交织的故事，背景分别设定在1971年、2005年前后和一个拥有三个太阳的遥远世界。

《三体》第一部小说最初发表七年后的2013年，纽约的托尔出版社将《三体》介绍给了西方读者。小说由居住在波士顿的作家刘宇昆翻译成英文。在译者序中，刘宇昆写道：“翻译就是把由一种语言写成的作品拆散，再把这些碎片运送到鸿沟的那一边，好把它们重新组装成由另外一种语言展现的新作品。当两种语言的隔阂犹如太平洋一般宽广时，翻译的任务就变得艰巨无比。中国的文学传统影响了读者，读者反过来也影响了中国的文学传统，从而导致中国小说的重点和偏好跟美国读者期待的有所不同。”

西方读者对中国科幻小说怀着怎样的期待是一个引人好奇的问题。西方读者总是倾向于视中国为一个不那么尽如人意的国家，或是一个弥漫着“东方”神秘色彩的地方。但刘慈欣说，要是认为中国的科幻小说与西方的科幻小说没有共通的隐喻内涵，那可就错了。“我们可以放心大胆地说，欧美科幻小说探讨过的所有主题都已经在中国科幻小说中找到了相应的展现，比如太空探索、接触外星人、人工智能和生命科学等等。现代发展过程中的问题，比如危害环境的因素和新技术带来的弊端，在科幻小说中也有涉及。不过，中国的科幻小说的确也有自己独特的主题，比如试图从科幻的角度重新演绎、重新展现中国古代的历史。”

就在两年前，《三体》成为首部被译成英文的中文长篇科幻小说。但中国其实早在1978年就出现了一股声势浩大的科幻小说创作热潮，当时中国著名的文学杂志《人民文学》刊载了童恩正的短篇小说《珊瑚岛上的死光》。

刘慈欣说，1983年前后，中国开始出现了一股全民科幻热。“有些作品甚至卖出了400万册。甚至还有关于应将科幻小说归为科学还是文学的讨论。中国作家努力让科幻小说回归其文学本源，竭力改变科幻小说曾被视为仅仅是传播科学知识的工具的命运。”

刘慈欣仍对《三体》在海外获得的成功略感惊讶。“我们之前只是希望美国读者能够知道中国也有科幻小说。现在，英国和美国的读者已经欣然接受了这一点。这佐证了我曾提出的一个看法：科幻小说作为一种文学载体是最全球化、最普及化的[叙事方式]，能被所有文化群体理解。科幻小说探讨的是全人类共同面临的问题，其中展现的那些危机大多威胁着全人类。科幻小说这一文学流派天生就有一个独特、宝贵的特质——它把人类看作是一个统一的、不可分割的整体。”他说。endprint