Chang Weisi
Names: Chang WeisiGeneral ChangCommanderGeneral
First appears in Book 1: The Three-Body Problem, chapter 4 (4)
Appearances
What you know
Book 1: The Three-Body Problem
- Ch 4Major General Chang Weisi presides over the Battle Command Center meeting, calling it a combat zone in a time of war and withholding background from newcomers.
- Ch 4Chang asks Wang to join the Frontiers of Science and report on its inner workings, since the authorities have no other way in.
- Ch 4Chang tells Wang that all of human history has been fortunate, with no real crisis, but that this luck has ended and he should prepare for the worst.
- Ch 5General Chang worked out the implication that physical laws are not invariant; Ding Yi calls him smart.
- Ch 10General Chang was Da Shi's old army company commander and had Da Shi transferred to the Battle Command Center; he is fearless but now worried.
- Ch 31Leads the meeting and demands a plan that captures the Trisolaran messages safely; Central will pick one plan within ten hours.
- Ch 31General Chang refused permission for Shi Qiang to attend the operation, saying he was needed where he was.
- Ch 33General Chang warns the meeting that sophons are probably monitoring them and that there will be no more secrets.
Book 2: The Dark Forest
- Ch 2General Chang announces the Chinese Space Force, built on the navy, whose thirty-one founders must create a theory of space warfare and organize an academy.
- Ch 2He tells the officers none of them will see space; the full combat capacity of the space force will take three centuries.
- Ch 2Chang Weisi is the space force commander and is temporarily overseeing political work because political commissars have not yet reported.
- Ch 2Chang Weisi commends Zhang Beihai's sense of responsibility, concedes defeatism exists while a technology gap persists, but says ideological matters should go through proper channels.
- Ch 3Chang Weisi has become commander of the Political Department of the Armed Forces and openly asks his political officers whether they believe in victory.
- Ch 3Chang Weisi admired Zhang Beihai's father but never fully understood him, and likewise cannot fathom what Zhang Beihai's faith rests on.
- Ch 3Chang Weisi warns that Wallfacers have power to interfere in the space force, and says the military must balance the Wallfacer Project against mainstream defense.
- Ch 4Chang Weisi assigns Zhang Beihai to focus on the Space Force Political Department and draft a report for the Central Military Commission.
- Ch 4Chang Weisi reports the CMC finds sending political cadres to the future as reinforcements premature, though the plan is not denied.
- Ch 5He gives Zhang Beihai a letter for his future successor recommending him to the future Space Command, and advises him to adapt to the future.
- Ch 5Chang Weisi is Zhang Beihai's commander and admits he never really understood Zhang Beihai.
- Ch 5Chang Weisi turns fifty-four on the day of the departure and sees in the winter wind his own end and humanity's.
- Ch 6Space Command general who has met Tyler and Hines, both Wallfacers; interested in using technology to enhance mental ability and counter defeatism.
- Ch 6Chang Weisi calls the mental seal the most troublesome thing in history and prefers a space force without faith in victory but with independent thought.
- Ch 6Chang Weisi retired the year of the Mercury test, admitting he lacked confidence in victory, and died at sixty-eight, speaking Zhang Beihai's name.
- Ch 7Chang Weisi suspected Zhang Beihai and opposed his joining the Special Contingent, but was overruled and warned the fleet only subtly.
Connections
- leadsBattle Command Center
- related toShi QiangServed as a soldier in Chang's company twenty years ago
- ally ofShi QiangOld army subordinate; Chang had him transferred
- inBattle Command Center
- leadsChinese Space Force
- leadsPolitical Department of the Armed Forces
- has memberZhang Beihaiserves in the space force under him
- related toZhang Beihaisubordinate officer of Chang Weisi in the Space Force
- ally ofZhang Beihai
- ally ofBill Hines
- enemy ofZhang BeihaiChang suspected his hidden motives
Key moments
- Book 1 · Ch 4Wang summoned to the Battle Command Center meeting
After a rude visit from Captain Shi and the police, army officers invite Wang to a meeting where General Chang briefs scholars, police and foreign observers on attacks against scientists.
- Book 1 · Ch 4Physicist suicides revealed
Chang reveals that all physicists on the list killed themselves in the last two months, the last being Yang Dong. Her note claims physics does not exist, and Wang is devastated.
- Book 1 · Ch 4Wang agrees to join the Frontiers of Science
After Chang dismisses him, Wang argues with Shi, who mocks him and the dead scholars. Provoked, Wang reverses his refusal and agrees to join the Frontiers of Science to prove Shi wrong.
- Book 1 · Ch 4Chang's warning about the end of humanity's luck
Chang walks Wang out and tells him that humanity's whole history has been fortunate but that this has ended. Wang then asks the driver to take him to Ding's address.
- Book 1 · Ch 10Da Shi explains his theory
By the Forbidden City moat, Da Shi lays out his theory of a coordinated plan to destroy science, a global military alert against an unknown enemy, and urges Wang to keep working and play Three Body.
- Book 1 · Ch 31Meeting to plan the capture of Judgment Day
Military officers reject ball lightning, neutron bombs, nerve gas, concussion bombs and infrasound. Shi Qiang proposes a net of Flying Blade filaments across the canal; it is accepted and refined to the Gaillard Cut.
- Book 1 · Ch 33Trisolaris tells humanity "You're bugs!"
At the Battle Command Center, after General Chang warns of sophon surveillance, everyone sees a two-second message in their eyes reading 'You're bugs!' Trisolaris then cuts off the Adventists.
- Book 2 · Ch 2Founding of the Chinese Space Force
Chang Weisi tells thirty officers the space force will be navy-based and academy-like, and that its goals span three centuries beyond their lifetimes.
- Book 2 · Ch 2Space force meeting on defeatism
Zhang Beihai tells Chang Weisi that defeatism is the space force's greatest danger and reports survey results on troops' ideology.
- Book 2 · Ch 2Zhang Beihai denounces Wu Yue
At a meeting Zhang Beihai names Wu Yue as a typical defeatist and recommends removing him from the space force. Wu Yue accepts it; Chang Weisi defuses the situation by urging proper channels.
- Book 2 · Ch 3Chang Weisi's political officers meeting
Chang Weisi candidly polls political officers on faith in victory; only Zhang Beihai says yes. He outlines three-tier space warfare research institutes, and officers mostly choose low-tech while Zhang picks high-tech.
- Book 2 · Ch 4Zhang Beihai proposes reinforcements
Zhang Beihai urges Chang Weisi to send political officers to the future to fight defeatism; Chang tasks him with researching and drafting a report.
- Book 2 · Ch 4Zhang Beihai flies to the ISS
Zhang Beihai boards High Frontier, meets Ding Yi, discusses aerospace politics and the sophon blockade, and reaches orbit, first seeing the starfield.
- Book 2 · Ch 5Farewell to the Contingent
Chang Weisi sees off the Special Contingent at the airport and hands Zhang Beihai a letter for his future successor.
- Book 2 · Ch 5Farewell at the airport
Zhang Beihai and Chang Weisi exchange a solemn goodbye. The special contingent salutes and boards a plane, which takes off into the bleak winter sky as Chang Weisi watches, pessimistic about humanity's future.
- Book 2 · Ch 6Hines tells Chang Weisi of the mental seal
On Space Command's balcony, Hines offers help against defeatism and reveals the mental seal, which can implant belief directly.
- Book 2 · Ch 6Passing of the Golden Age generation
Over the following decades, key figures retire, die or enter hibernation, and the Golden Age generation vanishes from living memory.