Wang Miao
Names: Wang MiaoProfessor WangAcademician WangChief WangHairenXiao WangCopernicusProfessor
First appears in Book 1: The Three-Body Problem, chapter 4 (4)
Appearances
What you know
Book 1: The Three-Body Problem
- Ch 4Wang Miao is a nanomaterials researcher and amateur landscape photographer who dislikes rude people and had been admiring Yang Dong since seeing her a year earlier.
- Ch 4Wang had contact with the Frontiers of Science through Shen Yufei, found their discussions fascinating, but declined an invitation to join.
- Ch 4Wang first refuses to spy on the Frontiers of Science, but provoked by Shi's insults he reverses and agrees to join.
- Ch 4Wang insists he is not a spy and joins only to prove Shi wrong; he believes his knowledge makes him safe from the suicides.
- Ch 5Wang works in applied nanotechnology research and played pool a little in college; he secretly wants to learn about Yang Dong's life.
- Ch 5A year earlier Wang locked eyes with Yang Dong for a moment but never heard her voice.
- Ch 6Wang is a hobby photographer who shoots black-and-white film of wild corners of the city, with work in two exhibitions and membership in the Photographers Association.
- Ch 6Wang leads a key national nanomaterial research project at his Research Center.
- Ch 6Wang is shaken by the idea that the laws of nature might be arbitrary, after dreaming of the two billiard balls.
- Ch 6Wang is a nanomaterials scientist and lead of the Flying Blade project; he insisted the reaction chamber keep running until the third set of combinations finished.
- Ch 6Wang sees a glowing countdown fixed in his vision, visible even with eyes closed or when staring at the sun.
- Ch 6Wang tells himself that stopping the experiment is just needed maintenance and not giving in, but shuts it down after seeing the countdown.
- Ch 6Wang blurts out the hypotheses of the shooter and the farmer, feeling close to the mental trap that claimed other victims.
- Ch 7Wang calls Ding Yi at 1 a.m. to ask about Chinese cosmic microwave background facilities, deliberately hiding the countdown only he can see.
- Ch 7Wang logs into the Three Body game using the ID 'Hairen' via a V-suit in the Nanotechnology Research Center lounge.
- Ch 7Wang counts sandglass flips to track game time and exits the game after watching the civilization freeze.
- Ch 8After leaving the Three Body game, Wang is obsessed with the Chaotic Era and the unpredictable motion of the game's sun, which should be impossible for a planet's orbit.
- Ch 8Wang works in nanotech and wants to observe the cosmic microwave background for a purpose he does not explain to Ye.
- Ch 9Wang requests CMB data on Shen's instruction, predicting the fluctuation for 1 a.m., and tells no one the full reason.
- Ch 9Wang sees the flickering CMB through 3K glasses and feels the universe shrink around him, sensing an incomprehensible presence.
- Ch 9Wang fears the countdown's end may be his death like Yang Dong's, a disaster, or the end of the world.
- Ch 9At dawn Wang breaks down in tears outside St. Joseph's Church until Shi Qiang appears.
- Ch 10Wang Miao, a nanomaterials researcher, breaks his years-long abstinence from smoking and gets drunk with Da Shi after recounting his last three days.
- Ch 10Wang Miao is fixated on the countdown, which has 1,091 hours left, and Da Shi tells him to ignore it.
- Ch 10Wang's nanomaterial research is applied rather than fundamental science, so he is considered a special case among those targeted.
- Ch 11Logs into Three Body again with a new V-suit and finds the pyramid transformed; 362,000 years have passed in-game since his last visit.
- Ch 11Thinks Three Body feigns being illusory while possessing deep reality; real world seems superficially complex but simple.
- Ch 11Throws himself into work to ease nightmarish worries, but the feeling of being a bug under a magnifying starry sky returns at night.
- Ch 14Learned Ye's life story from Sha Ruishan at the Miyun Radio Astronomy Observatory; he comforts Ye and sees she is thinking of her daughter.
- Ch 15Wang logs on to Three Body a third time under the new ID Copernicus, determined to reveal the secret of the game's world.
- Ch 15Wang explains that the world has three suns whose mutual gravity makes their motion unpredictable: the three-body problem, a cosmic football game with the planet as the ball.
- Ch 15Wang argues that the suns' gaseous outer layer becomes invisible at a distance, so far-off suns appear as small flying stars.
- Ch 15Wang is sentenced to burning, but escapes when a tri-solar day interrupts the execution.
- Ch 15After leaving Ye's home, Wang is unsettled because the events of recent days and Red Coast's history seem intertwined.
- Ch 16Wang Miao recognised Wei Cheng's method as an evolutionary algorithm and asked whether Wei knew of Poincaré.
- Ch 16Wang is struck by coincidences, as police are monitoring the game he just solved and Wei is discussing the three-body problem.
- Ch 17Wang suggests the name 'computer' for the system, and realises Von Neumann is a real person not a program.
- Ch 17Wang answered the administrator's questions truthfully and qualified to continue in Three Body.
- Ch 18Wang attends the Three Body meet-up as an infiltrator, secretly texting Shi Qiang and pretending to be a fanatic.
- Ch 18Wang has experienced 184 civilizations in the game, which tells him the game progresses independently for each player.
- Ch 19On his fifth login to Three Body, he finds a modern world with the UN Headquarters, and is addressed as Copernicus, one who crossed five eras.
- Ch 19He brings Wei Cheng's three-body mathematical model to the UN, believing it might work, but is told it is outdated and the problem has no solution.
- Ch 20Wang is addressed by a Trisolaran bystander as 'Great Copernicus' and is told he arrived late, missing three cycles of civilizations.
- Ch 20Wang tells the bystander that Earth's closest star is also about four light-years away.
- Ch 21Wang Miao, a nanomaterials researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is introduced by Ye as her friend; nanomaterials is the first technology Trisolaris wants extinguished.
- Ch 24Wang is rescued from the ETO ranks by soldiers and afterward is told that he was right that someone was behind everything.
- Ch 30Wang was invited to hear Ye's interrogation because of his involvement in the case, and is disturbed by the protons.
- Ch 31Supplies the Flying Blade material and is troubled by innocent deaths; General Chang tells him the survival of human civilization outweighs those concerns.
- Ch 31Wang Miao watched the capture of Judgment Day from a hillside, shaken by the carnage.
- Ch 34Wang Miao says that study of matter's deep structure is the foundation of all sciences, so without progress there everything else is pointless.
Connections
- friend ofShen Yufeimet at a technical conference; she introduced him to the Frontiers of Science
- related toDing YiWang visits and questions him about Yang Donggave Wang the address of Yang Dong's mother
- member ofNanotechnology Research Center
- family ofDou Doufather and son
- related toProfessor Zhangneighbor who lends a camera
- family ofLi Yaowife
- leadsFlying Bladelead scientist on the project
- related toShi Qiangfollows and surveils him
- friend ofDing Yi
- related toFollower of King Wen of Zhoufellow players in the game
- friend ofShi Qiang
- related toKing Wen of Zhoufollowed him in an earlier civilization but never believed his theories
- related toYe Wenjietold him the inside story of Red Coast
- enemy ofPope Gregory
- member ofwww.3body.netplays the game
- ally ofShi Qiang
- related toWei ChengUses Wei Cheng's mathematical model
- friend ofYe Wenjie
- createdFlying Blade
- ally ofColonel Stanton
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 first sees Yang Dong
A year earlier at the Liangxiang site, Wang sees Yang Dong in a striking scene and becomes captivated by her.
- 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 5The pool table experiment
Ding Yi has Wang pocket the black ball five times in different places and times, illustrating that physical laws are invariant across space and time.
- Book 1 · Ch 5Ding reveals the accelerator crisis
Ding Yi explains that high-energy collision experiments now give inconsistent results, implying physics' laws may not be invariant. Wang understands why Yang Dong despaired.
- Book 1 · Ch 6Wang discovers the countdown
Developing his film, Wang finds a countdown from 1,200 hours on every photo, persisting across cameras and rolls but appearing only in pictures he takes himself.
- Book 1 · Ch 6Shen tells Wang to stop his research
Wang visits Shen, who is playing 3body.net. She evades his questions and only insists he stop his nanomaterial project.
- Book 1 · Ch 6Pan Han confronts Shen
As Wang leaves, Pan Han arrives and warns Shen that someone should not force their hand.
- Book 1 · Ch 6Countdown follows Wang
Wang wakes to find the countdown persists in his vision. An ophthalmologist at Tongren Hospital finds nothing wrong and blames stress.
- Book 1 · Ch 6Experiment halted
Wang orders the main reaction chamber shut down for maintenance; the countdown stops and vanishes.
- Book 1 · Ch 6Wang challenges Shen
Wang phones Shen and challenges her to show the countdown on a larger scale; she agrees, saying the universe will flicker for him between one and five a.m. on the fourteenth.
- Book 1 · Ch 7Wang enters the Three Body game
After learning of Yang Dong's mother, Wang uses the lounge V-suit to log in as Hairen and meets King Wen and Follower on a desolate plain.
- Book 1 · Ch 7Journey through Chaotic and Stable Eras
The three travel through extreme cold and heat; Follower dehydrates and Wang carries him; they see two flying stars, a Stable Era, then reach Zhao Ge.
- Book 1 · Ch 7King Wen's prediction before King Zhou
In the pyramid, King Zhou introduces Fu Xi; King Wen draws the I Ching wheel and forecasts the eras, and King Zhou orders verification as the ceiling opens.
- Book 1 · Ch 7Rehydration of the world
After King Wen's predicted Stable Era begins, King Zhou orders rehydration and the people revive in lakes, celebrating for eight days.
- Book 1 · Ch 7The sun fails to rise
After eight days the sun does not rise and three flying stars appear. King Zhou orders dehydration and King Wen leaps into the cauldron.
- Book 1 · Ch 7Destruction of Civilization 137
Snow of dry ice and then frozen air buries the pyramid during a 48-year night, and the game ends the civilization and Wang exits.
- Book 1 · Ch 8Wang visits Ye Wenjie
Wang visits Ye's home, sees Yang Dong's tree-stump room, photo and birch-bark notebook, and hears Ye talk about her daughter's brilliance and death.
- Book 1 · Ch 8Ye arranges observatory visit
Ye phones her former student Sha Ruishan so Wang can observe the cosmic microwave background, and gives Wang ginseng as he leaves.
- Book 1 · Ch 9The universe flickers
At Sha's lab, Wang watches COBE, WMAP, Planck and the Ürümqi observatory show synchronized CMB fluctuations. He decodes the Morse code into a countdown with about 1,108 hours remaining.
- Book 1 · Ch 9Seeing the flicker with 3K glasses
Wang borrows 3K glasses at the planetarium and sees the CMB sky pulse irregularly with his own eyes, overwhelming him with dread.
- Book 1 · Ch 9Breakdown at St. Joseph's Church
After Shen Yufei refuses to answer him, Wang wanders until dawn, hears a hymn at St. Joseph's, breaks down crying, and is found by Shi Qiang.
- Book 1 · Ch 10Drinking with Da Shi
Da Shi takes Wang Miao to a restaurant, where Wang, drinking, recounts three days of events; Da Shi dismisses his philosophical worries, then Wang sleeps it off in the car.
- 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 11Wang meets Mozi in Three Body
Wang finds the pyramid an observatory; Mozi explains his double-sphere universe model and his machine, and tells of Confucius's failed prediction.
- Book 1 · Ch 11Civilization 141 burns
After a Stable Era of seventeen days, an immense sun rises and incinerates the world, destroying Civilization Number 141 and Mozi's predictions.
- Book 1 · Ch 11Wang visits Ye Wenjie
Wang drives to Ye Wenjie's home seeking comfort; she offers to tell him about Red Coast Base.
- Book 1 · Ch 11Ye Wenjie begins her account
Ye Wenjie says she wants to correct a flawed book about Red Coast, then starts telling Wang about her years there.
- Book 1 · Ch 14Ye recounts the decline of Red Coast
Ye tells Wang Miao how Red Coast was renovated, lost its secrecy and military interest, shifted to solar research, and was finally shut down for lack of funds.
- Book 1 · Ch 14Ye describes her loneliness
Ye describes the cosmic loneliness of listening to the universe's noise, which left her torn between valuing life and finding humans insignificant.
- Book 1 · Ch 15Copernicus presents the three-sun model
Wang, as Copernicus, tells the medieval council that three suns cause the chaotic and stable eras. They reject it and sentence him to burning.
- Book 1 · Ch 15Tri-solar day destroys Civilization 183
A burning knight announces the world has ended. Three giant suns appear, scorching the land and killing the council as Wang watches. The game advances to its second level.
- Book 1 · Ch 16Wei Cheng reports a death threat
At Da Shi's office, Wei Cheng tells his life story and reports an anonymous call threatening death unless he stops his three-body research, plus a frightening nighttime encounter with Shen Yufei.
- Book 1 · Ch 16Search and discovery of Shen's body
Da Shi's team goes to Wei's home to search for a gun and arrives as shots have just been fired. They find Shen shot dead; the gunman escapes in a black Santana.
- Book 1 · Ch 16Wei gives Wang the algorithm
Wei hands Wang a CD of his three-body evolutionary algorithm and advises him to stay out of things.
- Book 1 · Ch 17Newton duels Leibniz
Newton defeats Leibniz in a swordfight over who invented calculus, then introduces himself to Wang while Von Neumann tries to stop the fight.
- Book 1 · Ch 17Von Neumann demonstrates logic gates
Before the First Emperor, Von Neumann uses three soldiers with flags to demonstrate logic gates, persuading him to commit thirty million soldiers to a human computer.
- Book 1 · Ch 17Qin I is activated
The Computer Formation boots, locks up due to a faulty CPU gate, is repaired by beheading that gate's soldiers, then runs the Three Body 1.0 orbit software and completes its first computation.
- Book 1 · Ch 17Tri-solar syzygy destroys the Three Body world
As the first sun rises, the astronomy minister reveals three aligned suns. Their combined gravity lifts everything, including the pyramid, the computer's men and the oceans, into space. Atmosphere is lost and the emperor dies. Civilization 184 ends.
- Book 1 · Ch 17Administrator contacts Wang
After Wang logs out, the Three Body system administrator phones, collects his personal details, approves him to continue and invites him to a player meet-up the next night.
- Book 1 · Ch 18Three Body players' meet-up
Seven players meet at Yunhe Coffee Shop. Pan Han reveals Trisolaris is real and probes their attitudes toward Trisolaran intervention in human society.
- Book 1 · Ch 19Pendulum Initiation Ceremony
At the UN, Wang learns the three-body problem is proven unsolvable and the great rip history. The secretary general announces Trisolaris must emigrate to the stars, and the monument pendulum is started.
- Book 1 · Ch 19Three Body announces shutdown
Wang logs in again soon after; the game says its servers will shut down and goes directly to the final scene.
- Book 1 · Ch 20Launch of the Trisolaran Expedition
Wang finds hundreds of millions of Trisolarans watching the sky. The thousand-ship fleet lights up, accelerates and vanishes in the west, bound for the nearest star about four light-years away.
- Book 1 · Ch 20Invitation to the meet-up
Three Body ends and invites Wang to attend an Earth-Trisolaris Organization meet-up in the real world, with the address to follow by e-mail.
- Book 1 · Ch 21Ye resumes the Red Coast story
Ye introduces Wang Miao to the rebels and says she will continue telling the history of Red Coast, which she has only begun.
- Book 1 · Ch 24Army raid on the ETO cafeteria
Soldiers led by Shi Qiang storm the cafeteria and surround the ETO. Three ETO members grab nuclear bomb spheres from the sculpture and demand Ye's release.
- Book 1 · Ch 30Ding Yi explains micro dimensions
After the interrogation, Ding tells Wang about higher dimensions locked in the quantum realm and humanity's insignificance, then declines to say more and suggests drinking.
- 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 31Operation Guzheng begins
At the Gaillard Cut, workers raise the hidden filament net as Judgment Day approaches. Wang and Stanton watch from the slope while a walkie-talkie counts down the ship's distance.
- Book 1 · Ch 31Judgment Day destroyed by the deadly zither
Judgment Day sails between the steel pillars; the nanofilaments slice crew, engine and hull into slices. The ship crashes into the bank and soldiers and helicopters secure the wreckage while Wang watches.
- Book 1 · Ch 34Drunken despair
Wang Miao and Ding Yi, very drunk, tell Da Shi that science is doomed by the sophons and toast humans as bugs about to go extinct.
- Book 1 · Ch 34Locust field lesson
Da Shi drives them to wheat fields in Hebei covered with locusts and asks if the human-Trisolaran gap exceeds that between humans and locusts. Moved by the bugs' resilience, Wang and Ding pour out wine, thank him and resolve to return to work.