Yang Dong
Names: Yang DongYangsheherDong Dong
First appears in Book 1: The Three-Body Problem, chapter 4 (4)
Appearances
What you know
Book 1: The Three-Body Problem
- Ch 4Yang Dong was a young theoretical physicist whose superstring model was to be the first test at the Sinotron II accelerator; she avoided media interviews.
- Ch 4Yang Dong killed herself two nights before the meeting with sleeping pills, leaving a birch-bark note saying physics has never existed and never will.
- Ch 5Yang Dong lived with her mother, who depended on her entirely; Ding Yi asks Wang to visit the now-lonely old woman.
- Ch 5Her note's second half read: 'I know what I'm doing is irresponsible. But I have no choice.' Wang had seen only the first half.
- Ch 5Yang Dong was distant and cold toward Ding Yi, who compares her to a star; she and he loved playing pool.
- Ch 6Yang Dong is a prior victim whose fate Shen invokes as a warning to Wang.
- Ch 8Yang Dong died in her room at her mother's home, ending her life in her sleep, despite earning a high income.
- Ch 8As a child she was drawn to abstract theory and found formulas beautiful; she loved Bach, imagining the music as a giant building under construction.
- Ch 8Her room is rustic, with bark-covered walls and tree-stump furniture. A photo shows her as a frightened child with Ye before a huge parabolic antenna.
- Ch 10Yang Dong worked on abstract theory, the kind of fundamental research Da Shi says the enemy fears most.
- Ch 14Daughter of Ye Wenjie and Yang Weining; Ye still thinks of her with grief.
- Ch 26Daughter of Ye Wenjie and Yang Weining, born at a town hospital and breastfed by the women of Qijiatun, especially Feng.
Book 2: The Dark Forest
Book 3: Death's End
- Ch 3Yang Dong is a physicist who believes the end of physics has come; the stopped collider leaves her despairing and terrified about the nature of reality.
- Ch 3She secretly recovered her mother's deleted, decrypted messages and learned about Trisolaris and the secret her mother shares with the extraterrestrials.
- Ch 3She never confronts her mother about the secret, fearing it would irrevocably change her image of her mother.
- Ch 3After the simulation she concludes she can no longer save herself, and is haunted by the question of whether Nature is really natural.
- Ch 3Yang knows from her mother's documents that life is common and the universe crowded, so she wonders how much life has changed the universe.
Connections
- partner ofDing Yiboyfriend
- family ofYe Wenjiemother and daughter
- family ofYang Weiningdaughter
- friend ofLuo Jihigh school classmates
Key moments
- 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 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 26Birth of Yang Dong
After a difficult labor and near death, Ye gave birth to Yang Dong; Qijiatun villagers donated blood and Hunter Qi's family took in mother and baby.
- Book 1 · Ch 26Ye returns to Tsinghua
Ye and her father were rehabilitated, and she left Red Coast Base for Tsinghua, where she visited her mother Shao Lin and was coldly warned off by her husband.
- Book 2 · Ch 9Luo Ji digs his grave
At the cemetery beside the graves of Yang Dong and Ye Wenjie, Luo Ji digs a shallow grave, sleeps, dreams of Zhuang Yan, and wakes feverish at dawn.
- Book 2 · Ch 9Luo Ji leaves the graveyard
At sunrise Luo Ji, relieved, stands, looks at the graves of Ye Wenjie and Yang Dong, and walks back; an ant is the only witness.
- Book 3 · Ch 3Yang Dong learns her mother's secret
Yang Dong secretly recovers Ye Wenjie's deleted encrypted messages and learns about Trisolaris and her mother's hidden role, but keeps silent.
- Book 3 · Ch 3The life-unchecked simulation
Green Glasses runs a coarse Earth simulation with life disabled, producing a dry planet. Yang Dong asks whether the same would hold for the universe, and realizes the implications given the Trisolaran secret.