Yang Weining
Names: Yang WeiningYangChief Engineer YangChief Yang
First appears in Book 1: The Three-Body Problem, chapter 3 (3)
Appearances
What you know
Book 1: The Three-Body Problem
- Ch 3Yang is Red Coast Base's chief engineer and was once a graduate student of Ye Zhetai, Ye Wenjie's father.
- Ch 3As a student Yang avoided theory out of fear of ideological mistakes and kept distance from his advisor, later cutting contact with him.
- Ch 3Yang argued for recruiting Ye Wenjie because no one else with the needed specialization was available, and accepted responsibility for the risk.
- Ch 12Yang is the chief engineer, cautious and timid, with little political authority; he treated Ye harshly and opposed Lei telling her things.
- Ch 12Yang repeatedly asked superiors to drop the cover story so Ye's skills could be fully used, then offered her the chance to refuse the truth.
- Ch 22Yang secretly loves Ye Wenjie and was the first to trust her at the base.
- Ch 23Yang loved Ye and lost his post as chief engineer for marrying a woman branded a counter-revolutionary, remaining only as an ordinary technician.
- Ch 23Yang secretly obtained foreign-language philosophy and history classics for Ye under the guise of technical research materials.
- Ch 25Yang Weining was Ye Wenjie's husband and Red Coast Base's engineer; he went down the cliff to help Lei and died with him.
Connections
- related toYe Zhetaiformer graduate student of
- member ofRadar Peakchief engineer
- partner ofYe Wenjiemarried
- family ofYang Dongdaughter
- leadsRadar Peak
- family ofYe Wenjiewife and husband
Key moments
- Book 1 · Ch 3Ye Wenjie is flown to Red Coast Base
Ye wakes feverish on a helicopter with Yang and Lei, who debate recruiting her due to a lack of qualified personnel, and she is brought to Radar Peak.
- Book 1 · Ch 3Ye chooses to enter Red Coast
Lei offers redemption through work; Yang warns she may never leave. Ye insists on entering the base and the gates are shut behind them.
- Book 1 · Ch 12Lei explains Red Coast as a microwave weapon
On Radar Peak, Commissar Lei tells Ye that Red Coast is a giant microwave transmitter meant to destroy enemy satellites. Yang interrupts angrily.
- Book 1 · Ch 12Ye moved to Monitoring Department
Ye is transferred to the Monitoring Department, a far more advanced part of the base. Lei tells her its role and says he personally trusts her, over Yang's objections.
- Book 1 · Ch 12The truth about Red Coast revealed
Senior officers and Army Political Department investigators reveal the cover story was a lie. Ye agrees to be told the true nature of Red Coast and Yang explains it.
- Book 1 · Ch 22Secret transmission to the sun
After Lei forbids the experiment, Ye uses a maximum-power test transmission at the setting sun in 1971, tells Yang, and checks for an echo.
- Book 1 · Ch 22Apparent failure and the signal's departure
No echo is received and Peterson's waveforms don't match, so Ye despairs; unknown to her, the amplified signal is already spreading into the universe.
- Book 1 · Ch 23Ye invites the Trisolarans to Earth
Ye conceals the received messages, then at dawn aims the antenna at the sun and transmits for three seconds, asking the aliens to come conquer Earth. She then faints and learns she is pregnant.
- Book 1 · Ch 25Murder of Lei and Yang
Ye sabotages the ground wire so Lei descends the cliff. Yang joins him, and as both climb back up, Ye cuts the rope and they fall to their deaths.