Yun Tianming
Names: Yun TianmingTianmingCandidate #5Mr. Yun
First appears in Book 3: Death's End, chapter 4 (Crisis Era, Year 4 Yun Tianming)
Appearances
What you know
Book 3: Death's End
- Ch 4Tianming is a terminally ill lung cancer patient whose cancer has spread throughout his body; chemo and radiation can only prolong his life.
- Ch 4Tianming is a loner, unsuccessful in career and personal life, who left the care of his frail father to his sister.
- Ch 4Tianming has loved drizzly days and origami boats since the college outing where Cheng Xin first spoke to him.
- Ch 4After concluding his sister wants him dead, Tianming files an application for euthanasia and decides to spend Wen's money buying Cheng Xin a star.
- Ch 6Dying of late-stage lung cancer, Tianming stopped chemo and buys a star for Cheng Xin, keeping his identity secret from her.
- Ch 6Raised by parents who forced an elitist education on him, Tianming grew into a lonely, sensitive loner whose childhood memories are all gray.
- Ch 6Tianming failed to get into graduate school, worked at a state-owned aerospace company, fell behind in his career, and dated two women briefly.
- Ch 6Tianming loved Cheng Xin from afar through college without hope, seeing her as a sun behind clouds; after his diagnosis he wanted to see her.
- Ch 6Tianming chooses euthanasia, walking calmly into the hospital's euthanasia room; he was the fourth person in the city to do so.
- Ch 6Facing death, Tianming flew to Shanghai to glimpse Cheng Xin from afar, without telling her he was there.
- Ch 6Tianming waited at one gate of the Academy of Spaceflight Technology for an hour but never saw Cheng Xin, then returned home in despair.
- Ch 6Tianming pictured his epitaph as: He came; he loved; he gave her a star; he left.
- Ch 6Tianming pressed 3 to confirm euthanasia, but the procedure was stopped before any drugs entered him.
- Ch 6Tianming lacks the courage to touch Cheng Xin's hair, though he has long yearned for it.
- Ch 11He was Cheng Xin's college classmate, in the late stages of lung cancer, and had already chosen euthanasia.
- Ch 11He had given Cheng Xin the star out of love; he realizes she came to ask him to die and is horrified by what the Trisolarans might do to his brain.
- Ch 11He is terrified of space, which he understands as a sinister place.
- Ch 11He agreed to accept the Staircase Program mission.
- Ch 12Tianming refused the oath of loyalty to humanity, saying he felt like a stranger in the world and his loyalty depended on the Trisolaran civilization.
- Ch 12Tianming had given Cheng Xin a star, which Wade revealed to her only as Tianming's brain was being removed.
- Ch 12Tianming was chosen for the Staircase Program; his brain was removed at Westchester Medical Center and sealed in a liquid-helium container.
- Ch 12Tianming is understood to be drifting through an endless abyss that will last for centuries.
- Ch 45Sophon relays a message that Yun Tianming wants to see Cheng Xin.
- Ch 46His brain, carried by the Staircase probe, was intercepted by the Trisolarans, likely 30 to 50 years ago and not before the Deterrence Era.
- Ch 46He is now aboard the First Trisolaran Fleet; his exact condition is unknown, perhaps a living brain or implanted in a cloned body.
- Ch 46His request to see Cheng Xin was approved, suggesting he has integrated into Trisolaran society and perhaps holds social status there.
- Ch 46Humanity worries whether he still works for human interests and whether he took part in recent history between the two worlds.
- Ch 47In college Tianming once described how one could reach space at walking speed by climbing steadily upward, even up to the moon's orbit.
- Ch 47Tianming appears young, fit and tanned, wearing a silver jacket and straw hat, farming wheat in a soil-filled field aboard a spaceship.
- Ch 47Tianming has watched Cheng Xin's life through the sophons all along, and thanks her for the seeds she sent; he could not grow cucumbers.
- Ch 47Tianming's ambiguous answers show he has a close relationship with Trisolaran society and can see what sophons gather on Earth.
- Ch 47Tianming refuses to reveal anything about his experience to protect Cheng Xin, and instead proposes retelling their childhood stories to pass on hidden information.
- Ch 47Tianming published a popular Trisolaran book, Fairy Tales from Earth, telling Cheng Xin's stories under her byline.
- Ch 48Tianming is the only human embedded in an alien society, and his position is considered irreplaceable for humanity's survival.
- Ch 48Tianming falsely claimed he and Cheng Xin knew each other as kids, and attributed the three stories to her to make them seem innocuous and to signal their importance.
- Ch 48His final words suggested he could never return to the Solar System and that he had little faith Earth would survive.
- Ch 52Tianming told his three fairy tales to Cheng Xin in Chinese; most names in them have clear Chinese meanings.
- Ch 52Experts doubted he could understand Trisolaran supertechnology, since he had only a Common Era undergraduate degree and entry-level work experience.
- Ch 55His message, once correctly interpreted, changed curvature propulsion from a dream into something known to be possible.
- Ch 56Tianming hid intelligence in three of over a hundred fairy tales, using dual-layer metaphors and two-dimensional (bearing coordinate) metaphors.
- Ch 68His fairy tales, via Needle-Eye's pictures, contained a metaphor hinting at dimensional collapse that humanity failed to decipher.
- Ch 70Yun Tianming had earlier pointed out that lightspeed ships were the right path, but Cheng Xin blocked it; he gave Cheng Xin the star DX3906.
- Ch 71His secret message, as interpreted by Cheng Xin, let Solar System humans reach lightspeed flight about two centuries ahead of Galactic humans; Yifan calls him a great man.
- Ch 71Yun Tianming arrived at Planet Blue by ship, still as young as Cheng Xin, bringing a big gift for her.
- Ch 72Cheng Xin last cried this way when Tianming's brain was removed from his body, about 18.9 million years and six centuries earlier.
- Ch 73Yun Tianming gave Cheng Xin and Guan Yifan Universe 647 as a gift, hoping they would survive the big crunch and see the new universe.
Connections
- family ofTianming's sistersiblings, estranged
- family ofTianming's father
- friend ofHu Wencollege classmates
- friend ofLao Lihospital roommates
- related toCheng Xinunrequited love; buys her a star anonymouslycollege acquaintance she cares for; he gave her a star
- partner ofCheng XinTianming loves her; he gave her a star
- member ofStaircase Programchosen candidate
- inFirst Trisolaran Fleetaboard the fleet after capture
- friend ofCheng XinCollege acquaintance; she is going to meet him
- inOur Lordembedded in Trisolaran society
- related toIntelligence Decipherment Committeetries to decipher his message
- related toOur Lordlives among them and spies on their technology
- related toDX3906gave the star to Cheng Xin
- related toAAlived a happy life together on Planet Blue; message from both
Key moments
- Book 3 · Ch 4Lao Li's euthanasia
Lao Li undergoes the city's first legal euthanasia in a decorated room while Tianming watches through one-way glass, deeply shaken.
- Book 3 · Ch 4Tianming realizes his sister's motive
Tianming recognizes Dr. Zhang as his sister's classmate and concludes she wants him to choose euthanasia to protect her inheritance. He resigns himself and applies for euthanasia.
- Book 3 · Ch 4Hu Wen gives Tianming money
Wen visits with Green Tempest and gives Tianming three million yuan for the idea behind it. After the Stars Our Destination Project is announced, Tianming resolves to buy Cheng Xin a star.
- Book 3 · Ch 6Tianming buys DX3906 for Cheng Xin
At UNESCO's Beijing office, Tianming purchases the star DX3906 in Cheng Xin's name anonymously. Dr. He then drives him out of the city to see it.
- Book 3 · Ch 6Tianming undergoes euthanasia
On his last day, Tianming enters the euthanasia room alone and recalls his lonely life and love for Cheng Xin while pressing the confirmation numbers.
- Book 3 · Ch 6Futile search at the academy
Tianming flies to Shanghai and waits outside the Academy of Spaceflight Technology hoping to see Cheng Xin, but she never appears and he returns home in despair.
- Book 3 · Ch 6Euthanasia interrupted
Tianming presses 3 to end his life, but hospital staff rush in, cut off the injector and pull the needle out before any drugs enter him. Cheng Xin waits outside, then embraces him in tears.
- Book 3 · Ch 11Tianming accepts the mission
Cheng Xin asks the terminally ill Tianming to volunteer as the Staircase subject. Realizing she wants him to die, and fearing Trisolaran torture, he laughs hysterically, then accepts.
- Book 3 · Ch 12Tianming refuses the oath
At the UN ceremony Tianming refuses to pledge loyalty to humanity, which proves to Wade his suitability. Joyner also refuses and dies soon after, so Tianming is chosen.
- Book 3 · Ch 12Tianming's brain removed
Cheng Xin arrives too late to see Tianming; his brain is sealed in liquid helium. She asks to send seeds, Wade refuses, and she agrees to go to the future.
- Book 3 · Ch 12Staircase craft launched and lost
The craft accelerates with nuclear bombs to 1% lightspeed but is lost near Jupiter's orbit when its sail curls; the program is deemed a half success.
- Book 3 · Ch 12Cheng Xin loses consciousness in the cold
Cheng Xin's consciousness fades in the cold. She is comforted by the thought that, like Tianming, she will drift through an endless abyss for centuries.
- Book 3 · Ch 45Sophon's farewell tea
Before a vast silent crowd, Sophon holds a final tea with Cheng Xin and Luo Ji, then says her last mission is a message: Yun Tianming wants to see Cheng Xin.
- Book 3 · Ch 46Trisolarans capture Yun Tianming's probe
A ship of the First Trisolaran Fleet, probably the one that never decelerated, intercepted the Staircase probe carrying Yun Tianming's brain, likely 30 to 50 years earlier, aided by sophon-gathered flight parameters and luck.
- Book 3 · Ch 46Humanity learns of Yun Tianming
News of Yun Tianming's presence and his request to see Cheng Xin became public; people saw him as an angel of salvation, though doubts remained about his loyalties.
- Book 3 · Ch 47Meeting with Tianming through the sophon
Cheng Xin meets Tianming via sophon, finds him farming aboard a ship, and learns he can't speak freely. They agree he will tell her stories as coded communication, and arrange to meet at 'our star'.
- Book 3 · Ch 47Tianming tells the three fairy tales
Tianming tells 'The New Royal Painter', 'The Glutton's Sea', and 'Prince Deep Water' for about an hour while Cheng Xin memorizes them, until the sophon's countdown ends the call.
- Book 3 · Ch 52IDC fails to decipher Tianming's stories
The IDC's groups produced many conflicting interpretations of the three tales, including digitization, four-dimensional refuge and the Shoaling Interpretation, but none could be confirmed; the name He'ershingenmosiken stayed unexplained.
- Book 3 · Ch 55Curvature propulsion explained
The excerpt describes space as curved and contrasts the impractical idea of folding space with curvature propulsion, which remained a mere dream until Yun Tianming's message was correctly interpreted.
- Book 3 · Ch 56Curvature propulsion message deciphered
Cheng Xin and AA secretly communicated via eyes and the snow-wave paper clue, concluding Tianming's story meant curvature propulsion. The IDC endorsed this interpretation and recognized Tianming's metaphor system.
- Book 3 · Ch 71Yun Tianming's arrival announced
Returning to Planet Blue, Cheng Xin and Yifan learn from AA that Yun Tianming has landed with a gift for Cheng Xin, and decide to descend immediately.
- Book 3 · Ch 71Death lines rupture
As the shuttle begins descent, a time vacuum hits and the death lines rupture, spreading over the system and cutting lightspeed below twenty km/s, killing all electronics and trapping the shuttle.
- Book 3 · Ch 72Discovery of the carved message and the door
Cheng Xin insists on scanning for writing; Hunter finds fragments of giant carved words from AA and Tianming deep underground. A smart door appears, and the two walk through it hand in hand.
- Book 3 · Ch 73Meeting Sophon the manager
Sophon greets them as manager, explains the universe is Yun Tianming's gift meant to let them survive the great universe's collapse and see the new universe.