Zhang Beihai
Names: Zhang BeihaiCommissar ZhangComrade ZhangComrade BeihaiColonelBeihaiacting captainfounder of Starship Earth
First appears in Book 2: The Dark Forest, chapter 2 (Year 3, Crisis Era)
Appearances
What you know
Book 2: The Dark Forest
- Ch 2Considered the most capable political commissar aboard; precise and forthright at work but inscrutable. His father is gravely ill in hospital.
- Ch 2His father had briefly been Wu Yue's superior officer and admitted he did not understand his son either.
- Ch 2Zhang Beihai is a naval officer in the new space force, who senses something in Wu Yue's eyes has been extinguished.
- Ch 2Zhang Beihai has joined the Chinese Space Force, built on a naval foundation, and is a navy man trained by his silent father.
- Ch 2Zhang Beihai asks his father what he should do; the answer is only to think long and hard, and he resolves to stay near him.
- Ch 2Zhang Beihai previously opposed building Tang and a blue-water navy, favouring coastal defence, yet believes humanity can win the war against the invaders.
- Ch 2Zhang Beihai proposes that tiny nuclear bombs carried by divers could sink a carrier, as an analogy for beating a vastly superior enemy through courage.
- Ch 2Zhang Beihai warns Chang Weisi that defeatism is the greatest danger to the space force and criticises neglect of political work.
- Ch 2Zhang Beihai publicly names Wu Yue at a work meeting as a typical defeatist and says he is unfit for the space force.
- Ch 2Zhang Beihai admits his remarks violate organizational principles and says he will accept responsibility, aiming to stress how serious the situation is.
- Ch 3Zhang Beihai keeps faith in victory; he just attended his father's funeral, and Wu Yue calls him truly his father's son.
- Ch 3Zhang Beihai is the only political officer who says he has faith in humanity's victory over the Trisolarans.
- Ch 3Zhang Beihai argues scientific determinism undermines faith in victory, and that the space force must see itself as an army in a state of war.
- Ch 3Zhang Beihai alone chooses the high-tech strategy institute, saying it is the only hope for victory, and urges focusing on fusion engines and sealed ecosystems.
- Ch 3Zhang Beihai is a navy-background colonel, introduced by Chang Weisi as the finest political cadre in the space force, and speaks good English.
- Ch 3Zhang Beihai doubts society can return to its childhood, but answers that if humanity can't go backward it must move resolutely forward.
- Ch 3Tyler describes Zhang Beihai as a committed triumphalist and senses his thoughts run deeper than a short visit can reveal.
- Ch 4Zhang Beihai fears defeatism will spread in the space force and recommends sending political cadres into the future as reinforcements.
- Ch 4Zhang Beihai flies to the ISS with twenty other space force officers, the first Space Force representatives in space.
- Ch 5Zhang Beihai wants the fusion announcement delayed and backs radiation-drive spacecraft, arguing the defensive line should reach the Oort Cloud.
- Ch 5Zhang Beihai is commander of the Special Contingent of Future Reinforcements, which he proposed, and he led its first thirty officers to space for training.
- Ch 5He buys three iron meteorites for 180,000 yuan without haggling, calling the price a sign of respect for their recipients.
- Ch 5He machined the meteorites into thirty-six rods and glued each onto a caseless 7.62 mm propellant charge, making meteorite bullets that shatter on impact.
- Ch 5He tests the bullets on a space-suit-material sack holding beef; the meteorite shatters and leaves almost no trace of working.
- Ch 5He leaves his suit's positioning unit in his cabin at Base 1 so no record of his movements exists.
- Ch 5He shoots three aerospace leaders from five kilometers away in space, deliberately sending some bullets wide to hit bystanders and reduce suspicion.
- Ch 5He acts partly for his dead father's sake and believes the targets' cautious thinking must be eliminated so interstellar-capable ships can be built.
- Ch 5He enjoys floating alone in the void, feeling unattached to any world, and thinks his father's spirit might share the feeling.
- Ch 5Zhang Beihai is an atheist and ordinarily a sober man, yet he says he regrets lacking faith because it denies hope of meeting again.
- Ch 5Zhang Beihai is a steadfast soldier with firm faith in victory, which Chang Weisi has never understood and sometimes envies.
- Ch 5Zhang Beihai boards a plane with the special contingent, departing on a journey that may let them see humanity's final outcome.
- Ch 6Zhang Beihai is hibernating through time; Chang Weisi and Wu Yue pinned their hopes for the future on him.
- Ch 7Zhang Beihai commands the Special Contingent of Future Reinforcements and wants to join the fleet's front lines as an ordinary soldier.
- Ch 7Reawakened from hibernation from two centuries earlier, he is assigned to Natural Selection and feels a sense of home aboard it, as he once felt about Tang.
- Ch 7He trusts Dongfang Yanxu because her vitality shows she is not one of the Imprinted; he must learn to use a magnetic belt.
- Ch 7He is to become acting captain of Natural Selection; he trained in modern systems and still keeps notes in a notebook with a pencil.
- Ch 7He left his wife and daughter behind when he entered hibernation; his wife died in Year 47 and his daughter in Year 81.
- Ch 7He tells Dongfang that if he ever has to kill her, he hopes she will forgive him, showing he suspects Imprinted subversion.
- Ch 7After taking Natural Selection's captain permissions, he put the ship in remote control, cut communications and launched it at Ahead Four, defecting from the fleet.
- Ch 7Zhang Beihai says he is neither Imprinted nor ETO; he claims to be a soldier fighting for humanity's survival by preserving a seed of civilization.
- Ch 7He killed three people to obtain a spacecraft capable of fleeing into space.
- Ch 7He conceived his plan when he last saw his father and spent two centuries realizing it, disguising himself as a triumphalist.
- Ch 7Three generations of his family served in the army; his grandfather was crippled attacking a Pershing tank in the Korean War.
- Ch 7Hijacked Natural Selection and shut himself in a spherical compartment, writing down his two centuries of experience by hand; he acts from duty regardless of outcome.
- Ch 8A twenty-first-century soldier who distrusts the peace, insists the enemy is still approaching, and hands Natural Selection's captain privileges to Dongfang Yanxu.
- Ch 8After waking, he feels alone for the first time because his father's imagined gaze has vanished, then is given command of the five remaining stellar-class warships.
- Ch 8He judges the combined fleet's dense formation an unforgivable error and tells the crews they cannot go back to Earth.
- Ch 8He rejects both a military totalitarian system and a pure democracy for Starship Earth, saying the right social model must be found through long practice.
- Ch 8He uses ancient pen and paper, the only one aboard to do so; at the second assembly he was distracted and took no notes.
- Ch 8Unanimously elected chair of the Authority Committee and supreme commander, he refused, saying he was tired and at retirement age.
- Ch 8He asked to regain operational permissions as acting captain of Natural Selection, saying he loves the ship and feels it is part of him, while leaving command to Dongfang Yanxu.
- Ch 8He bears a guilty 'cross' over past deeds in the twenty-first century, though historians judged his choice of radiation propulsion research favorably.
- Ch 8He remains calm and apparently unaffected by the ship's mass psychological shadow, touring Natural Selection and studying its weapons systems.
- Ch 8Zhang Beihai alone locked the targets and prepared to launch infrasonic H-bombs at the four other ships, wanting to take the moral burden of the act himself.
- Ch 8He hesitated for a moment before the final decision and was a few seconds slower than Ultimate Law; he died with everyone aboard Natural Selection.
- Ch 8He told Dongfang Yanxu and the vice-captains that space had turned them into new humans and that a new civilization forms a new morality.
Connections
- leadsTangpolitical commissar
- ally ofWu Yueco-commanders of Tang, previously on Chang'an
- member ofChinese Space Force
- family ofZhang Beihai's fatherson
- friend ofWu Yue
- enemy ofWu YueDenounces him publicly as a defeatist
- member ofChang Weisiserves in the space force under him
- related toFrederick TylerTyler visits and questions him about military spirit
- related toChang Weisisubordinate officer of Chang Weisi in the Space Force
- leadsSpecial Contingent of Future Reinforcements
- ally ofDing Yi
- member ofSpecial Contingent of Future Reinforcements
- ally ofChang Weisi
- createdmeteorite bullets
- related tometeorite collectorbuyer of meteorites
- ally ofDongfang Yanxu
- leadsNatural Selectionacting captain who seizes the ship
- ally ofFuture Historians
- enemy ofChang WeisiChang suspected his hidden motives
- related toNatural Selectionhijacked the ship
- related toDongfang Yanxutransferred captain's privileges to her
- leadsStarship Earth
Key moments
- Book 2 · Ch 2Wu Yue and Zhang Beihai recalled
After Tang's fourth offshore training session, the two commanders are ordered by Fleet Command to report immediately to General Staff, cancelling the fifth exercise.
- 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 2Zhang Beihai consults his father
Zhang Beihai, newly in the space force, visits his dying father and asks what to do. He receives only the cryptic answer to think long and hard.
- Book 2 · Ch 2Wu Yue and Zhang Beihai discuss the war
Overlooking the unfinished Tang, Zhang Beihai tells Wu Yue the war is not hopeless, using the wooden boat and diver bomb analogy.
- 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 3Tang removed from dry dock
Zhang Beihai and Wu Yue watch the suspended carrier Tang launched early to be towed away for demolition.
- 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 3Tyler meets Zhang Beihai
Tyler begins inspecting the space force's ideological work and asks Zhang Beihai whether past armies' spirit can be restored.
- Book 2 · Ch 3Tyler questions Zhang Beihai
Tyler debates with Zhang Beihai whether society can recover a spirit of sacrifice within four hundred years, and learns little more.
- 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 5Fusion breakthrough and strategy debate
Zhang Beihai visits Ding Yi after the fusion breakthrough and discusses the media-propelled versus radiation-drive spacecraft split, fearing a wrong foundation for the space fleet.
- Book 2 · Ch 5Zhang Beihai prepares meteorite bullets
He buys three iron meteorites from a collector, mills them into thirty-six rods, glues them to caseless cartridges in a secret basement, and tests them on a simulated target.
- Book 2 · Ch 5Assassination at Yellow River Station
During an aerospace group photo in space at sunset, Zhang Beihai fires thirty meteorite bullets from five kilometers, killing three targeted aerospace leaders and hitting two others. Everyone cries meteor shower.
- 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 7Zhang Beihai assigned as acting captain
At Jupiter Fleet Command, the Asian Fleet commander explains the mental seal threat and orders the reawakened contingent to act as acting captains of centrally commanded warships. Zhang Beihai doubts this but is told refusal is not tradition.
- Book 2 · Ch 7Zhang Beihai arrives on Natural Selection
Learning of fleet rivalry over the probe interception, Zhang Beihai boards Natural Selection and is met by captain Dongfang Yanxu, who offers him a pistol as a challenge.
- Book 2 · Ch 7Zhang Beihai's first onboard lesson
Dongfang Yanxu shows Zhang Beihai in simulation how to put Natural Selection into navigation mode and how an Imprinted hijacker might flee, then they talk of family and he warns he may have to kill her.
- Book 2 · Ch 7Zhang Beihai hijacks Natural Selection
After the permissions handover, Zhang Beihai locks out the captain, cuts communications and orders deep-sea state. Dongfang Yanxu complies, and he launches the ship at Ahead Four from Jupiter.
- Book 2 · Ch 7Zhang Beihai explains his defection
After reaching 1% light speed, Zhang tells the Asian Fleet commander he is saving a seed of humanity, citing Future History. The fleet holds back pursuit to avoid pushing him into wasting fuel.
- Book 2 · Ch 7Standoff aboard Natural Selection
Dongfang Yanxu urges Zhang Beihai to surrender, but he keeps writing his account while pursuers close in.
- Book 2 · Ch 8Zhang Beihai hands over Natural Selection
Zhang Beihai transfers captain's privileges to Dongfang Yanxu on condition that the ship not decelerate; she agrees and asks him to stay in his cabin.
- Book 2 · Ch 8Zhang Beihai takes command
Zhang Beihai wakes and finds Natural Selection's crew and the four pursuing ships' officers assembled. They present him with command of the five remaining stellar-class warships rather than treating him as a defector.
- Book 2 · Ch 8Founding of Starship Earth
Zhang Beihai tells the crews they cannot return to Earth. They name themselves Starship Earth, and the Citizens' Assembly sets course for NH558J2 and declares independence. The UN and SFJC give tacit blessing.
- Book 2 · Ch 8Zhang Beihai declines supreme command
Elected chair of the Authority Committee unanimously, Zhang Beihai refuses and instead asks Dongfang Yanxu to restore his acting-captain permissions on Natural Selection.
- Book 2 · Ch 8Zhang Beihai's attack on the four ships
Zhang Beihai locks targets and arms infrasonic H-bombs against four pursuing ships, but hesitates; Ultimate Law strikes first and wipes out all aboard Natural Selection, including Zhang Beihai.