劉慈欣：當(dāng)《三體》走向世界

趙青奇

2015年，劉慈欣寫的科幻小說《三體》獲得了世界科幻文學(xué)最高獎“雨果獎”，他是第一個獲此殊榮的亞洲作家。能以一己之力打入西方科幻文學(xué)界，受到歐美讀者的肯定和歡迎，并為中國科幻作品贏得了西方世界的重視，劉慈欣的作品無疑是強(qiáng)大的。我們都知道，由于不同語言文化之間的巨大隔閡，中國的優(yōu)秀文學(xué)作品總是難以在西方世界受到認(rèn)可，那為什么《三體》能獲得如此大的成功？難道《三體》就是中國最優(yōu)秀的文學(xué)作品嗎？這顯然不可能。實際上，其成功或許與科幻小說這種文體的迷人特質(zhì)息息相關(guān)。那么，科幻小說究竟為何如此迷人？它如何影響著我們的現(xiàn)實生活？它又預(yù)測了人類怎樣的未來？看完本專題，相信你心中會有一個滿意的答案。

When he was a schoolboy， Liu Cixin&apos；s favourite book was Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne. He found the book hidden in an old box that once belonged to his father. "This very book turned me into a sci-fi fan，" Liu says.

Now 53， Liu is a science-fiction writer of some renown， both in China and in the English-speaking world. His novel， The Three-Body Problem， won a Hugo award in 2015. His sequel， The Dark Forest， was published in English in 2015， and the third book， Death&apos；s End， has just been translated and released in the UK.

In the 1970s， science fiction was translated widely into Chinese. With this came a sudden surge1） of Chinese authors writing in the genre—and Liu wanted to be one of them. But instead of studying literature， he got a job as a power-plant engineer in Yangquan. But what looks like a career diversion was entirely strategic： the stability of his career meant he could write， he says.

"For about 30 years， I stayed in the same department and worked the same job， which was rare among people of my age. I chose this path because it allowed me to work on my fiction，" he says. "In my youth， when I tried to plan for the future， I wished to be an engineer so I could get work in technology while writing sci-fi after hours. I figured that if I got lucky， I could then turn into a full-time writer. Now looking back， my life path has matched my design almost precisely. I believe not a lot of people have this kind of privilege2）."

His first novel， The Devil&apos；s Bricks， came out in 2002， but it wasn&apos；t until 2006 that he had his breakthrough， with The Three-Body Problem. The novel， initially serialised in the Chinese magazine Science Fiction World， takes its title from a physics question in orbital mechanics and contains three intertwining3） plots， set during 1971， in the mid-2000s and on a distant world in a three-sun system respectively.

Seven years after its initial publication， The Three-Body Problem was brought to a western audience by Tor Books in New York in 2013. It was translated by the Boston-based author Ken Liu. In his translator&apos；s note， Ken writes： "The act of translation involves breaking down one piece of work in one language and ferrying4） the pieces across a gulf5） to reconstitute them into a new work in another language. When the gulf separating the two is as wide as the Pacific Ocean ... the task can be daunting6）. The Chinese literary tradition shaped and was shaped by its readers， giving rise to7） different emphases8） and preferences in fiction compared to what American readers expect."endprint

What western readers expect of Chinese science fiction is a curious issue. Western eyes have a tendency to view China as a dystopia9）， or full of "eastern" mysticism10）. But Liu says it&apos；s a mistake to think that Chinese sci-fi doesn&apos；t share common tropes11） with its western equivalents12）. "We can safely say that all themes once explored in the American and European sci-fi genre have found their manifestation in the Chinese counterpart—things like space exploration， alien contact， artificial intelligence， and life science. Problems of modern development are also addressed13）， like environmental hazards14） and the negative effects coming from new technologies. Yet Chinese sci-fi does have its own unique themes as well， such as the attempt to re-deduce15） and re-display the ancient history of China from a sci-fi angle."

Just two years ago， the Three-Body Problem was the first full-length Chinese sci-fi work to be translated into English. But a wide and burgeoning16） school of sci-fi writing dates back to as far as 1978， with the publication of the short story Death-Ray on the Coral Island by Tong Enzheng in China&apos；s prestigious literary magazine， People&apos；s Literature.

Liu says that a national obsession with sci-fi began around 1983. "Some of the works even sold as many as four million copies. There were even debates on whether sci-fi ought to belong to the domain of science or of literature； Chinese authors made efforts to pull it back to its literary origin， attempting to change the way that sci-fi had been treated as a mere tool for disseminating17） scientific knowledge."

Liu remains mildly18） surprised by the success of The Three-Body Problem outside China. "All we had hoped for was just to let American readers become aware that there is sci-fi in China. Now that it has been embraced19） by readers in the UK and the US， it supports an idea I once had： sci-fi as a literary vessel20） is the most global， the most universal [storytelling]， with the capability to be understood by all cultures. Sci-fi novels are concerned with problems faced by all of humanity. Crises in sci-fi mostly threaten humanity as a whole. This is a unique and treasurable trait21） inherent22） in the genre—that the human race is perceived as a single entity23）， undivided，" Liu says.

劉慈欣還在上學(xué)的時候，最喜歡看的書是儒勒·凡爾納的《地心游記》。他發(fā)現(xiàn)這本書藏在曾屬于父親的一個舊箱子里。“正是這本書把我變成了一個科幻迷。”劉慈欣說。

現(xiàn)年53歲的劉慈欣是一位科幻小說作家，在中國和英語國家都頗有名望。他的小說《三體》在2015年獲得了雨果獎。其第二部續(xù)作《黑暗森林》的英文版于2015年出版，而第三部《死神永生》也已被翻譯成英文，剛剛（編注：英文原文發(fā)表于2016年12月）在英國出版。endprint

20世紀(jì)70年代，大量西方科幻小說被翻譯成了中文，隨之突然掀起了一場中國作家創(chuàng)作科幻小說的熱潮。劉慈欣也想成為其中一員。但他并沒有去研究文學(xué)，而是在陽泉的一個發(fā)電廠找了份工作，當(dāng)了工程師。這看上去好像是南轅北轍，實際上卻完全是很講求戰(zhàn)略的一步：有了一份穩(wěn)定的工作就意味著他可以寫作了，劉慈欣說。

“我在同一個部門同一個崗位干了大概有30年，這在我的同齡人中間是非常少見的。我選擇走這條路是因為這樣我就能寫小說了，”他說，“年輕那會兒我試圖規(guī)劃未來的時候，我就曾想過以后當(dāng)工程師，這樣我就能干與技術(shù)有關(guān)的工作，同時在下班后寫寫科幻小說。我盤算著如果幸運(yùn)的話，我到時可以變成全職作家?，F(xiàn)在回頭看看，我走的人生道路跟我規(guī)劃的幾乎完全一致。我覺得并不是很多人都能有這個榮幸。”

他的第一部長篇小說是《魔鬼積木》，早在2002年就出版了，但直到2006年發(fā)表《三體》之后（編著：這里指的是第一次發(fā)表時間，正式作為書出版是在2008年），他才取得了突破。這部小說最初以連載的形式刊登在中文雜志《科幻世界》上。小說的名字源自軌道力學(xué)里的一個物理問題，情節(jié)方面包含三個相互交織的故事，背景分別設(shè)定在1971年、2005年前后和一個擁有三個太陽的遙遠(yuǎn)世界。

《三體》第一部小說最初發(fā)表七年后的2013年，紐約的托爾出版社將《三體》介紹給了西方讀者。小說由居住在波士頓的作家劉宇昆翻譯成英文。在譯者序中，劉宇昆寫道：“翻譯就是把由一種語言寫成的作品拆散，再把這些碎片運(yùn)送到鴻溝的那一邊，好把它們重新組裝成由另外一種語言展現(xiàn)的新作品。當(dāng)兩種語言的隔閡猶如太平洋一般寬廣時，翻譯的任務(wù)就變得艱巨無比。中國的文學(xué)傳統(tǒng)影響了讀者，讀者反過來也影響了中國的文學(xué)傳統(tǒng)，從而導(dǎo)致中國小說的重點和偏好跟美國讀者期待的有所不同。”

西方讀者對中國科幻小說懷著怎樣的期待是一個引人好奇的問題。西方讀者總是傾向于視中國為一個不那么盡如人意的國家，或是一個彌漫著“東方”神秘色彩的地方。但劉慈欣說，要是認(rèn)為中國的科幻小說與西方的科幻小說沒有共通的隱喻內(nèi)涵，那可就錯了?！拔覀兛梢苑判拇竽懙卣f，歐美科幻小說探討過的所有主題都已經(jīng)在中國科幻小說中找到了相應(yīng)的展現(xiàn)，比如太空探索、接觸外星人、人工智能和生命科學(xué)等等?，F(xiàn)代發(fā)展過程中的問題，比如危害環(huán)境的因素和新技術(shù)帶來的弊端，在科幻小說中也有涉及。不過，中國的科幻小說的確也有自己獨(dú)特的主題，比如試圖從科幻的角度重新演繹、重新展現(xiàn)中國古代的歷史?！?/p>

就在兩年前，《三體》成為首部被譯成英文的中文長篇科幻小說。但中國其實早在1978年就出現(xiàn)了一股聲勢浩大的科幻小說創(chuàng)作熱潮，當(dāng)時中國著名的文學(xué)雜志《人民文學(xué)》刊載了童恩正的短篇小說《珊瑚島上的死光》。

劉慈欣說，1983年前后，中國開始出現(xiàn)了一股全民科幻熱。“有些作品甚至賣出了400萬冊。甚至還有關(guān)于應(yīng)將科幻小說歸為科學(xué)還是文學(xué)的討論。中國作家努力讓科幻小說回歸其文學(xué)本源，竭力改變科幻小說曾被視為僅僅是傳播科學(xué)知識的工具的命運(yùn)?！?/p>

劉慈欣仍對《三體》在海外獲得的成功略感驚訝。“我們之前只是希望美國讀者能夠知道中國也有科幻小說?，F(xiàn)在，英國和美國的讀者已經(jīng)欣然接受了這一點。這佐證了我曾提出的一個看法：科幻小說作為一種文學(xué)載體是最全球化、最普及化的[敘事方式]，能被所有文化群體理解?？苹眯≌f探討的是全人類共同面臨的問題，其中展現(xiàn)的那些危機(jī)大多威脅著全人類?？苹眯≌f這一文學(xué)流派天生就有一個獨(dú)特、寶貴的特質(zhì)——它把人類看作是一個統(tǒng)一的、不可分割的整體?！彼f。endprint