Warning: Major spoilers for the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy are listed below.
This timeline of events attempts to capture the important events that occur within the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy in chronological order.
Timeline[]
Trisolaran civilization[]
Known Trisolaran Civilizations |
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*Books/Series - The Three-Body Problem/The Dark Forest/Death's End/The Redemption of Time
see also: {{Earth civilizations}}, Timeline |
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- Civilization Number 137 is obliterated by extreme cold from one of the flying stars.
- Civilization Number 138 only progressed half way through the Stone Age; it was the shortest lived civilization.
- Civilization Number 139 is destroyed by an earthquake from a bi-solar day.
- Civilization Number 140 is destroyed by extreme cold from one of the flying stars.
- Civilization Number 141 is destroyed by the Fiery Flames from one of the flying stars.
- Civilization Number 152 is destroyed by extreme heat from a tri-solar day.
- Civilization Number 183 is destroyed by extreme heat from a tri-solar day.
- Civilization Number 184 is destroyed by extreme gravity from a tri-solar syzygy.
- Civilization Number 191 is destroyed by extreme gravity from the great rip.
- Civilization Number 192 realises that the three body problem (celestial mechanics) is unsolvable.
- Civilization Number 195 launches the Trisolaran Fleet.
- Civilization Number 200 is slightly damaged during a test experiment to unfold protons.
The following entries are exclusive to Netflix version only:
- Pueblo City is destroyed by extreme cold.
- Industrial City is destroyed by extreme heat.
- Futuristic City is destroyed by a sandstorm.
- Civilization Number 9478 constructs the Trisolaran Fleet and sends the ships on their way to destroy the Earth civilization.
Singer's Civilization[]
- Up to 2 billion years ago: The main core of Singer's seed can track the position schema of stars to this time.
- Before 47600 BCE: Singer's seed departs from its Mother World.
- The war between Mother World and Fringe World begins.
- Mother World is losing the war and prepares for two-dimensionalization, or potentially the fringe world.
Earth civilization[]
Before Common Era (1600 BCE+)[]
Known Earth Civilizations |
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*Ancient history/before Common Era
see also: {{Trisolaran civilizations}}, Timeline |
- 100,000 BCE: the Stone Age/Hunter-Gatherer Age continues.
- 10,000-2000 BCE: Agricultural Age progresses.
- 0-100 CE: Roman Europe is at its height.
- 1400-1500: The Middle Ages end.
- 1600-1700: The Scientific Revolution begins.
- 1750: Industrial Revolution/Industrial Age/Steam Age occurs.
- 1950-1980: Atomic Age begins, Red Coast broadcast is sent out by '77.
- 1990-2000: Information Age begins. The Sophons are sent to Earth.
Chinese history[]
- 1766 BCE: Chinese history begins with the Shang dynasty.
- 1122-221 BCE: Zhou dynasty
- 770-480 BCE: Spring and Autumn Period
- 480-221 BCE: Warring States Period of China
- 221-206 BCE: Qin dynasty
- 206-581 CE: Han dynasty
- 220-648 CE: Han-Tang interregnum: Three Kingdoms, Jin dynasty (晋), Chen dynasty, Sui dynasty, northern ethnic minority dynasties, etc.
- 618-907 CE: Tang dynasty
- 907-960 CE: Song dynasty, Liao dynasty, Jin dynasty (金), Western Liao, Western Xia
- 1279-1368: Yuan dynasty / Mongol Empire is at its height.
- 1368 Ming dynasty, Northern Yuan
- 1644-1911: Qing dynasty / Manchu
- 1912: Republic of China / Nationalist government
- 1931-1945 Sino-Japanese War
- 1945-1949 Chinese Civil War
- 1949 People's Republic of China
- 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution
Common Era (1943-2007)[]
Events leading before Earth's first contact with extraterrestrial intelligent lifeforms
June 1943 | Ye Wenjie is born. |
1966 | Ye Wenjie publishes 'The Possible Existence of Phase Boundaries Within the Solar Radiation Zone and Their Reflective Characteristics' in the Journal of Astrophysics. |
1967 | Ye Zhetai is killed during a Struggle Session at Tsinghua University, Beijing. |
1968 | First Red Coast Base is established at Radar Peak. |
1969 | Ye Wenjie is framed as a result of reading Silent Spring while working at the Inner Mongolia Production and Construction Corps. She begins working at the First Red Coast Base. |
1971 | Ye Wenjie sends a message into space using the transmitter at Red Coast. |
1973 | Ye Wenjie marries Yang Weining. |
October 21, 1979 | Ye Wenjie receives the first message from Trisolaris, and sends her answer despite initial attempts by the Listener to dissuade her. She murders Yang Weining and Lei Zhicheng at Red Coast after Lei Zhicheng discovers the message from Trisolaris. |
1980 | Yang Dong is born. |
1982 | Ye Wenjie leaves Red Coast and begins teaching physics at Tsinghua University. She meets Mike Evans. |
1985 | Ye Wenjie meets again with Mike Evans, and reveals the existence of the Trisolarans. |
1987 | First Red Coast Base at Radar Peak is decommissioned. |
1988 | Mike Evans invites Ye Wenjie at the Second Red Coast base after receiving a message from Trisolaris' Princeps. Foundation of the Earth-Trisolaris Organization. |
2004 | Ye Wenjie retires from Tsinghua University. |
2007+ | The first two sophons built by Trisolaris arrive on Earth and begin to affect the ground-based particle accelerators. |
2009+ | Wang Miao is approached by the ETO due to his work on nanomaterials. Ye Wenjie explains the basics of cosmic sociology to Luo Ji. Ye Wenjie is arrested and revealed to be the leader of the ETO. ETO's ship Judgement Day is captured and sliced apart (and its data recovered) using the Flying Blade material to kill all of its crew, including Mike Evans. Wang Miao solves the Three Body (game), and concludes the planet is part of an unstable three-body system that causes long chaotic periods that continuously destroy emergent Trisolaran civilizations. The existence of sophons is revealed to the world, as well as the approaching Trisolaran invasion, which has fled their unstable system and intends to colonize the Earth. Beginning of the Crisis Era. |
Crisis Era (201X-2208)[]
Earth learns of the imminent arrival of the Trisolaran fleet in around 420 years and engages preparations for their arrival, starting with the Wallfacers and the UN Planetary Defense Council.
Year 3 | The Wallfacer Project is launched. The ETO attempts to assassinate Luo Ji on Trisolaris' order. The ETO recruits its Wallbreakers, assigning one to each Wallfacer. The Trisolaran fleet is observed by humans for the first time. |
Year 4 | Yun Tianming purchases DX3906 for Cheng Xin. He is saved from euthanasia and enters the Staircase Program. |
Year 7 | Yun Tianming is selected as the final candidate for the Staircase Program. His brain is sent to space in order to meet the Trisolaran fleet, but the operation fails and is sent off course. Cheng Xin enters cryogenic hibernation. |
Year 8 | Wallfacer Frederick Tyler meets his Wallbreaker and later commits suicide at the lake outside Luo Ji's home. Zhuang Yan and Xia Xia, the wife and daughter of Luo Ji, are placed under hibernation by the United Nations. Luo Ji uncovers the concept of the dark forest theory and sends the "spell" towards 187J3X1 before going into hibernation following a third assassination attempt by the ETO. |
Year 12 | Zhang Beihai murders proponents of chemical propulsion, stirring the efforts towards a fusion engine. He enters hibernation. Wallfacers Bill Hines and Manuel Rey Diaz enter hibernation. |
Year 20 | Wallfacers Bill Hines and Manuel Rey Diaz are awakened following the progress in computing power. Bill Hines discovers and tests the Mental Seal. The Faith Center is opened. Bill Hines and Keiko Yamasuki enter hibernation. Keiko Yamasuki discovered Bill Hines' true wallfacer plan moment before hibernation.
Wallfacer Manuel Rey Diaz meets his Wallbreaker. He is later stoned to death by a mob at Plaza Bolívar in Caracas, Venezula, due to the anger towards his genocidal plan. |
??? | The Great Ravine takes place, profoundly changing human society. |
Year 154 | Luo Ji's "spell" works, falsely suggesting that intelligent life exists on 187J3X1. The Star System of 187J3X1 and its four planets are then completely annihlated by an unknown force via relativistic photoid, causing the system's star to go supernova after its location was revealed. Due to it being around 50 light years away from Earth, its destruction is only first observed 50 years later. |
Year 205 | Hines and Luo Ji are awakened from hibernation. The Wallfacer project is terminated by the Solar Fleet Joint Conference. Keiko Yamasuki reveals her role as Wallbreaker and committed seppuku after revealing Bill Hines' true plan. Zhang Beihai flees the Solar System aboard the Natural Selection, pursued by four other warships. The Doomsday Battle occurs between Saturn and Jupiter, leading to the annihilation of the human space fleet; Quantum and Bronze Age manage to escape the slaughter and flee the Solar System. The Battle of Darkness takes place, leaving Blue Space and Bronze Age as the only surviving ships. The Wallfacer project is resurrected following the discovery of the destruction of 187J3X1, which solves the Fermi Paradox and reveals the true nature of the Universe. Luo Ji begins working on the Snow Project. |
Year 208 | Luo Ji visits Ye Wenjie's grave and reveals to Trisolaris the true purpose of the Snow Project: establishing dark forest deterrence. He manages to coerce the Trisolarans into cooperating after threatening to reveal Trisolaris' location to the rest of the galaxy. This would result in mutually assured destruction if other, more powerful alien civilizations detect them. After handing over the transmission system to the UN, he is quickly called back and becomes the Swordholder. This marks the beginning of the Deterrence era, |
Deterrence Era (2208-2270)[]
Humanity uses the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction via exposing Trisolaris' location to the rest of the galaxy to break free of Trisolaran oppression
Year 12 | Bronze Age returns to Earth; all of its crew is tried under treason towards humanity. Schneider warns Blue Space not to return, prompting their acceleration. Gravity is sent in pursuit, along with two Trisolaran droplets. |
Year 61 | Cheng Xin is awakened from hibernation in order to transfer her ownership of DX3906's planets. She meets AA, an astronomer who discovered its planets. She first encounters Sophon. The crew of Blue Space, the last surviving ship from the Battle of Darkness encounters fragments of the 4th Dimension. |
November 28, 2270 (Year 62) | Cheng Xin becomes the new Swordholder and Luo Ji retires. Trisolaris immediately destroys the gravitational wave antennas that comprise the deterrence system. Beginning of the Post-Deterrence Era.
The crew of Blue Space manages to use the four-dimensional fragment to overtake Gravity and eliminate the two droplets right before they manage to destroy Gravity. Gravity is used to emit the universal broadcast, exposing the location of Trisolaris, and by extension, the Solar System. |
Post-Deterrence Era (2270-2272)[]
Trisolarans eliminates the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction, completely ending any hope or chance of humanity fighting back against the Trisolarans
Day 1-5 | Chu Yan, Morovich, and Guan Yifan of Blue Space investigate the four-dimensional fragment and discover the ring-shaped tomb, one of the first indicators of dimensional collapse. The four-dimensional fragment collapses around 35 days later. |
Day 60 | The second Trisolaran fleet is discovered by humans, which possesses far greater technology then the first, including curvature propulsion to reach lightspeed. |
2270 (Year 1) | A hibernation ark containing 200 survivors from Blue Space and Gravity is dispatched back to Earth. |
2271 (Year 2) | The majority of Earth's population moves to Australia during the Great Resettlement. Trisolaris engineers a genocide to massively reduce the human population. The universal broadcast from Gravity reaches Earth, causing the Trisolarans to flee into deep space and ending the human internment in Australia. This begins the Broadcast Era. |
Broadcast Era (2272-2332)[]
The aftermath of Trisolaris' destruction and humanities efforts to survive the inevitable invasions or dark forest attacks from other alien civilizations
Year 1-6 | Humanity recovers from the Great Resettlement and starts questioning Dark Forest theory. Trisolaris is destroyed 3 years and 10 months after the broadcast. Cheng Xin and 艾 AA develop the Halo Group. |
Year 7 | The destruction of Trisolaris by a realitivistic photoid is observed from Earth. Luo Ji and Cheng Xin meet with Sophon, who encourages humanity to flee the Solar System. Luo Ji manipulates Sophon reveal the existence of the safety notice. Later, Sophon prepares to be deactivated, but first allows limited communication between Cheng Xin and Yun Tianming, who was believed to have been lost around 200 years ago after his probe went off course during the Crisis Era. Yun Tianming's brain was recovered by the Trisolarans, and the Trisolarans used his DNA to reconstruct his body.
Yun Tianming tells Cheng Xin his fairy tales, managing to covertly convey via metaphor, the concept of black domains, and the existence of curvature propulsion, under Trisolaran surveillance. |
Year 8 | The Bunker plan is formulated for surviving a dark forest strike. The slow fog created by curvature propulsion near Trisolaris is discovered, leading to a ban on the already unpopular idea of designing lightspeed ships to escape the Solar System. Cheng Xin and 艾 AA enter hibernation after handing control of the Halo Group to Thomas Wade, following his promise to develop lightspeed ships in secret. |
??? | Multiple cities are built behind the gas giants of the Solar System as part of the Bunker plan. Beginning of the Bunker Era. |
Bunker Era (2333-2400)[]
( Humanity further advances )
Year 1 | The black hole project begins, which involves the artificial production of one by inserting a microscopic black hole into Jupiter's smallest moon. |
Year 11 | Cheng Xin is awakened following the secession of Halo City. She meets with Thomas Wade, where she learns the development of curvature propulsion has been making breakthroughs. She reasserts control of the company after learning Wade has developed antimatter weapons as insurance against the other cities. Wade is executed and curvature propulsion research comes to an halt. Cheng Xin travels the Earth with 艾 AA, before going back into hibernation. |
Year 12 | Wei dies, concluding the Black Hole project. |
Year
46 |
Halo Group remnants finish the construction of Mercury base and resume the illegal research of curvature propulsion which is tolerated by federal government due to its secrecy. Later research uncovers that the speed of light is diminished within the curvature propulsion trail, which prompts the federal government to offer its unwavering and comprehensive support. |
Year
65 |
3 curvature propulsion engines prototypes are completed and put into test, one of which is installed on Halo. |
Year 66 | Humanity observes an alien ship in the Oort Cloud, marking their first contact with extraterrestrials other than Trisolarans. The spaceship sends a dual-vector foil to the Solar System. |
Year 67 | Singer discovers the connection between Earth and the broadcast which led to the destruction of Trisolaris. He judges humans as dangerous, and also deploys a dual-vector foil to cleanse the Solar System.
The first dual-vector foil is discovered by the advance warning system. The Revelation investigates the dual-vector foil, which activates and begins dimensional collapse. Cheng Xin and 艾 AA are woken up on May 19 and tasked with preserving humanity's culture by going to Pluto in order to make artworks survive their passage in two dimensions. They meet Luo Ji there, who reveals that their ship Halo is equipped with curvature propulsion, which was developed in secrecy during the past 50 years. He chooses to remain on Pluto and sends them towards the stars. The whole Solar System collapses in two dimensions in a few days span, leaving Cheng Xin and AA as the sole survivors. |
Year 68 | The entirety of the Solar System collapses into 2 dimensions, destroying the entirety of humanity within Solar System. Cheng Xin and AA escape via the lightspeed ship Halo |
Galaxy Era (2273-18,904,138)[]
The surviving humans and their progress, as well as the universe through deep time.
Year ≈ 350 | The second Trisolaran fleet engages an unknown extremely powerful alien force in Taurus constellation. Both sides prove to be extraordinarily technologically advanced, and the outcome of the battle is unknown. The resulting debris from the battle forms a new interstellar dust cloud. |
Before
Year 409 |
The first Trisolaran fleet settles down in a region not too far from DX3906 and receives Halo's message. A number of pocket universes are constructed and one is acquired by Yun Tianming. Yun Tianming leaves for DX3906. |
Year 409 | Cheng Xin and AA reach DX3906 (Renamed S74390e2) and meet Guan Yifan. Though it had been 52 hours from their perspective, due to time dilation it had been nearly 290 years form the outside perspective. They learn about the survival of the humans from Blue Space and Gravity, which had developed curvature propulsion. The remnants of humanity are planning to inhabit four planets throughout the universe, one of them being "Planet Blue" residing in the DX3906 System. Guan Yifan explains the cruel fate of being two-dimensional, and describes the battle involving the Second Trisolaran fleet nearly 60 years prior. |
Year 409 | Cheng Xin and Guan Yifan travel to Planet Gray to investigate five alien ships detected there. They notice the ships' curvature propulsion drives have left Death Lines, areas of space where the speed of light is zero. They discuss the Doomsday ships, humans that use time dilation to approach the Heat Death of the universe, as it was now possible to do so within a human lifetime. Zero-Homers, an alien group that seeks to collapse the universe back to zero dimensions (a singularity) in the hopes that it will re-emerge with 10 dimensions, the original, pristine state of the Universe.
Yun Tianming meets with AA, but the collapse of Death Lines on Planet Gray transforms the system into a black domain before Cheng Xin and Guan Yifan have returned to the surface, stranding them on their ship travelling at the new, reduced light speed while their backup neural computer is booting up. |
18 million years later | The neural computer from Cheng Xin and Guan Yifan's ship finishes booting up after 9 days in local time, allowing them to exit light speed, but due to relativistic speed, 18 million years has passed. They notice the extreme terrestrial changes to Planet Blue's surface. They discover a message from Yun Tianming and AA, leading them to a temporally-independent pocket universe gifted to Cheng Xin by Yun Tianming that can be used to live in until a new universe forms. They meet with a copy of Sophon, and live there for a year, studying and farming. |
Billions of years later
(main universe) |
A year has passed in the pocket universe when Cheng Xin and Guan Yifan receive a message from the Returners in the main universe (in which countless years have elapsed), warning that the pocket universes have borrowed too much mass from the main Universe, and it must be returned in order for the Big Crunch to happen. They accept, leaving only an ecosphere and a bottled message in the pocket universe, to be rediscovered in the next Universe. |