Li Jun (; born 1980), known by the

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

Baoshu (), is a Chinese

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

and

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

writer. One of his books, ''Three Body X'' (published as ''The Redemption of Time'' in English), is a

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music, or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

to '' Death's End'' by

Liu Cixin Liu Cixin (, pronounced ; born 23 June 1963) is a Chinese computer engineer and science fiction writer. In English translations of his works, his name is given as Cixin Liu. He is sometimes called "''Da'' Liu" ("Big Liu") by his fellow sc ...

. Baoshu received his

Master of Philosophy A Master of Philosophy (MPhil or PhM; Latin ' or ') is a postgraduate degree. The name of the degree is most often abbreviated MPhil (or, at times, as PhM in other countries). MPhil are awarded to postgraduate students after completing at leas ...

Peking University Peking University (PKU) is a Public university, public Types of universities and colleges in China#By designated academic emphasis, university in Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of the Peop ...

, and a second master after studying at

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven KU Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Belgium. Founded in 1425, it is the oldest university in Belgium and the oldest university in the Low Countries. In addition to its main camp ...

. In 2012 he became a full-time science fiction writer. One of the latest generation of major Chinese sci-fi writers, Baoshu has won six Nebula Awards for Science Fiction and Fantasy in Chinese, three Galaxy Awards for Chinese Science Fiction, and once nominated for the Grand Media Award for Chinese Literature. He is now a contract writer of famous writer and director Guo Jingming's Zuibook, a leading hub for young fiction writers in China. His works have been translated into English and published in ''

the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy and science-fiction magazine, first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Bouche ...

'' and ''

Clarkesworld ''Clarkesworld Magazine'' is an American Online magazine, online Fantasy magazine, fantasy and science fiction magazine edited by Neil Clarke (editor), Neil Clarke. It released its first issue October 1, 2006, and has maintained a regular monthl ...

''.

Biography

Baoshu spent his undergraduate and master's years at Department of Philosophy, Peking University. In PKU he immersed himself in the campus social network BDWM BBS and neighboring

Tsinghua University Tsinghua University (THU) is a public university in Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of China. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Constructio ...

's SMTH BBS, where he chose "Baoshu" as one of his many pseudonyms. Literally meaning "divine tree", the name in fact refers to an evil monk in Louis Cha's famous novella '' Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain''. Over time, it became his major pseudonym, and relatively well-known on those BBSs. Upon graduation Baoshu went to Belgium, pursuing a Master of Philosophy at KU Leuven, the oldest

Catholic university Catholic higher education includes universities, colleges, and other institutions of higher education privately run by the Catholic Church, typically by religious institutes. Those tied to the Holy See are specifically called pontifical univers ...

still in existence. According to a conversation with Xia Jia, a fellow Chinese science fiction writer and a friend of Baoshu, Baoshu had been a loyal fan of Liu Cixin since 2000, when Liu started publishing his short stories. But it was not until 2010, while studying at

Leuven Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipalit ...

, that Baoshu began to compose his own stories. When the third volume of Liu Cixin's '' The Three-Body Problem'' trilogy was published in China at the end of 2010, Baoshu was still abroad and had no way to get the book quickly. Luckily, a good friend photocopied every page of the book and sent it to him online. Having read the long work non-stop and greatly inspired by its plot, Baoshu composed a 100,000 characters

Dōjin In Japan, a is a group of people who share an interest, activity, or hobby. The word is sometimes translated into English as " clique", "fandom", "coterie", "society", or "circle" (as in " sewing circle"). Self-published creative works pro ...

-style sequel, ''Three Body X: Aeon of Contemplation'' (), in roughly three weeks. Appearing less than a month after the publication of '' Death's End'', this online sequel caught the attention of many of Liu's readers – and of Liu himself who authorised the publication of the sequel in 2011. It was well received.

Major works

''The Redemption of Time'' (''Three Body X: Aeon of Contemplation'')

The first book by Baoshu, an unauthorized fan sequel of Liu Cixin's ''

Remembrance of Earth's Past ''Remembrance of Earth's Past'' () is a science fiction novel series by Chinese writer Liu Cixin. The series is also popularly referred to as ''Three-Body'' from part of the title of its first novel, ''The Three-Body Problem (novel), The Three- ...

'', intersected with

dōjinshi , also Romanization of Japanese, romanized as ', is the Japanese term for self-published print works, such as magazines, manga, and novels. Part of a wider category of ''doujin'' (self-published) works, ''doujinshi'' are often derivative of exi ...

and young-adult fictional experience, which evokes a lot of disagreement and discussion on the Internet, due to its unofficial nature and references to a Japanese pornographic actress. It was later published in 2011 with the permission of Liu Cixin, and Liu's publisher, Chongqing Press. It was published in English by Tor Books as '' The Redemption of Time'' in July 2019.

''Ruins of Time''

This work relates a story about the contemporary world trapped in a mysterious and unbreakable time loop in one single day—October 11, 2012 and its salvation by a male college student Han Fang and an enigmatic girl he met. This work is one of the first attempts to blend science fiction and Western-style apocalypse theme in Chinese science fiction works and proved to be a great success, winning 2014 saga novel Nebula Award for Chinese science fictions, one of the highest honors of Chinese SF works.

''What Has Passed Shall in Kinder Light Appear''

According to Baoshu himself, this story is better understood as

alternate history Alternate history (also referred to as alternative history, allohistory, althist, or simply A.H.) is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which one or more historical events have occurred but are resolved differently than in actual history. As ...

rather than hard-core science fiction. The premise of the story draws on

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

, and

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary criticism, literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th ...

, who actually appears in the story. It runs real historical events and personalities in reverse order, to ask some fundamental questions. The starting point is a

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

where it is now – much technology, industry, a successful host of the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competit ...

( Bird's Nest stadium). We follow Xie Baosheng from this point over decades as events happen in the reverse order, with world leaders and nations carrying out actions that see the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

created, then Germany split in two, then the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

, then the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

, then the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Owing to some of its sensitive contents its original Chinese version "Da shidai" (; literally, ''The Great Era''), was circulated unofficially online only, but American SF writer Ken Liu translated it into English and had it published on ''

Fantasy and Science Fiction ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional un ...

'' March/April 2015.

Bibliography

Novels

* ''Three Body X: Aeon of Contemplation'' (《三体X：观想之宙》; 2011)(English: '' The Redemption of Time''; trans. Ken Liu; 2019) * ''Ruins of Time'' (《时间之墟》; 2013) * ''Garuda'' (《金翅鸟》; 2014) * ''Maharoga'' (《伏地龙》; 2014)

Short story collections

* ''The Song of Ancient Earth'' (《古老的地球之歌》; 2012) * ''Fantasies of Time'' (《时间狂想故事集》; 2015)

Footnotes

External links

*
"BestSF.com's review of Baoshu's ''What Has Passed in Kinder Light Appear''
contender for Best SF short story of the year 2015"
An interview with Ken Liu
translator of Baoshu's recent work, about his story and the Chinese writer
"Preserve her memory"
one of Baoshu's latest short stories, translated by Ken Liu, published in ''Clarkesworld'', 108, September 2015
Baoshu's homepage
on douban.com, where he publishes his works in Chinese and interacts with readers {{authority control Chinese science fiction writers Writers from Guangyuan KU Leuven alumni Peking University alumni 1980 births Living people Chinese male novelists