BCP Education & Psychology ESPS 2023 Volume 10 (2023) 278 Study of Chinese and English Discourse in The Three Body problem based on Proximization Theory Jingyao Wang China Agricultural University, Beijing, China ningqingyao2003@163.com Abstract. Taking Liu Cixin’s science fiction novel The Three Body problem as a research text, this paper conducts a critical discourse analysis of the literary text from the Proximization Theory, and explores the discourse strategies contained in the crisis construction of The Three Body problem. At the same time, by comparing the original Chinese text of The Three Body problem with the English translation, the paper aims to investigate the influence of language shift on the strategy of proximization. It is found that the author constructs the threat of the Three-Body Crisis to humanity through three dimensions: temporal, spatial and axiological; at the same time, the convergence effect of the English translation is enhanced in the spatial dimension compared to the original text, while the effect of the English translation is weakened in the temporal dimension, and the effect of the original Chinese text and the English translation is approximately the same in axiological dimension. This paper extends the scope of Proximization Theory and enriches the research in the field of literary texts into their original languages. Keywords: The Three Body Problem; Proximization Theory; Comparative Analysis. 1. Introduction As a typical science fiction work, the game between humanity and alien civilizations is played throughout the trilogy of The The Three Body problem. The conflict and crisis between the trisolaran civilization and the Earth civilization are pushed forward step by step in the book. The conflicts and plot advancement are of a more typical confrontational character, while less research focus on the conflicts and crises constructed in the work. Proximization Theory analyses how speakers construct and present negative and negative events to listeners through three dimensions: temporal, spatial and axiological. Proximization Theory is mostly used in critical discourse analysis, where it focuses on the discursive techniques used by the speaker and the messages behind the discourse, essentially exploring the patterns of crisis construction and threat generation (Cap, 2006). Current research on Proximization Theory has focused on political textual analysis (e.g., Liao & Wu, 2019); medical discourse (e.g., Li & Pan, 2021, Li, 2021); environmental protection discourse (e.g., Zhang & Lin & Dong, 2021); energy security discourse (e.g., Song & Zhao, 2021, Zhao & Zhao, 2021), etc. And Proximization Theory is less associated with the conflict discourse used in literary texts (e.g., Fang & Yu, 2021) or comparative research analysis of different languages (e.g., Cao & Wu, 2020). As the conflict between human beings and alien civilizations is the main line of The Three Body problem, the literary discourse in it has typical proximization characteristics. Therefore, a discourse analysis of the Chinese and English texts of The Three Body problem based on Proximization Theory can reveal the cognitive mechanism of the literary characters from the language level and uncover their literary discourse strategies hidden behind the language, and can also provide a new perspective for the analysis of the means of crisis construction, conflict and plot advancement in literary texts. The findings of this paper will help to enrich the interpretive scope of Proximization Theory and provide a reference for the in-depth interpretation and analysis of discourse in the professional field. At the same time, this paper can also provide new research perspectives and insights into the understanding of Chinese novels and their dissemination abroad. BCP Education & Psychology ESPS 2023 Volume 10 (2023) 279 2. Literature Review 2.1 Proximization Theory Proximization Theory is based on Chilton’s (2004) Discourse Space Theory, first proposed by Cap (2006). Proximization is a discourse strategy that negatively presents physically and temporally distant events and states (including hostile ideologies) to speakers and listeners (Wu et al., 2016). Proximization Theory investigates proximization and abstracts it into three dimensions, namely: temporal proximization, spatial proximization, and axiological proximization. At the same time, the theory of proximization takes the inside deictic centre (IDC) and the outside deictic centre (ODC) as the basic reference for the discursive space of the analysed corpus, where the participants or speakers of the discourse want to unite the elements of the subject as IDC, and other elements located outside the deictic centre, or in opposition to it, as IDC. Other elements located outside the IDC, or in opposition to it, are identified as ODCs as well. Proximization Theory constructs the discursive space in three dimensions: temporal dimension, spatial dimension, and axiological dimension. By creating tension in time and space, the speaker influences the audience’s attitude towards IDC and ODC in the axiological dimension, thus guiding the ideological conflict towards the real conflict, and also by building consensus to include groups that do not belong to IDC (Hu & Chen, 2021). At the same time, Cap (2008) refines and quantifies each of these three categories in terms of grammatical features, and analyses how ODCs are constantly converging on and threatening the domain of IDC, either physically or psychologically, through the three dimensions. From the perspective of the speaker, the main objective of using proximization strategies is to legitimise their own proposed actions and policies. 2.2 An Empirical Study of Proximization Theory Empirical studies of Proximization Theory can be broadly divided into two broad categories, namely studies of contrastive discourses and studies of non-contrastive discourses. The corpus of contrastive discourse is dominated by political texts, while other types of texts such as environmental (e.g., Zhang, Lin & Dong, 2021) and film reviews (e.g., Liu & Deng, 2021) are also studied. Studies of contrastive discourse can be subdivided into: contrasts for different national corpora of the same event (e.g., Li & Pan, 2021), contrasts for translations of the original text of the same corpus (e.g., Chao, 2021) and contrasts for different leaders of the same country (e.g., Liu & Xu, 2018). In the study of non-contrasting discourses, the corpus selection is more diverse, including medical discourse (e.g., Li, 2021), energy discourse (e.g., Song & Zhao, 2021), political discourse (e.g., Liao & Wu, 2019), literary discourse (e.g., Fang & Yu, 2021), internet rumours (e.g., Yang, 2019) and many other areas. Under the perspective of the study of contrastive discourse, there exists a comparison of different national corpora for the same event. Zhang Hui et al. (2021) analyzed the proximization of ecological discourse in Chinese and American news reports on climate change to clarify the ecological ideology reflected in the discourse, and used statistical methods to test whether there were significant differences between the data and analyze the reasons for the differences, and the final conclusion is that China is more likely to adopt a positive axiological proximization strategy, while the US is more likely to adopt an “anthropocentric” destructive eco-ideological axiological proximization strategy. Liu & Deng (2021) studied the conflicting reviews of the Chinese film The Wandering Earth in the US and Germany, and concluded that both American and German audiences had axiological biases and cultural misinterpretations of the film, but the American side used more axiological proximization strategies while the German side used more temporal proximization strategies, which to a certain extent extended the scope of application of Proximization Theory. Under the perspective of the study of contrastive discourse, there exists a comparison of translations of the original text of the same corpus. For example, Cao (2021) uses the Chinese text of Wang Yi’s speech at the 56th Munich Security Conference and the English text as a corpus to analyze the similarities and differences between the original text and the translated text in terms of the BCP Education & Psychology ESPS 2023 Volume 10 (2023) 280 proximization strategies used in the translation of the speech, and concludes that the frequency of proximization strategies used in the translated text is higher than that in the original text. From the perspective of contrastive discourse, there are contrasts between different leaders in the same country. For example, Liu and Xu (2018) used discourse space theory and Proximization Theory as the basis to compare and analyze the National Strategic Security Report of three U.S. presidents, showing the movement of “China“ as an external entity on the U.S.-centered three-dimension, visually demonstrating the change in spatial position, and concludes that the US attitude towards China has gone through a process of seeing China as a partner to seeing China as a competitor. Under the research perspective of non-contrasting discourse, Wu and Niu (2018) combine Proximization Theory to explore the construction of legitimacy in political discourse, and study the corpus related to Trump’s immigration policy, introducing the STA model in their analysis; Cao and Wu (2020) use Proximization Theory to analyze the role mood changes reflected by ODC’s erosion of IDC in The Other Two, while pointing out that the axiological proximization in the literary work can be divided into two parts, i.e. abstract ideology and concrete matter, expanding the application of Proximization Theory. In summary, the study of Proximization Theory has shown a tendency to shift from a single study of political and national security discourse to a multi-discourse study, and from a single textual study to a comparative study of various texts. at the same time, there are still relatively few studies of literary works, and they are mostly studies of the original texts, and comparative studies of Chinese and English translations based on literary works and their plots are less common. Litter scholarly attention has been paid to The Three Body problem, which has not yet been studied in the academic field, and is mostly translated, with less research focusing on the construction of conflict and crisis. 3. Corpus As a leading figure in contemporary Chinese science fiction, Liu Cixin has been described as having “Single-handedly elevated Chinese science fiction to the world level”, and his works have won numerous awards. The English translations of his works have been sold both at home and abroad, and have attracted considerable international response. In the field of Chinese science fiction, The Three Body problem is a work with both a strong Chinese style and a global influence, and is of great importance in the cultural dissemination of Chinese literature and Chinese science fiction. There are three stories in The Three Body problem, and this paper selects the first one as the corpus, while using the English translation by Chinese-American science fiction writer Liu Yuquan in the section on Chinese and English comparison. Liu Yuquan is the first Chinese-American author to win two world science fiction awards, the “Nebula Award” and the “Hugo Award”, and his translation has a significant influence in China and abroad, ensuring the authority of the translation. The story of the first part of The Three Body problem is as follows: an alien civilization in the Three Body galaxy, due to the extreme harshness of its own existence, decides to expedition to Earth and occupy the planet’s living space. At the same time, the Trisolaris civilization uses more advanced technological means to lock up human technology. The Earth civilization learns of this fact through various clues, realizes that the Three-Body crisis is near and sets out to fight it. The language in the first part of The Three Body problem is strongly characterized by conflict and crisis construction, therefore, this paper selects the first part of The Three Body problem trilogy as the research corpus, focusing on the author’s discourse construction of the Three Body crisis in the first part, in the construction of the entity, Earth/Humanity is selected as the IDC, and the Earth Trisolaris Organization/Earth Three-body Organization (ETO) and the Trisolaris as the ODC, based on Proximization Theory and the above, the construction of the indicative centre selects typical discourse passages in the three dimensions of proximization for analysis and conducts a comparison between the original text and the translated text to draw the final conclusion. BCP Education & Psychology ESPS 2023 Volume 10 (2023) 281 4. Research Findings 4.1 Spatial Proximization Spatial proximization is the spatial invasion of the IDC by the ODC, and this spatial proximization includes the convergence of physical and psychological distances. In the literary discourse of The Three Body problem, on the one hand, the Earth and the Trisolaris are separated by 4.2 light-years, a distance from each other from the perspective of objective facts, and on the other hand, the author constructs the threat of the Three-Body Crisis by constructing the strike of the Trisolaris against the top echelons of the Earth’s scientific community, the Earth Trisolaris Organization (ETO), a dissident element within the Earth; at the same time, by visualizing the macroscopic war between the two civilizations, the Earth civilization and the Trisolaris civilization, illustrating Earth forces and the ETO. At the same time, the spatial proximization of the Three-Body Crisis is completed by visualizing the macro-level war between the two civilizations as a struggle between the Earth forces and the ETO. At the same time, comparing the original text with the translated text, it can be found that some of the translations have fine-tuned some of the proximization strategies in the original text by adjusting the order of words in order to fit the context and order of the target language, so that the proximization strategies in the translated text are enhanced. The following is a selection of relevant content from the original text as an example. Example 1: Original: “没什么。”汪淼机械地回答。这些人似乎在梦呓，战争时期？战争在哪儿？他 扭头望向大厅的落地窗，透过窗子可以看到远处大院外面的城市：春天的阳光下，街道上车 流如织；草坪上有人在遛狗，还有几个孩子在玩耍…… 里面和外面的世界，哪个更真实？ 常将军讲道：“最近，敌人的攻击明显加强了，目标仍是科学界高层，请你们先看一下文 件中的那份名单。” Translation: “Nothing, ” Wang replied mechanically. The people before him seemed to be speaking out of a dream. Time of war? Where is this war? He twisted to look out one of the floor- length windows. Through the window he could see Beijing in the distance: Under the spring sun, cars filled the streets like a dense river; on a lawn someone was walking a dog; a few children were playing…… Which is more real? The world inside or outside these walls? General Chang said, “Recently, the enemy has intensified the pattern of attacks. The targets remain elite scientists. Please begin by taking a look at the list of names in the document. ” Example 1 is one of the first examples in the book to show the impact of the Three-Body Crisis on human society in a more explicit way. In Example 1, the threat is constructed through the contrast between noun phrases (NPs) identified as elements of the IDC, such as the peaceful scene outside the window and the everyday life experienced by ordinary people, and the NPs identified as elements of the ODC, the “enemy”, but at this point the threat is still relatively ambiguous and unintuitive, and then the event of the ODC “attack” (interpreted as verb phrases indicating ODC invasion or movement of the IDC) on the upper echelons of the Earth science community (interpreted as the IDC), brings the previously distant and imperceptible threat to invade from the spatial level, thus proving that the existence of the three-body crisis is not child’s play. At the same time, there is a difference in the convergence effect between the Chinese and English translations of the passage in which Example 1 is located, for example, the original puts the question “哪个更真实” at the end of the sentence, which is in line with Chinese expression habits, while the English translation puts “Which is more real? ” at the beginning of the sentence. This makes the contrast between the calm outside the window and the distant crisis more distinct in the English context, and to a certain extent enhances the convergence of expression in the English context. Example 2: BCP Education & Psychology ESPS 2023 Volume 10 (2023) 282 Original: 叶文洁话音刚落，轰然几声巨响，饭厅的两扇大门同时被撞开，一群端冲锋枪的 士兵冲了进来，汪淼注意到他们不是武警而是正规军，他们几乎无声地贴墙而行，很快在三 体叛军周围形成了一个包围圈。 Translation: Just as she finished speaking, several loud booms rang out and the doors to the cafeteria broke open. A team of soldiers holding submachine guns rushed in. Wang realized that they were not armed police, but the real army. Noiselessly they proceeded along the walls and soon surrounded the rebels of the ETO. Example 2 takes place after all parties on Earth have been primed to understand the reality of the Three-Body Crisis, and on the way to a secret gathering of ETO rebels, regular forces who have obtained the time and place of the gathering successfully raid the ETO rebels, after which there is an exchange of fire and games between the two sides. In terms of reality, Example 2 shortens the spatial distance and shows the immediate threat of the ODC to the IDC by representing the direct conflict between the ETO (identified as the ODC) and the Earth’s regular army (identified as the IDC), transforming the macro-war between the two worlds of Earth and the Trisolaris into an immediate and visual conflict (representing the IDC’s real contact with the ODC). In the abstract, this clash brings the Trisolaris (identified as ODC), originally 4.2 light years away, into conflict with Earth civilization through the ETO (representing potential contact between the IDC and the ODC), further manifesting the threat of the Trisolaris as ODC to Earth civilization as IDC. Example 3. Original: 会前，常伟思将军说：“请同志们注意，我们的会议现在可能已经在智子的监视 之下了，以后，任何秘密都将不复存在。” Translation: Before the meeting, General Chang said, “Comrades, please be aware that our meeting is probably already being monitored by sophons. From now on, there will be no more secrets. ” Example 4. Original: 这时，作战中心所有人的眼睛都看到了那个信息，就像汪淼看到倒计时一样，信 息只闪现了不到两秒钟就消失了，但所有人都准确地读出了它的内容，它只有五个字—— 你们是虫子! Translation: Everyone in the Battle Command Center saw the message in their eyes, just like Wang Miao’s countdown. The message flashed into existence for only two seconds and then disappeared, but everyone got it. It was only a single sentence: You’re bugs! In examples 3 and 4, humanity has realized that the Three-Body world has sent two intelligent protons - i.e. “sophon” - to Earth through more advanced technological means, thus interfering with basic human science and locking up human technology while they monitor the whole humanity. At this point, the message that the sapiens are presented to the personnel of the Operations Centre is identified as a real contact between the ODC and the IDC, as well as a direct demonstration of the invasion of human civilization (identified as the IDC) by the sophons (on behalf of the ODC, i.e. the Trisolaris side). By depicting this type of communication between the two civilizations, the author further clarifies and highlights the reality and urgency of the crisis. 4.2 Temporal Proximization Temporal proximization is the invasion of the IDC by the ODC in the temporal dimension, including the invasion of the past into the present and the future into the present. In The Three Body problem, on the one hand, due to the physical distance between the three-body galaxy and the solar system, the arrival of the three-body fleet on Earth is also distant from the present, on the other hand, the author shows the impact of the past actions of the three-body people (ODC) (i.e. the creation and release of the sophons) on the present and future of the Earth (IDC) through the surveillance of all humanity by the sophons that have already arrived on Earth. BCP Education & Psychology ESPS 2023 Volume 10 (2023) 283 At the same time, a comparison of the original text and the translation shows that the temporal proximization expressions in some of the translations are weaker than in the original text, or there are certain deficiencies in the translation process. The following is an example of selected content from the original text: Example 5: Original: 他说这句话时，周围还是熟悉的一切，拉下的窗帘上摇曳着夏天的树影；但在所 有与会者眼中，这个世界已经不同于以往了，他们感觉到了一双无所不在的眼睛盯着自己， 在这双眼睛下，这个世界已经无处躲藏，这感觉将缠绕他们一生，连他们的子孙后代也无法 逃脱。 Translation: When he said this, the surroundings were still familiar. The shadows of summer trees swayed against the drawn curtains, but in the eyes of the attendees, the world was no longer the same. They felt the gaze of omnipresent eyes. Under these eyes, there was nowhere to hide in the world. This feeling would follow them all their lives, and their descendants would not be able to escape it. Example 6. Original: 伟大的三体舰队已经起航，目标是太阳系，将在四百五十年后到达。 Translation: The great Trisolaran Fleet has already set sail. Their target is this solar system, and they will arrive in four hundred and fifty years. Examples 5 and 6 show the temporal invasion and threatening impact of the ODC (World of Trisolaris / sophons representing the World of Trisolaris) on the present and future of the IDC (Humanity of Earth / Future Generations of Humanity). The author first defines the ambiguity of time through the “450年后到达”, while the presence of the sophons (ODC) brings forward to the “present” the time of the Three-Body Crisis, which is supposed to occur in 450 years. The threat posed to humanity in the present by the surveillance of the sophon (i.e., “无处不在的眼睛”), “他们感觉 到了一双无所不在的眼睛盯着自己”, constructs the impact of the ODC on the present, while “even their children and grandchildren could not escape it ”. The ongoing impact of the ODC on the future of the IDC is constructed through “连他们的子孙后代也无法逃脱”, and the impact of future threats on the present. At the same time, in example 5, the use of the words “连” and “也”in the original creates a progressive effect, building up a continuous influence of the ODC on the present and the future. The translation, on the other hand, divides the impact on the present and the future into two parallel sentences, making the progressive effect disappear and thus weakening the temporal proximization strategy of the original. Example 7. Original: 但有一样东西从梦中跟随他到现实中：幽灵倒计时。倒计时仍在他睁开的眼睛前 显现，数字很细，但很亮，发出一种烧灼的白光。 1185:11:34、1185:11:33、1185:11:32、1185:11:31…… 汪淼转转头，看到了卧室中模糊的一切，确认自己已经醒来，倒计时没有消失。 Translation: But one thing did follow him from dream into reality: the countdown. It was still hovering before his eyes. The numbers were thin, but very bright with a burning, white glow. 1180:05:00, 1180:04:59, 1180:04:58, 1180:04:57 … Wang looked around, taking in the blurry shadows around the bedroom. He was now certain that he was awake, but the countdown did not disappear. In Example 7, the ETO, through the sophons, projects a countdown in front of the eyes of Wang Miao, a scientist researching nano, who has previously learned through the Operations Centre and other channels that the scientific community is being attacked by an unseen enemy. At this point, ETO, sophons and the countdown shown by sophon are interpreted as ODC, and Wang as a member of the human race is interpreted as IDC. Here the author concretizes the abstract and vague uncertainty of time, even down to the second, to create the exact threat that ODC poses to the future, while at the same time, as this countdown is beyond science in the eyes of humans who have not yet understood BCP Education & Psychology ESPS 2023 Volume 10 (2023) 284 what is going on, the author uses this element of the countdown (interpreted as ODC) to construct the great threat that ODC poses to IDC, which, combined with the construction of the three-body crisis in the previous section, acts as a catalyst for the construction of the crisis. Example 8. Original: 名单上的这些物理学家，在不到两个月的时间里，先后自杀。 Translation: All the physicists on this list have committed suicide in the last two months. In Example 8, the original text emphasizes the time point of “两个月”, showing that the enemy is an extremely urgent threat to us in terms of time, but in the translation, the three short sentences of the original text are integrated into a long sentence by adjusting the word order, and the time point of “in the last two months”. In the translation, the three short sentences of the original are combined into one long sentence, and the time point “in the last two months” is placed at the end of the sentence, and the emphasis of the sentence becomes “suicide”, which to a certain extent weakens the time convergence strategy of the original. 4.3 Axiological Proximization Axiological proximization is when the ODC clashes with the IDC on the level of axiological or ideology, and this clash of axiological may turn into a concrete conflict of reality, which will have a real impact on the IDC. In The Three Body problem, the author sets up two opposing axiological proximization strategies for the ETO, the Earth rebel, and the ordinary people represented by Wang Miao. In the case of the conflict between the Earth civilization and the Trisolaris civilization, the author completes the convergence of axiological in the construction of the crisis by depicting the cruel and cold qualities of the Trisolaris civilization and by contrasting the characteristics of the two civilizations from the point of view of the Trisolaris people. At the same time, a comparison between the original and the translated text reveals that, although there are some minor differences in word order or meaning between the expressions in the original and the translated text, in general, the convergence of axiological produced by the original and the translated text is basically the same, as most of the axiological proximization in the text relies on a large number of phrases and elements for its construction. The following is an example of selected content from the original text: Example 9. Original: 游戏通过一层貌似人类社会和历史的外壳，演绎三体世界的历史和文化，这样可 以避免入门者的陌生感。当游戏玩家深入到一定程度并感受三体文明的魅力后，三体组织将 直接与其联系，考察其思想倾向，最终将合格者招募为地球三体叛军成员。 Translation: Using a shell that drew elements from human society and history, the game explained the culture and history of Trisolaris, thus avoiding alienating beginners. Once a player had advanced to a certain level and had begun to appreciate Trisolaran civilization, the ETO would establish contact, examine the player’s sympathies, and finally recruit those who passed the tests to be members of the ETO. Example 9 is an axiological proximization strategy from the ETO perspective, in which the ETO members designing the three-body game see human civilization as the ODC and Trisolaris civilization as the IDC. In the design of the three-body game, players will be exposed to the three-body world through the shell of human history and society. This disguise allows players to easily associate abstract positive concepts such as “tenacity” and “indomitable” with the three-body civilization (at this point the IDC), and because some of the players in the three-body game are themselves already dissatisfied with the negative aspects of human society, in this case it is also easier to associate those abstract negative concepts with human society. At this point, the materialization of abstract concepts helps to enhance the intuition of the recipient, thus making it easier for gamers to identify with the three-body civilization. Ultimately, through this axiological proximization strategy, the game can achieve its goal of attracting new members to the ETO organization. Example 10. BCP Education & Psychology ESPS 2023 Volume 10 (2023) 285 Original: “当然没有错，生存是其他一切的前提，但，元首，请看看我们的生活：一切都 是为了文明的生存。为了整个文明的生存，对个体的尊重几乎不存在，个人不能工作就得死； 三体社会处于极端的专制之中，法律只有两档：有罪和无罪，有罪处死，无罪释放。我最无 法忍受的是精神生活的单一和枯竭，一切可能导致脆弱的精神都是邪恶的。我们没有文学没 有艺术，没有对美的追求和享受，甚至连爱情也不能倾诉……元首，这样的生活有意义吗？” Translation: “There’s nothing wrong, of course. Existence is the premise for everything else. But, Princeps, please examine our lives: Everything is devoted to survival. To permit the survival of the civilization as a whole, there is almost no respect for the individual. Someone who can no longer work is put to death. Trisolaran society exists under a state of extreme authoritarianism. The law has only two outcomes: The guilty are put to death, and the not guilty are released. For me, the most intolerable aspects are the spiritual monotony and desiccation. Anything that can lead to spiritual weakness is declared evil. We have no literature, no art, no pursuit of beauty and enjoyment. We cannot even speak of love.… Princeps, is there meaning to such a life? ” Example 10 is a conversation between an individual in the Trisolaris society who provides assistance to humans and the Trisolaris Princeps, and this episode is one of the Trisolaris society materials intercepted by humans that serve to drive the construction of the Three-Body crisis. Although this scenario is a dialogue between the Trisolariss, in this episode the Trisolaris civilization appears as the ODC and the Earth civilization appears as the IDC. In the text, negative abstract elements such as “对个体的尊重几乎不存在”, “专制”and “精 神生活的单一和枯竭”are derived as the ideology of the Trisolaris society (ODC), while positive abstract elements such as “文学”, “艺术”and “美” are derived as the ideology of the Earth civilization (IDC). Due to the fact of the invasion of Earth civilizations by the Trisolaris world, the conflict between these two ideologies will (and to some extent has) evolved into a real conflict, thus contributing to the eventual construction of the Three-Body Crisis and prompting action on the part of humanity. A comparison between the original and the translation in Example 10 shows that there are differences between the translation and the original expression in some places, for example, “一切 都是为了文明的生存” is translated as “Everything is devoted to survival”. However, these differences do not directly affect the expression of the convergence of axiological. 5. Conclusion Using Liu Cixin’s science fiction novel The Three Body problem as a corpus and Proximization Theory as a research framework, this paper compares and analyses the use of proximization strategies in the construction of crisis in the Chinese and English translations of The Three Body problem in three dimensions: temporal, spatial and axiological, and investigates the impact of the process of language shift on the effect of convergence. In general, The Three Body problem uses a combination of spatial, temporal and axiological proximization in the construction of crisis, while the original text and the translation use convergence in roughly the same way, while overall, the English translation has a stronger weakening effect on the convergence strategy. In the construction of spatial proximization, the author uses a combination of concrete and abstract distances. On the one hand, the distance between the Trisolaris civilization and Earth civilization is translated into events such as the suicides of Earth scientists under the influence of the Trisolaris civilization; on the other hand, the macroscopic conflict between the Trisolaris civilization and Earth civilization is translated into a concrete and perceptible conflict between the Earth army and the ETO rebels, thus constructing the Trisolaris civilization as a threat to Earth civilization in space. In the construction of temporal proximization, the author takes the approach of turning vague time into concrete and emphasizing the impact of the ODC on the present and the future. On the one hand, the countdown of the reading of the seconds in the eyes of the Earth scientist Wang and the exact time of the arrival of the three-body fleet on Earth are used to turn vague time into concrete, further BCP Education & Psychology ESPS 2023 Volume 10 (2023) 286 increasing the sense of urgency of the crisis; on the other hand, the change in the perception of human life brought about by the surveillance of humans by sophons, (also interpreted as ODC elements) and the impact of this change on the future of humanity through the continuation of this change in time are used to further complete the construction of the time dimension of the crisis. The construction of the crisis in the temporal dimension is further completed. In the construction of axiological proximization, the author devises two diametrically opposed axiological proximization strategies in the book. On the one hand, the ETO, as a dissident element within the Earth, sees the Trisolaris civilization as an IDC and the Earth civilization as an ODC, using the axiological proximization strategy to recruit members for itself, and on the other hand, through the conflict between the cold and ruthless axiological of the Trisolaris civilization (ODC) and the axiological of the Earth civilization (IDC) makes the Earth Civilization more aware of the seriousness of the Three-Body Crisis, and in the process of concretizing the opposition between these two axiological, it also brings the plot of the novel to a climax. In the comparison between the original Chinese text and the English translation, in the case of spatial approximation, the translation enhances spatial approximation by adjusting the word order and adding translations to make the expression of the approximation strategy more closely match the target language; in the case of temporal approximation, some of the translations show a weakening of the temporal approximation strategy; in the case of axiological approximation, although there are slight differences between the expressions of the original text and the translated text, such differences in expression do not lead to significant differences, as the construction of axiological approximation often relies on a larger number of texts. In general, the comparison between the original text and the translated text reveals that the translators have used certain translation strategies in order to adapt to the habits and context of the target language, which sometimes makes the convergence strategy of the translated text slightly different from that of the original text, and makes the translation in general show a weaker spatial proximization effect, a stronger temporal proximization effect, and a constant axiological proximization effect. In terms of the research contribution, this paper extends the application of Proximization Theory to the literary genre of literary texts and science fiction, and also provides a new perspective and idea for the study of the genre of literary texts and science fiction literature. 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