In this chapter, I propose to explore pastoral aesthetics and ethics in the work of science fiction writer Liu Cixin (1963), well known for his The Three-Body Problem trilogy. Through an analysis of a corpus composed of different novels and short stories, I try to show how Liu Cixin seizes pastoral imagery in his novels and observe in particular how the writer deals with time and imagine the relationship between the countryside and the machine, borrowing notably from Leo Marx’s theoretical insights. I then examine how the recurrence of pastoral motifs in Liu’s works can resurface in a pastoral (conservative?) ethics. Through this study, I finally question the relevance of a political interpretation of his novels, at a time when Chinese science fiction is regularly promoted by Chinese soft power, and how Liu Cixin’s imagination connects or diverges from the official rhetoric of the “Chinese dream”.