Chinese martial artists and the Western knights.doc

Chinese martial artists and the Western knightsChinese martial artists and the Western knights1. Introduction:As the culture spirit abstracted from folk literary works, Chinese martial artists spirit and western knight spirit have historically been popular in laboring people. Both have many similar factors, such as keeping promise, pursuing justice, respecting stronger and looking down weak person and so on. However, they have some different opinions and attitude in some aspects. For example, Chinese martial artists usually are not chain to the noblemen, while Western knights almost are the symbol of social status and relate to the lord. Comparing differences and similarities in the thought of social status, the relationship between development of destiny and the system, we can be more profound understanding of Chinese martial arts novels of chivalry culture and the extensive development. 2. Comparison between Chinese martial artists with the Western knights2. 1 Similarities2.1.1 Long historyThey have long history no matter which Chinese martial artists with the Western knights we talk. Chinese martial artists had excited in the pre-qin, such as Jingke, everyone known. In the middle ages, knights, as a troop of new power, had developed, gradually becoming a mainstream of culture. Besides, both have same characters, especially solving things and treating friends. For example, Ancient Chinese martial artists believe the universal love advocated by the ancient philosopher Mo-tse. And righteousness is an important part of traditional idea which is based on the moral values Confusion had advocated, occupying their whole heart. 2.1.2 Being martial and loyal From the creators of the imperial dynasty Qin to near Qing, most of the great emperors in ancient Chinese history all have the martial spirit. They bring up many martial artists as a secret army. Because these martial artists are very loyal to their headmaster, the emperor usually cant doubt these people. Meanwhile, western knights dont betray their thane. They both emphasize loyalty and fame, so thanes and emperors believe in them and think highly of them. At the same time, martial artists and western knights have another similar character, advocating force. Many classical novels in China, such as All Man Are Brothers, Seven Heroes and Five Gallants mainly describing a person named Bao Zheng, present vivid description of the chivalrous men and the historical facts which can reflect the ideal warriors in peoples mind, Wu Song, Lu Zhishen and Bai Yutang and so on. These characters in novels are wildly known in China. These people in novels almost are good at using spears and darts, having highly skills in fighting. Although they kill some persons not as the rule of law and are forced to go to the greenwood, they are loyal to each other. 1On the other hand, Germen are also warlike in history, which is widely known all over the world. Flipping through the book of world history, we can find that the martial spirit promotes this nation to become rich and strong. Also, Germen believe war and plundering should be a noble career and people who are brave to fight and wound in battle should be respected. As a personage said, “the destruction of West Rome has inevitable connection with the German mercenary”. In fact “Germanic” the initial meaning of this word is fearsome fighter. So in the western knight spirit, being valorous and militant is paramount. 2. 2 Differences2.2.1The differences of rebellious spirit and enclitic spiritBefore we study on the differences between chivalrous spirit and knight spirit, we must understand what kind of the role they played in their respective social system.The different interests they represented result in different views: the chivalrous men in our society stand for the rebelling while the knight in western country represent the loyalty. Chivalrous spirit is deeply rooted in the uncultivated land called Jianghu which has ingrained folk culture. This is a kind of culture totally different from the noble culture, which can be identified as a confrontation compared with the orthodox culture. Chinese martial artists sprit expresses the value that they dont pay much attention to money and never go down their knees to the authority. However, knights set the royalty and noble highly above the masses and willingly submit the lordliness. In the Middle Ages, most western countries are the feudal system of monarchy whose is integration of religion and politics. Sometimes, even the kings decisions must get the popes acknowledgement, much less the knights. For examples, one of famous case I can recall is the crusades that Christian countries of the eastern Mediterranean countries launched the war. When Muslim holy city of Jerusalem fell into the hands of the majority of the crusades, against Muslim, the knight army group played a necessary part in the process of defeating the Islam. The knights were a group of men who never asked their ruler why they did and always obeyed their commands. So accepting and executing an order are knights everlasting task and mission.2 To sum up, Chinese martial artists are a group of people who have the spirit of resistance, while the western knights are loyal to the sovereign and devote to the country. Besides, Chinese martial artists are independent in mind at action because they never subordinate any organizations. However, the knights occupy the part of the dominant position, belonging to the ruling class.2.2.2 The different attitude to women and loveAn attitude of regarding female and love, it is quite different between western knights and Chinese chivalrous experts. First of all, we should recognize and analysis the attitude based on different background and traditional values. It is quite complex for Chinese chivalrous expert to treat females and love. The lack of female in the imperial world in early times reflects traditional Chinese social circumstance where men are prior to women. Fundamentally speaking, it is influenced by Chinese Confusion culture-Brothers such as brothers, the wife be like clothes”.Knights love first appearing in France, the economic boom and political stability make great contribution to the development of it. Some cavaliers who have the right of inheritance can be influenced by the luxurious life in the castle. Therefore, they may have many opportunities and much money to contact with some ladies. So knights pay more attention to their manners and politeness, attracting ladies eyes. Because they deem that lady is the symbol of wealth, status and honorable breeding. The western love has been discussed by many scholars, which relies on equality and voluntarily.3 Whats more, it is in an advantaged position and men must constant in love. Lastly it adds some idealized love rather than Platonic Love. Court love in the Romance of Chivalry not only reflects the privileged stratums immorality, but also reveals the enlightened period of the bourgeoisie. Because the worship of ladies and the greatly distinction of status, they adds some religious color to the courtly love, as well as adventures of western people. 3. The Cultural Connotation of Chinese martial artists with the Western knights3. 1 The cultural connotation of Chinese martial artistsChinese martial arts have a strong sense of justice and ready to help the weak and follow their heart to do things. It is these characters that have no conscious to blend into every Chinese blood deeply, consisting of variously national characters. Also, Chinese people have the courage to come out boldly, especially when they see the rich man bully the poor man. They dont surrender the authorities and bad persons, using paltry ways, because they think those people are not real martial artists. Influencing by the Confucianism, it is important for Chinese to be straightforward with each other and share weal and woe of friends. So if the person can do these, others will respect him very much. However, Chinese martial arts are lack of public concepts and always are impetuous to do things or solve problems, ignoring rules. All in all, it is not divided by culture and customs. 3. 2 The cultural connotation of Western knights The knights spirit is the social noble culture spirit, and it is of personal identity based on moral superiority and personality spirit, but it also accumulates the Western Europe national ancient militancy of some positive factors. The western scholars point out that from the tendency of moral character, the traditional in Europe has the upper hand. In the western cultural tradition, it is very important for the medieval knights spirit to form the modern European national characters, “gentleman spirit”. In summary, It consists of the modern European national character, containing both elegant in the aristocratic temperament and holding concurrently the characters, keeping promise and helping others instantly.4. ConclusionThe Chinese chivalry and Western knight spirit have many similarities as well as differences when concerned about their emergence conditions, their contents, and their effects. So although there are many similarities between the Chinese chivalry and Western knight spirit, because they have different cultural backgrounds they have their own characteristics.The Chinese knight-errant culture has a deep influence on Chinese people, such as obligation, revenge, loyalist, death, etc. Chinese culture is a kind of warmth culture which attaches importance to promises. However, because the knight-e