中国侠士精神与西方骑士精神比较研究 (3)
In addition to the social conditions mentioned above, there is another condition affecting the western knightship, that is Christianity. The knightship originates from the culture and religion leaded by chivalry system. Maxist authors of classics has said “the Medieval Ages begin their development from the primitive conditions and abandon all the ancient civilization, philosophy, politics and law so as to start to develop from the very beginning. The only thing that they inherited from the old world was Christianity and some dilapidated cities with almost no any civilization (63)”. We can see that Christianity is also a part of historical conditions for the appearance of western knightship. The western knightship appearing in Mediavel Ages inevitably got the baptism of Christianity in the moral aspect. In the Middle Ages the church represented almost all the civilized things, but the secular rights have been held in the hands of the nobility of Germanic nation. Because Germanic people have always kept their martial tradition, they did not derive the material and spiritual civilized achievements from Roman society， instead, they obtained Christianity from Roman civilization and could grasp the essence of Christianity soon. They turned the martial tradition and barbarism into the craze for Christianity. In the whole Medieval Ages, Christianity influenced all knights. C. Miles claims that“before people became knights, they should go through a ceremony performed in a church, or a hall of a castle, on the occasion of some great religious festival. And those candidates should pray that they would protect the church, the widows and children (50)”. Namely, western knights are religious knights believing in God, fighting for God and obeying codes of God.
Apart from the influence of Christianity on the emergence of western knightship, the western and eastern cultural blending has also greatly promoted the development of western knightship. The Crusades vividly reflected Germanic people’s barbaric and greedy characters and their fanaticism for religion. However, the Crusades have largely promoted the western and eastern cultural blending, which made the people of Western Europe undergo great changes in the intellectual and moral aspects. Such as, the typical feudal way in Western Europe turned into oriental elegance, and the martial and rude barons changed into graceful gentlemen with good behaviors. That is to say, the eastern rich and colorful material and spiritual civilization changed people’s lifestyle in the castles of Western Europe. From then on, the knightship has prevailed in Western Europe and has been adored and respected by feudal lords. Finally with the development of western history, some merits of Christianity and the knights’ original sense of honor and the knight’s bravery, loyalty, respect for women, desire for love, as well as graceful manner and temperament compose the complete content of knightship.
In summary, the emergence of western knightship has been affected by three conditions: the first one is the turbulent society and frequent wars; the second one is Christianity; the last one is the western and eastern cultural blending.
2.2 The Social Conditions for the Emergence of Chinese Chivalrymanhood
As regard to the appearance of Chinese chivalrymanhood, Si Maqian in his book claims that “the beginning of Chinese chivalrymanhood can be traced to Han Feizi written by Han Fei, who made a conclusion that the scholars disturded the law with their writings, while the Chinese chivalrymen break the law by force (704)”. “Breaking the law by force” is the first description about Chinese chivalrymanhood. And this is the first time to refer to chivalrymen. Chivalrymen are the representatives of grass-roots heroes, they depend on their own martial arts skills. The subject of chivalrymanhood shows great sympathy and persistent consciousness of resistence and also reflects its pursuit for fairness and justice. Chivalrymen’s thought and action and the concept of justice originate from Pre-Qin dynasty, and both have deep cultural foundation.
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