Similarities and differences between Chinese and western heroismA hero is the eternal topic of human.Its definition will be different with the change of nationality, culture, time, personal differences.Every culture could shape unique hero.Heroism is the fundamental and abundant source of force which will push continuously the historic progress, social development, and abundance of humanity. It is a kind of reflect about specific cultural pursuit .To a certain extent; it influences the development of human society. This paper will analyze the similarities and differences between Chinese and western heroism by guan you and Achilles characters' comparison and discuss the reason causing the difference.Essence of hero is that when human face death, nature, society and various alien force that oppresses and distorts man,resulting in producing a positive and intense willing of life which has the courage to break through and fight the retreat.Because of this, hero worship associated with human society comes into being and throughout human society .We can say heroism in promoting the development of human society has indelible influence. But heroism is not abstract and rootless exist,It needs to inoculate in specific realities,different cultural background and value system will portray a different type of hero.This paper will analyze similarities and differences between Chinese and western heroism by the comparison of the two heroes.Although Guan you and Achilles belong to different eras, the road of achievement has some similarities, the faith of building business is one of them. In the last years, the Han dynasty chaos on the one hand, the yellow turban insurrectionary uprising. on the other hand,Dong zhuo mutinies. We can even say guan yu lives in a troubled time.But it is so-called "a hero is known in the time”, and such turbulent days give guan you an opportunity to achieve his career. When the yellow turban insurrectionary uprising, Guan yu adheres the belief of serving our country and building great career and became brothers with lie bee. Since then, guan you with his loyalty, follows Liu bee for war, grabs you jin and pang de, water floods seven armies. All without exception shows his belief of building a solid career.Similarly, Achilles' road of hero and his belief of building a solid career are closely linked.In Homer epic poems, we can clearly realize Achilles is an individualism supreme hero. Because of the hero's honor, he participated in the Trojan war (although he had predicted his death).But in order to get the honor,he must establish great exploits. He is ever victorious, especially in the Trojan war, he kills the captain of Troy, Hector,and becomes the greatest hero in Greek history. Thus, a hero'sachievement needs a firm belief to support.Historically, we can say guan yu is model of the loyalty and brave. People admire his extraordinarily brave, but also they are shocked and moved. by the unbending spirit altogether.For example, from the thing that guan yu fails in Madison to see,guan yu loses the jingzhou for carelessness. Lv meng make its pieces, and sent soldiers heavily to surround them. Liu feng listens to the gossip,and refuse to send troops to rescue, causing guan yu into despair. Dongwu sent ZhuGeJin to persuade, but guanyu refuses to take the bait and says:”if the city is broken,I would just die. The Jade can be broken,but this does not change its white. The bamboo can be consumed,but it does not destroy its section. Although My body is dead,The reputation cancirculate down.It shows that Guan yu's the heroism of paying attention to the great-hearted.Although Achilles' temperament of hero more displays in its personal honor, the same heroism still deserve our respect. In the Trojan war,when Agamemnon claims to rob his beloved female slave, he angrily says: I don't want to let people despise and stay here for you to increase wealth. He publicly rebukes Agamemnon that harms others to benefit oneself and refuse to fight. Obviously, he's not for finance and slaves but for his heroical honor.But the unbending heroism also still let us appreciates.Since the six dynasties began,Guanyu was worshiped by different generations of people constantly.After the three kingdoms, Guan yu was modeled into a supreme god who melts Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. But the guan yu is really not god,he is only a legendary hero. The hero's most prominent character is "justice" and "brave".The brave is needless to say,fight lvbu,kill huaxioang and attend a banquet with a single-tool. All without exception shows that he is heroic and invincible. As for the righteousness, the author spends an amount of ink crafting elaborately.Here,there are two critical plots,The one is guan yo u’d surrender, another is that Gunny releases cacao in hearing way. But surrendering cacao does forget its resource, he is a righteous man in the world. Although from the overall situation freeing coo is inappropriate, It highlights guan you’s "righteousness". In addition, guan yu has obvious flaws of character.He is self-willed and he keeps the tail from wagging the dog.He is absent without leave,and he forces Macao to fight.In addition,he underestimates the enemy so that he losts the jingzhou and so on. In conclusion, we can see that guan yu’s extreme contradictions of inherent character, but also because of this, it just lets us know a true hero. Achilles’ image does not like other deities who are shaped the abstraction of the sacredness, but it specifically reflects its image of the contradictions and complex. Achilles is a complete and rich "man". His character is complex, emotional and he loves his mother, respects for the elderly, and protects the weak. When Hector’s old father with a gift appeals to allow him to take back the corpse of his son,he gentlely loosens his hands which cuddle his knees and tears with the old father together and soothe the old man to accept his own misfortune. Achilles’ tears not only have the sympathy for the old,but also have the memories for his father and friends. Later, Achilles put Hector’s corpse return his father, and announce that stop siege in twelve days.This makes Hector be buried in whole ritual.He consoles his enemies sincerely and openly and encourage them to be strong enough and endure misery and sadness. This practice is not for the enemy's mercy, but for himself and big sympathy for the whole human. His good nature was showed by this situation and this also appears the characters of demi-gods to have more human characteristics.Collectivism hero view was formed during the period of savage to civilization in human society step by step ,and finally became spiritual values with collective consciousness. It belongs to the value judgment in ideology. It establishes Specific figures those who has the Lofty, solemn and stirring, defiant and enterprising character as example in social groups. The purpose into promote this social groups for the most perfect, the most noble, most represent overall interests ambitious targets in a particular period, And to call, encouraging and incentive social all men mimic the character, in order to achieve or complete the cause the ultimate goal.Confucian culture spread far in China, which has been quietly affect the generations of Chinese people for thousands of years. Confucianism, which profound thoughts of moderation is its essence, The doctrine of the mean key lies in the "rite" and "benevolence", Namely,behave properly and make belief firmly in all things. It has three principles,firstly ,self-supervision and self-taught, secondly, loyalty and tolerance, thirdly, the most sincere and the most love. Since the Han dynasty, Confucian, becoming the national orthodox ideology and people's behavior model, has been using by many rulers and flourished in every dynasty. Therefore, in this ideological and cultural background, people's psychological was affected naturedly, but psychological dominate behavior. So, the hero who created by the particular cultural environment, also get the recognition by people. Intensive reading of The Three Kingdoms , we can find that the characters of all shows that the Confucian plot thoughts of moderation. For example, emperor Ding of Jin asks in analects,” Emperor command minister，and minister serve emperor, What’s t he story? Confucius says,’ Emperor command minister with manners, minister serve emperor with honest.’ Remembering Libel three attend to thatched hut with honest completely, Kong Ming ‘give one's all till one's heart stops beating’ as return, He seized Penghu seven times and released seven times in Southern barren land, and went out to battle from I mountain six times. He knew he cannot do but do, just what is called’ A gentleman is ready to die for his bosom friends.’Moreover, from the geographical environment Angle, The birthplace of Oriental culture is China's Yellow River basin, where land is fertile and terrain is flat. The climate is very well, Suitable for developing agricultural production, So agricultural technology advanced and developed. Agricultural production process is complicated, need to cooperate, emphasizing harmony, and evolved the "collective heroism” which emphasize the collective wisdom.Hunting in Fustian for example, Cao coo controls the political situation using emperor governors, He feared everybody defied him, so during the hunting he Grabbed limelight from the emperor Xian in order to test whether ministers were faithful to him. While everyone were grinding their teeth, GuanYu pulled out his sword and want to kill cao cao, but Liu Bei blocked his action.GuanYu asked LiuBei,’ Cao cao was bullying the emperor, I want to kill him for the kingdom, why did elder brother stop me ?’LiuBei said,” Glass house should not throw stones. Cao cao and the emperor's too close, he is surrounded by a lot of help.If you delay the proper business,and hurt the emperor just because a great anger,we are also guilty.’ thus it can be seen, Liu Bei who can recognize the situation for the big picture, waiting for an opportunity for another meaningful plan,is a wiseman. This is typical of collectivism hero view.Personal heroism means a person who are divorced from the masses, believed personal power very much and to perform certain social mission using heroism thought and behavior. Seeing individualism for the principle, it exaggerated or discomfort local emphasis on individual in social life and the role of historical activities, denying people's power and wisdom. It shows that undeserved reputation, self-righteousness, prided himself on all as the characteristic.First of all, from geographical factors speaking, western culture originated in ancient Greece, where is located in the European Balkan and the Aegean Sea areas.The land area is narrow, the mountain is numerous, Mediterranean climate is given priority to all type of climate, so it is not suitable for developing agricultural production and the productivity is not high.the people in this area live on hunting . these industry can very good outstanding personal power. Those people who are brave and strong will capture more prey whith individual effort, So personal heroism was born.Moreover, from the cultural aspects look, ancient Greek culture mainly comes from theGreek myth, But the Greek mythology lack of a unified of moral criteria.instead, They use "perfect" rather than the "quality" as the evaluation standard of things. Therefore, westerners are rarely prim, this helps their character especially creative development.But also because of this, They are too pursuit of material interests and sensory stimulation without the ethical bondage,thus personal desires will unlimited expansion,Agamemnon invaded other countries without scruple in the work of Troy reflected that very well.Illustrated by the example of the battle between the Greece and the 沙斯里. Both sides did not launch the large-scale killing between army like what China did. Achilles and巴古力斯to battle on behalf of the two countries. Win or lose to set the country with personal success or failure.Eventually Achilles prevailed, 沙斯里fell at feet. This is typical of personalattention-seeking behavior.As is already mentioned, guan yu takes part in the army because of his loyalty for country, and the belief of building great career.He participate in the war for years with liubei,meanwhile, though they are busy running about and depending on others for living and frustration. He always abides by the oath of Serving my country and making the people stable,and he never forgets the oath. For example,when he heard the track of liubei,he resolutely loses the print and runs to the han. Such behavior is in country's sense of honor.We can say that Guan yu's great-hearted has an influence on his later great career and reputation.Guan yu is called "the saint", and he is the chief of five admirals, so his valorous degree needs not to say.Owning to his wonderful litrary grace and warlike exploits,the later generations becomes more respectful for him. With the flooding seven army as an example, after liubei is named queen,he orders Guan yu to attack the xiangyang and fancheng.Caocao lets the yujin be a marshal and pangde be a pioneer,both of them lead seven armies to attack enemies. Pangde is good at war,Guanyu is almosy defeated by him.Yujin envies panged and withdraws the troops by blowing gongs.Guanyu comes back to the camp and look at the book of war and position of enemes at night.He takes advantages of the freshet in xiang jiang river,flooding the seven armies by switching off and catching the yujin and pangde.We can say that flooding the seven armies is the best reflects of wonderful library grace and warlike exploits.The two points display chiefly “Surrender Cao "and" release Cao ", with the surrendering cao as an example, although Guan yu surrenders Cao cao,he appoints three things with caoao before surrendering him:he only surrenders han emperor, not surrender caocao; Settle Two sister-in-law; If he knows the track of liu, immediately he will find him.From that we can see although guan yu is in the camp,his mind is in the ter,in order to retain guan yu,caocao fetes guan yu every three or five days,gives him gold and silver and beautiful girls,again give him elite houses and great title. But even if such treatment,caocao can not still retain guanyu.When he knows the track of liubei,he abandons everything,pass five obstacles and kill six militaries.From this,we can see that his heroism of loyalty and great-hearted.Before freeing caocao in hua rong way,guanyu had made the pledge. As a seasoned veteran, he knows that consequences of defying pledge,but caocao says:”Do you remember passing five obstacles”,this makes guanyu think his previous grace. For example, caocao gives a robe on the bridge, messengers send messages, ZhangLiao sends the instruction and so on.If caocao is not tolerant,guanyu is difficult to pass through so many hurdles.Thinking aboutit,guanyu lets them go. Generations of people not only blame him,but also they praise guanyuthat he pays attention to the great-hearted and repay grace. People take the release of caocao as a good thing.Losing jingzhou due to carelessness is a vivid portraiture.Though he builds so many merits, and becomes the famous general, he also becomes arrogant and defiant. Because of this,he forgets zhugeliang's words that the strategy of rejecting caocao in the north and uniting sunquan in the east.It makes himself into the danger which are threatened from both quarters.He readily believes luxun's words which is false and adulate and underestimates the power of dongwu.He rashly takes away so many defenders in jingzhou so that lvmeng and luxun gets an opportunity.Until the end, he also don't listen to the opinions of others, and reject Wingfu's correct advice. When he sallies, he does not listen to the WangFu's warning of "having the ambush in the way",and say: "although there is the ambush,I am not afraid!" Eventually he was captured and Killed by enemies.So we can say that he was pushed the ending of tragedy by the self-important character and become a failing hero.Though Achilles is a hero,he also has weaknesses. For example,when Agamemnon wants to occupy the beautiful captive who was captured by Achilles,he publicly rebukes Agamemnon who harms others to benefit oneself and refuses to fight. The behaviour which he blames Agamemnon is correct,but but stubborn war is inappropriate behavior.Becouse as the chief commander, his lead role for troops and morale boost can not be replaced by others. In the Greek army, it really can't find the general who can oppose Hector.So if he does not lead soldiers to charge forward,the soldiers will be like a group of soulless stragglers.while his truce also brings a lot of inevitable losses, eventually led to sacrifice of Patoroklos.At this time,he only thinks of his personal interests, his reputation and women,and forgets the life of the other innocent soldier is also important,Becouse of the momentary anger, his wayward truce leads the disastrous defeat of Greek military.As the main character of epic work in the theme of war,they must reflect then national spirit. Epic characters often show the full power of the nation by their own personality,and the major heroic image is just live and real. Personality of Achilles is the character of typical national spirit.He wants to cry and cry,wants to smile and smile,wants to murder and murder,wants to sleep and sleep.He is a undisguised person and his body and soul are bare. Even he is cruel,but he also is somewhat frank and cherubic. He is bold,unrestrained and restless.He loves adventures and advocates of force. He obviously shows the Greek pursuit for freedom and heroism of advocating force.Although Achilles is a mythical figure, but the author has given his complex andmulti-layered humanity. He is the greatest hero in Greek army and he is courageous and fearless.He is the soul of the Greek army and he plays a pivotal role for the later victory of the war.But he also exists many weaknesses. For example, after he kills Hector,he makes his corpse to nail the chariot and drive it to parade.He ignores the sadness in the Trojan,it shows that his measures is very cruel.This accords with the characteristic of leaders in the tribe which is transiting from Slave society to the primitive society.Afterwards he again attacks Troy and he ignores Apollo's dissuasion and talk wildly to Apollo, eventually he was shot by arrows from hiding. Above we can see Achilles is also a cruel, capricious and obstinate person.To sum up,we can see that the Chinese heroical culture is collectivistic by analyzing guan you and Achilles characters' comparison and it is the hope of the whole nation. Many times, this also is a kind of symbolic spiritual symbol,they looks like the sacred heroes who beyond theaverage persons.while the heroical culture in the Western reflects the personal volitive freedom, it often expresses to establish individual merit and the achievement of personal status in the history. The Western heroes usually are "superman" who can save mankind and nations,they reflects a kind of visual concrete.After learning about one month, I finally complete the paper.From contacting the topic of paper to the realization of the system, every step is a kind of new attempt and challenge. During this time, I learn a lot of knowledge and there is also a lot of feeling. In order to write the paper, I look through many relevant information and literature. This makes my mind gradually form a clear framework and let the work constantly enrich. Although the paper has many shortcomings, the process of writing makes me get more benefits. I hope that this experience can make me to continue the progress in the subsequent work and study.。