The Paradox of Ideal and Reality: A Comparison between the "Chivalry" in Don Quixote and the "Chivalrous Spirit" in The Three Heroes and Five Gallants

Abstract

This paper takes Cervantes' Don Quixote and Shi Yukun's The Three Heroes and Five Gallants as the core texts to explore the profound paradox of ideal and reality contained in the "chivalry" and "chivalrous spirit" shaped by the two. Through comparative analysis, it is found that Don Quixote's chivalry, with its extremely idealistic and "crazy" attitude out of touch with reality, constitutes a sharp satire on the outdated feudal knight system, revealing the tragic collapse of pure ideals in the face of hard reality. Although the chivalrous spirit in The Three Heroes and Five Gallants also pursues fairness and justice, it shows a stronger reality embeddedness and strategic compromise, and realizes its ideals by relying on the clean official system, which reflects the adaptation and survival wisdom of ideals in the real structure. The two together reflect the eternal tension in human spiritual pursuits, and show different paradox resolution paths due to differences in cultural soil: the West pays more attention to the revelation and criticism of the illusion of ideals, while the East tends to seek the limited realization of ideals in the real order. This paper aims to deepen the understanding of the expression of idealism and its real dilemma in Eastern and Western literature.