The Destiny Of Family-country And Volatile Situation: Carolingian Social Changes In The Mid-ninth Century From The Perspective Of Liber Manualis Written By Dhuoda

The dissertation takes Liber Manualis a family book written by a noble woman named Dhuoda of the Carolingian Dynasty in the mid-9th century. Specifically, it examines the rich connotation and unique features of Dhuoda’s Liber Manualis; with the life of the woman and the rise and decline of the Bernard family in Septimania as the link; explores the relations between individuals, the family, the state and society; observes the changes of Carolingian society from the angle of a woman, a family and a clan; on the contrary, explains the connotation of Liber Manualis based on social changes; exposes the emotions of a mother and woman based on the changing social environment; and reveals reasons for the destiny of a family and clan from the political conflicts of various social groups. The key is to put this book into the entire development of the Carolingian society to evaluate the contents, social values and meaning for the era it expresses and pursues; compare it with other historical literature to expose the relations between the destiny of individuals, the family and the clan, and the state, society and era; display various conflicts and fights in the Carolingian society; and thus learn about the true Frank society in the early stage of Western civilization.In the process of research and composition, the writer takes historical materialism as the theoretical guidance; sticks to the basic theory that existence determines consciousness and social existence determines social consciousness and the research method of concrete analysis for concrete problems; and tries to combine case studies with general analysis, i.e. to combine the destiny of individuals, the family and the clan with society and historical movements in the era.The writer strives to combine historical literature study with theoretical cognition, i.e. to return to historical literature, to start from historical literature, and to study the historical values and meanings of research subjects based on social movements. To this end, the writer collects such historical literature as 11 versions of or 16 articles on Liber Manualis and Annales regni Francorum(including English and Chinese translations). It applies such mature analysis methods as historiography and science of historical data and learns from the theory and methods of textualism(hermeneutics), cultural history, social history, civilization history and religious studies. In this process, the writer has collected 70 kinds of English academic documents and more than 30 kinds of Chinese literature.The entire dissertation is composed of the main body and ancillary contents, the former including the introduction, the body text(4 chapters) and conclusion and the latter including the bibliography, dynasty line, genealogy and the postscript.The introduction includes three parts, which introduce respectively the reasons and object of research; domestic and overseas research results, main historical data and academic research literature, especially those of the West; research methods, basic thinking and structure, thus laying the foundation for the body text.Body text: four chapters, which are as follows:Chapter One: four sections. It mainly introduces, from the angles of philology and academic history, the versions of Liber Manualis, the existence and continuation of its transcripts; its language and style; text structure; main contents and the compilation, translation, understanding and evaluation of Western philological, language and literary, historical fields. The writer also introduces various research works of contemporary Western academia and its exploration and research about the work of Dhuoda from the angles of women history, social history, education history and political history.Chapter Two: four sections. The former two sections, based on the research fruits of contemporary academia reflected by various historical data and academic documents, introduce the close connection between the Carolingian Dynasty and nobility, dynastic rule and noble politics; the origins of the Bernard family and the Carolingian royal family in Septimania; and the contributions of the Bernard ancestors and the rise history of this family. The third section mainly examines and analyzes Dhuoda herself. Due to lack of relevant historical data, the writer tries to reflect the unique sides of Dhuoda from her background, marriage and education. In Section 4, the writer tries to explore the true love, suffering and sadness of this woman from her role as mother and wife and special circumstances as loneliness and illness, so as to find the reasons Dhuoda created this work.Chapter Three: three sections. It analyzes Liber Manualis from religion, loyalty, self-cultivation and family concepts and awareness based on the work itself in the way of text analysis. It tries to display the expectation of Dhuoda for her son and analyses her ideal value mode and in this process; find her way of treating her husband and making friends in her expectation for her son to be perfect; understand individual desires that maintain the blood line of the family from her loyalty, gorgeous techniques of writing and repeated accounts; demonstrate the spiritual world of a unique noble woman and the relations between the Carolingian era and the entire social mental state through close analysis.Chapter Four: three sections. The former two sections mainly demonstrate the huge contrast between aspiration and expectation of Dhuoda and the miserable political end of her son William and her husband Bernard; and try to expose the selfish operation mechanism and cruel fights of noble politics in the Carolingian era. The third section demonstrates the revival of the Bernard family in the second half of the 9th century through the second son of Dhuoda, Bernard Junior, and her grandsons. Such revival constitutes a huge contrast with the miserable end of Bernard, William and their family. Meanwhile, it also demonstrates the huge contrast between the glory of the Bernard family as described by epics and sagas and their desolate destiny as described by historical documents. The writer comments on the above contrasts and makes interactive analysis on individuals, families and clans on one hand, and the state, society and era on the other hand.Conclusion: two parts. The first part summarizes the former chapters.1. Liber Manualis is unique as far as the identity and sex of its writer, the contents and style are concerned. It is the only work that is written by a woman at the time and by a mother for educating her children.2. It examines its rich connotation and unique features; with the life of Dhuoda and the rise and decline of the Bernard family in Septimania as the link, explores the relations between individuals, the family, the state and society; explains the connotation of the book based on social changes; exposes the emotions of a mother and woman based on the changing social environment; and reveals reasons for the destiny of a family and clan from the political conflicts of various social groups.3. It analyzes the background, marriage and education of Dhuoda and tries to reflect the unique features of her as a real woman with a soul. It tries to explore the true love, suffering and sadness of this woman from her role as mother and wife and special circumstances as loneliness and illness, so as to find the reasons Dhuoda created this work.4. It analyzes the substance and connotation of the book from belief, loyalty, self-cultivation and family concepts and awareness to display the spiritual world of a woman who was loyal to God, her father and husband.5. It exposes the complexity, diversity and drama of historical movements of the Frank society in the 9th century from the contrast of Dhuoda with the desity of her family, society and the era.In the second part, it introduces the feelings of the writer and concentrates on the fundamental meaning of historical documents for historical research, the extension of research horizon and the close analysis of original texts, the space of continued research, and the meaning of China’s long history and rich literature for this research.