History of French Civilization: From the Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume Four

Author: (French) Guizhou Yi Xin
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1998-10-01
Features: The author of this book, Fran?ois Pierre Guillaume Guizot (1787—1874), was a famous French statesman and historian. He was born into a Christian family in N?mes, with his father being a renowned lawyer who died on the guillotine during the French Revolution. He followed his mother into exile in Switzerland and returned to Paris in 1805 to study law, associating with anti-Napoleonic literary groups. In 1812, he became a history professor at the University of Paris and married the writer Pauline de Meulan the same year, thereby meeting prominent figures in the legitimist party and entering politics. He participated in the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy (1814), becoming an advocate of constitutional monarchy and a member of the "Camarade" group, explaining the party's political platform in his 1816 work, On Representative Government and the Present State of France. From 1820 to 1830, he mainly engaged in historical research and teaching, authoring works such as: the modern history textbook The Origins of Representative Government in Europe (1822), An Outline of French History (1823), Memoirs of the English Revolution (1823), The English Revolution under Charles I and II (1827—1828), The History of European Civilization (1828), and The History of French Civilization (1829—1832). During the July Monarchy (1830—1848), he was one of the leading figures of the constitutional monarchy party and had a significant influence on French political life. From 1832 to 1837, he served as Minister of Education, proposing the "Guizot Laws" that established the principle that all citizens could receive primary education. After briefly serving as Ambassador to the United Kingdom (1840), he became Minister of Foreign Affairs, and during the following eight years, his foreign policy was quite successful. In 1847, he became Prime Minister. The French Revolution of 1848 ended Guizot's political career. In his early historical works, Guizot adopted the ideas of class struggle from Saint-Simon and adapted them to meet the political demands of the bourgeoisie. When writing about French history, he sought to argue that the bourgeoisie had the right to govern the state. Later, his theory of class struggle underwent significant changes. In The History of French Civilization (completed in 1832-1832) and other historical works, he developed the argument that the struggle of the Third Estate against feudalism was the main driving force of historical progress. However, the French Revolution of 1848 not only ended his political career but also led him to completely abandon his theory of class struggle. This book is based on the lecture notes Guizot compiled while teaching at the University of Paris between 1828 and 1830. It is divided into four volumes, containing forty-nine lectures, along with various appendices, and is one of Guizot's major works. Its content is extensive, primarily discussing: the characteristics of French culture; the administrative organization, social conditions, pagan and Christian literature of Gaul from the 5th to the 8th centuries; religious and social life in the 5th and 6th centuries; discussions on the nature of the soul; the influence of the Germanic peoples on European culture; the state of Gaul after the Germanic invasions; the nature of medieval Roman law and the codes of the barbarian peoples; the episcopate of Gaul in the 6th to 8th centuries, the special nature of Western monks; secular literature in the 6th to 8th centuries; the social conditions of the Merovingian dynasty; the spiritual state of Gaul under Charlemagne; the disintegration of the Carolingian Empire; the formation of French unity; the gradual formation of feudalism; the nature of royal power under feudalism, the origins of knights; the rural life and population conditions of feudalism, feudal obligations; the origins of the Third Estate and the internal organization of its components; medieval Roman municipal government and towns; the decline of towns and its causes. This book is an important work for studying French history and civilization. Soon after its publication, English and Russian translations appeared. The Chinese translation is based on the 1908 English translation by George Belland Sons (translator: William Hazlitt) and was proofread against the 14th edition of the French original published by the Académie des Sciences morales et politiques in 1879. The English translation combines Guizot's The History of European Civilization and The History of French Civilization into three volumes. The Chinese translation only includes The History of French Civilization, divided into four volumes according to the French original. Regarding the translation of names, the original text uniformly Frenchified the Latin names, such as the Latin poet Sidonius Apollinaris being rendered as Sidoine Apollinarie in French. The English translation restores these to their original form, while the Chinese translation translates them as "Sidonius Apollinaris" based on the English version, rather than "Sidoine Apollinar," following the principle of "translating names according to the original language." However, where Chinese translations already have established renditions, this book adopts those. Due to my limitations, there may be inaccuracies in the translation, and I welcome readers' corrections.