This chapter delves into Benjamin's archaeological observation of the origin of modernity, by tracing historical layers and ruins to find the origin and timing of modernity. Benjamin emphasized the "true exceptional state" in history in his "On the Concept of History" and believed that the true images of the past can only be captured in moments when they can never be seen again. His professorial qualification paper 'The Origin of German Tragic Drama' goes beyond the literary history examination of theatrical forms, but explores tragic drama as the origin of modernity. Benjamin described in his Preface to the Critique of Cognition the contradictions and oppositions of the Baroque spirit, as well as the dizzying feeling of observers when facing the Baroque cultural landscape. He called for a panoramic view of Baroque through ascetic gaze, and believed that Baroque presented a dialectical image that touched upon the self understanding and boundaries of modernity. There is a special temporal form in Benjamin's Baroque landscape, where issues of modernity such as religious reform, sovereignty concepts, and crises of meaning in life emerge in the mirror of Baroque. He used Baroque to narrate the unfolding of the modern historical world, opposing the Enlightenment progressive view of history. Benjamin's study of Baroque tragicomedy is based on a historical philosophical perspective, particularly reflected in his contemplation of the concept of "natural history". He opened up a new path of civilization criticism by envisioning the naturalization of history, deconstructing Enlightenment myths, and exposing the transience of human creations. Under the framework of "natural history", the concepts of sovereignty, creation, melancholy, and metaphor in the Baroque world exhibit unique ideological contours.

Sovereign represents history: the mysterious foundation of authority

Benjamin explored the role of the sovereign in 17th century Baroque tragicomedy in "The Origin of German Tragicomedy," which was clearly influenced by Schmidt's contemplation of the "state of exception. Schmidt believed that the sovereign is the one who decides on exceptional states, while Benjamin defined the function of Baroque monarchs as excluding exceptional states, emphasizing the gap between the monarch's political body in times of disaster, crisis, or exception and the historical order it represents. Benjamin endowed the fragility of the monarch with a stylistic feature of affectation, and the political stage of Baroque thus exhibited a strong aesthetic meaning. The "political aesthetics" or "representational system" in the Baroque world is facing the danger of deconstruction. Benjamin saw the identity between tyrants and victims in his tragicomedy, which was an inevitable result of the Baroque sovereignty structure orientation. The politics and history in Baroque tragicomedy exhibit the characteristics of natural phenomena, with history being excluded from all possible dimensions of redemption, presenting only an empty state of natural creation. Benjamin pointed out that there was a "transcendent excessive tension" in the theological legal thinking of the 17th century, which determined the fundamental nature of the Baroque secularized historical concept pointing to this shore. However, at the same time, it also exposed the "rupture" and "paradox" in the concept of sovereignty from another perspective. The Baroque tragicomedy portrays the drama of sovereignty and strives to present the most extreme and perfect image of the sovereign in the image of a tyrant, with its core feature being the "posture of exercising power". In this posture lies the performative or performative nature of the law and sovereign order. The entanglement between law and natural violence is a hidden theme in political discourse since modern times, reflecting the dialectical relationship between nature and law, nature and history.

The metaphorical aspect of natural history

Benjamin used D ü rer's "Melancholy I" as a key image to understand the phenomenon of melancholy in his depiction of Baroque politics and the historical world. He believed that Saturn had dialectical characteristics in European cultural history and was highly compatible with melancholy. He drew on the research of graphic historians such as Warburg and regarded Saturn as the key to understanding 'Melancholy I.'. During the Renaissance, Saturn's melancholy was considered one of the characteristics of genius. Benjamin discovered the spiritual essence of the Baroque era from "Melancholy I", while Martin Luther's principles of religious reform reshaped human emotions in the world, cultivated a sense of strict responsibility and obedience, but also led to the sadness of the people. Melancholy I "is a construction, training, and invitation of gaze, similar to Baroque tragicomedy, showcasing the connection between sadness and dazzling. Benjamin's "Book of Baroque" depicts a world devoid of comfort, lacking redemption and hope for the other side in history, constantly staging disasters, conspiracies, and ominous events. Metaphor is a core expression in Baroque literature, which Benjamin positioned as a symbol and referent system of natural history, representing the readability of the void world under a melancholic gaze. Metaphor and symbolism are opposite, depicting the face of history on the brink of death, which is a rigid primitive scenery. Benjamin regarded ruins as a metaphorical aspect of natural history, and history entered the stage in a distorted way, becoming a constantly declining process. The ruins display the passage of time and the decline of history in a spatial image, which is attractive to the hearts of 17th century Europe. Benjamin's description of Baroque phenomena and ideas follows an oppositional logic and structure, with the grand royal court reduced to ruins and the monarch holding the scepter becoming a lifeless body devoid of divinity.

The Fall of Language and the Deep Sorrow of Nature

Benjamin explored the decline and death of the spirit of language in "On Language and the Language of Man", describing the process of language's fall from God's creation language to secular language. In the fallen world, the organic connection between words and things is replaced by instrumentality and enslavement, leading to a completely different world. The natural sadness has become the tone of Baroque and modern history, and the language in Baroque drama is seen as the language of fallen creations. The gaze and words of metaphorical writers are dispositional and judgmental, and there is no longer an inherent consistency or similarity between words and objects. Instead, metaphorical symbols have subjectivity and arbitrariness in their meaning. Foucault described in "Words and Things" the self enclosed system of language symbols in the 17th century, in which they referred to themselves, played with each other, and opened up an internal space of knowledge and meaning. Benjamin's observation of metaphor in "The Origin" implies an archaeology of language, and the Baroque landscape of language reinforces the sense of modernity's loss. Metaphor is a product of language secularization, it is a natural silence or lamentation that cannot be listened to and is constantly disappearing. Benjamin placed modern history on the stage of the 17th century, turning modernity itself into a series of tragic plays. In front of Baroque poets, this great mentor naturally appears as an eternal disappearing figure, happy to showcase the decline of creation; In this disappearance, only a Saturn like gaze can understand history. Benjamin was one of the owners of this gaze, his gaze not only melancholic but also imbued with a saving intent.