Tan Bing'er: A place full of sin, sometimes there are always tempting flowers blooming - interpreting Baudelaire

"The Flower of Evil" is a cannon fired at vulgarity. Vulgarity is the low-level fun that is sought after by the masses. That is to say, obviously incomprehensible and low into the dust, the public still regards it as a treasure that can lift themselves up from the ground or satisfy the sensory stimulation; so much so that the so-called high-end people are always willing to regard it as a label that matches the social grade.

Some say it's a dictionary of melancholy and sin. Once published, the moral response of the people on the moral high ground became more rational. They already feel that they have incomparable virtues. Because of this, there is a Baudelaire who is "dirty, taste-heavy, and blasphemous" and reflects the so-called "positive energy" vulgar people.

Essentially, the Flower of Evil refers to the art of "evil," not an ode to "evil." Baudelaire broke the millennia-old conception of good and evil and examined evil from a unique perspective: that is, evil has a duality, an evil side, and a certain artistic effect; it both corrodes and harms human beings, but also is full of challenges and rebellious spirits, inspiring people to fight against their own inertia and social injustice.

Evil is everywhere, there is evil in human nature and evil in society. Baudelaire, a lonely, arrogant, pessimistic, melancholy, rebellious individualist, lives in evil but loves good. In order not to be swallowed up by evil, he always maintained a critical eye to face and analyze evil in his thinking with clear logic and structure. Proceeding from the "original sin" of Christianity, people are encouraged to dig out hope from evil and draw moral lessons from evil.

Ugly for beauty, anti-civilization, anti-aesthetic, everything shows his strong spiritual turmoil. At a deep level, places full of sin are sometimes full of seductive flowers. He is always trying to break the habits of reality, so that the world can generate new consciousness and perception, thus liberating himself from mediocrity. But in the end he was disappointed: human beings were like tempted angels, drowning in terrible nightmares; like ghosts without lights, unable to climb through endless deep holes. The consciousness of evil became the only way for him to seek self-redemption.

It has been said that in this world Baudelaire could not accept any system, and that he loved nothing but "rebellion." Only this kind of "resistance" can allow the poet to find "beauty" from "evil". It is also said that the aesthetics of violence is an important symbol of modernism's struggle against regular modernity through the weapon of later learning. Breaking through socrates' elven blockade and violently chopping up the empty shell of the deposed prince, the image of a beggar transforms into the image of a newcomer who has regained his life and pride, as he himself said: Sir, you and I are equal.

Baudelaire was a devout Christian. He believed in God, and the truth, goodness, and beauty of literature were immersed in prophetic culture; he never engaged in Eastern humanity and preferred virtue, but focused only on Western revelation and following the truth. His verses have always been accused by the defenders of order (officially) of being unconventional and profane, and this is the cry of pain issued by the sensitive Baudelaire who curses the darkness and pursues the light.

The rebellion is not a revolution, and Baudelaire's rebellion ended in tragedy after all. He sought liberation but could not find a way out, loved life but could not rely on it, foresaw the revolution but never saw hope. Its fate is as he describes:

I am lost in this ugly world / Pushed by everyone / Like a tired person / Looking back / In the distant years / Only disillusionment and bitterness / Looking forward / It is a storm with nothing new to speak of / Neither teaching nor suffering