There is a profound internal coupling relationship between culture and governance. This relationship is reflected not only in that culture provides support for governance practice but also in that the governance process absorbs and transforms cultural characteristics. Systematic governance and innovative optimization in the field of culture can fully release the governance efficiency of culture and lay a solid cultural foundation for governance practice. In the new era, the formation mechanism and evolution path of governance culture show distinct multi-dimensional characteristics, which are embodied in the progressive and systematic mechanism of culture at four levels: people’s heart governance at the micro level, social governance at the meso level, national governance at the macro level, and international governance from a global perspective. As an innovative governance paradigm, “governance by culture” is based on the two-way empowerment of culture and governance, and confirms the value and purpose of culture in breaking through the thinking shackles of “cultural tool theory”, thus better guiding and fully stimulating the governance efficiency of culture. Compared with the conventional rigid governance model, “governance by culture” shows unique governance advantages: at the methodological level, it pays attention to the flexible tension, elastic potential energy, and infiltration characteristics of culture; regarding the practical path, by systematically releasing the historical potential energy of Chinese civilization, effectively stimulating the hardcore effect of soft culture, and continuously optimizing the comprehensive cost of social operation, it provides a new source of power for the modernization of national governance system and governance capacity. The innovation of this governance paradigm not only promotes the quality improvement of governance efficiency but also realizes the methodological consciousness of leaping from cultural governance to governance culture.