本书对「艺术如何被理解与实践」作一次根本的重定向。它不把艺术当作一个可被发现、分类、评估的完成之物，而主张：艺术必须被当作一个生成过程来对待——一个意义在其中诞生、完成自身、并更新生命的活事件。全书汇集十二篇文章，分入递进的三部：入门、进阶、高阶。入门篇把艺术带回它最基本的证据——「被打动的那一刻」，指出意义不由定义而生，而由切身的冲击而生。
进阶篇把这一洞见落到实践，考察绘画、文学、音乐与中国美学思想，把它们看作「维持艺术生成」而非「重复已耗尽的形式」的路径。高阶篇则完成整个框架：确立一套严格的艺术本体论，诊断当代的「艺术之死」，并通过历史的转型证明——真正的艺术更新是可重复的。全书的内核是意义三律：创生、自由、幸福。它们不是道德理想，而是发生的结构律：创生指新结构的涌现，自由指转化与路径改换的能力，幸福指一个生成循环的完成。在这个框架里，幸福不是快感或情绪，而是张力、转化、释放的具体过程；当这个循环完成，意义就变得真实，被感受为「被打动」；当它崩解，无论技巧多高、观念多大，艺术都会停滞。
本书不提供艺术史、风格手册或宣言，而给出一条把艺术复原为「意义之活源」的融贯路径，并展示艺术的活力如何能被训练、维持，并跨个体、文化与历史时刻传递。写给艺术家、学者、教育者，以及一切正面对审美耗竭的读者——它示范艺术如何保持活着：靠不断更新那些让意义得以再次升起的条件。
On Art: From Discovery to Genesis presents a fundamental reorientation of how art is understood and practiced. Instead of treating art as a finished object to be discovered, classified, and evaluated, this book argues that art must be approached as a generative process-a living event in which meaning comes into being, completes itself, and renews life. The book brings together twelve essays organized into three progressive parts: Introductory, Intermediate, and Advanced. The Introductory essays return art to its most basic evidence-the moment of being moved-showing that meaning is born not through definition, but through lived impact.
The Intermediate essays translate this insight into practice, examining painting, literature, music, and Chinese aesthetic thought as pathways for sustaining artistic generation rather than repeating exhausted forms. The Advanced essays complete the framework by establishing a rigorous ontology of art, diagnosing the contemporary "death of art," and demonstrating-through historical transformation-that genuine artistic renewal is repeatable. At the core of the book is The Three-Laws of Meaning: Creation, Freedom and Happiness. These are not moral ideals, but structural laws of genesis.
Creation refers to the emergence of new structure; Freedom to the capacity for transformation and pathway change; Happiness to the completion of a generative cycle. In this framework, happiness is not pleasure or emotion, but a concrete process of tension, transformation, and release. When this cycle completes, meaning becomes real and is felt as being moved. When it collapses, art stagnates regardless of technical skill or conceptual ambition.
Rather than offering an art history, style manual, or manifesto, On Art: From Discovery to Genesis provides a coherent pathway for restoring art as a living source of meaning. It further shows how artistic vitality can be trained, sustained, and transmitted across individuals, cultures, and historical moments. Written for artists, scholars, educators, and readers confronting aesthetic exhaustion, the book demonstrates how art remains alive-by renewing the conditions under which meaning is able to arise again.