Recently, the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine announced the list of 544 experts selected for the 2022 National Project to Establish Inheritance Studios for Renowned and Senior TCM Experts, marking the official launch of the new round of project construction.

Renowned and senior TCM experts represent a valuable intellectual resource and a treasure of knowledge for the development of TCM in China. The State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine has consistently attached great importance to the inheritance of the academic expertise of these distinguished practitioners, and as early as 2010 it initiated and implemented the National Project for Establishing Inheritance Studios for Renowned and Senior TCM Experts. This project is primarily aimed at mentor teachers who guide the inheritance of the academic experience of senior TCM experts nationwide, with the overarching objective of thoroughly summarizing, excavating, promoting, and applying their scholarly insights, while also cultivating teams dedicated to the transmission of such expertise. Moreover, with strong support from the Ministry of Finance and other relevant authorities, each national inheritance studio for renowned and senior TCM experts receives project funding of RMB 500,000.

At present, 2,026 national studios for the inheritance of the clinical expertise of renowned veteran TCM practitioners have been established across the country, serving as vital platforms and vehicles for promoting the professional ethos of TCM, passing down its time-honored skills, and providing services to the general public. The succession teams thus cultivated—spanning the elderly, middle-aged, and young generations—demonstrate the tremendous momentum with which TCM continues to thrive and advance.

Over many years of practical exploration, the Inheritance Studio has gradually developed a model for passing on the academic expertise of renowned and veteran TCM practitioners that integrates data collection and organization, analytical research, and summarization and refinement. This approach has enabled the preservation of a wealth of precious materials and has facilitated the inheritance and development of these experts’ scholarly legacies. The inheritance team places particular emphasis on “authentic, unadulterated” transmission, having collected extensive original records of early clinical diagnosis and treatment from national masters of TCM and other distinguished TCM authorities, as well as recorded numerous video recordings of their clinical mentorship, teaching sessions, ward rounds, and other activities. These efforts have maximized the restoration of the practitioners’ most original and authentic clinical practice, thereby accumulating rich source material for investigating the formation of their academic perspectives and for conducting subsequent research and inheritance initiatives.

Based on the comprehensively collected and organized materials, the inheritance studios conduct in-depth analyses and carry out a series of research projects centered on the academic experience and distinctive techniques of senior experts. Through systematic summarization and refinement of these research findings, they ultimately develop clinical diagnosis and treatment protocols, empirically derived formulas, or technical standards. The three sequential steps—data collection, analytical research, and summarization and refinement—are closely linked and progressively advanced, thereby fostering the innovative development of clinical expertise and technology through the process of knowledge transmission. Taking the 2016 National Inheritance Studios for Renowned and Senior TCM Experts as an example, during their three-year construction period, the 122 studios collectively undertook more than 800 research projects related to the inheritance of the academic experience of these distinguished experts, published over 1,700 scholarly papers, and authored more than 300 monographs.

Meanwhile, the inheritance studios have established a talent-development model centered on the inheritance teams and extending outward to cultivate a large pool of professionals with distinctive TCM expertise. These studios have strengthened the building of their inheritance teams by assembling stable, well-structured, and hierarchically organized personnel, and by actively conducting a range of talent-development activities such as mentorship programs, study sessions, and exchange seminars. They adopt a “quality enhancement within the team and broader outreach beyond the team” approach: within the inheritance teams, priority is given to nurturing outstanding TCM practitioners holding intermediate or higher professional titles who demonstrate strong potential for further development; outside the teams, they promote the academic experience of renowned senior TCM experts through initiatives such as organizing provincial-level and above continuing education programs in TCM. According to statistics, the 1,482 national inheritance studios for renowned senior TCM experts that have been established have collectively trained more than 10,000 individuals at or above the intermediate professional level, and have hosted nearly 15,000 trainees from other institutions. In addition, approximately 4,000 provincial-level and above continuing education programs in TCM have been held, attracting over 750,000 participants.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine will implement more solid and effective measures to advance the inheritance of the academic expertise of renowned senior TCM practitioners, ensuring that the scholarly legacy of veteran TCM physicians and pharmacists is properly inherited, further developed, and effectively utilized. At the same time, it will cultivate a contingent of TCM professionals with distinctive characteristics, thereby providing robust human-resource support for advancing the inheritance, innovation, and development of TCM.