It is well known that traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) has played an indelible contribution for the prosperity of China. However, as one of the experiential medicine, traditional Chinese medicine has also inherent weaknesses and deficiencies, such as lack of modern clinical trial data and results provided by evidence-based medicine principles, mechanism of action and the working substances not known yet, lack of strict and scientific quality control standards and methods. So it is difficult to guarantee a drug to reach the "safe, effective, stable and controllable" quality requirements. If these problems can not be seriously and satisfactory resolved, it is not only difficult to ensure the demands of people for treatment and prevention of diseases, and even harder to access the international mainstream medical community. After years of thinking and practicing, we propose some new ideas and methods to reveal the scientific connotation of TCM for promoting TCM modernization and innovation process.

Contents
1 The Characteristics and the relationship between western medicine and TCM
2 The diversity of components in TCM lead to its diversity of roles: guided by different bioassay system, different active compounds would be isolated from the same TCM
3 To fully clarify the targets of the human body and bioactive components of TCM
4 Improve the quality of TCM products
5 The possible ways for modernization and internationalization of TCM and natural products