Special Profile: China's National TCM Master - Prof. Zhi Ming Liu  

June 04, 2026

Professor Zhi Ming Liu, the Grandmaster of TCM

Dr. Zhi Ming Liu, born in 1925 at Xiangtan, prefecture-level city in Hunan province of China, is one of the few TCM doctors in China awarded the title of National TCM Grandmaster of China. He is one of the president-appointed national medical experts, and a mentor for the first, sixth, and seventh graduate classes of national TCM practitioners. His academic credentials include serving as first inaugurated group of National TCM training instructors, as first inaugurated TCM doctoral supervisor, as a post-doctoral supervisor, as a post-doctoral mentor, and first privileged group of medical experts awarded financial grants from the State Council of China. Not only Dr. Liu came from a TCM lineage inherited for seven generations, he also practiced traditional Chinese medicine for more than eighty years. He served in many terms as the deputy chairman of the academic committee and a member of the educational certification committee of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences and Guang-Anmen Hospital. He was the vice president of the China Association of Chinese Medicine and a member of the sixth, seventh, and eighth National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. He is currently an advisor to the China Association of Chinese Medicine and a member of the first inaugurated academic department of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences.”

In 1954, Dr. Liu responded to the Chinese government's request to participate in the establishment of the Chinese Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine (now the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences). He was the youngest member of the selected team of TCM experts that is still alive today, making significant impact in the field of traditional Chinese medicine in the prevention and treatment of Japanese encephalitis, schistosomiasis, and pediatric viral pneumonia for over a decade. He attended several academic exchanges in different countries, receiving high praises and respects from the local scholars and residents for promoting the traditional Chinese medicine internationally.”

At age of hundred, Dr. Liu continue to engage in clinical research and to mentor future TCM doctors at the Guang-Anmen Hospital of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences. His wealth of knowledge in traditional Chinese medicine covers from internal medicine, gynecology, and pediatrics, as well as exogenous fever, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, geriatric diseases, tumors, rheumatic diseases, nephritis, diabetes, hyperthyroidism, etc. His representative works include ‘Simplified Compilation of Traditional Chinese Medicine Internal Medicine’, ‘Traditional Chinese Medicine’, ‘Zhi Ming Liu’s Medical Case Analysis’, ‘Chinese Traditional Chinese Medicine Kunlun? Liu Zhiming Volume’, ‘Master of Traditional Chinese Medicine Zhi Ming Liu’s Clinical Experience Collection’, etc.. He published over 200 research papers in both Chinese and international journals. To past down the knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine, he mentored hundreds of doctors, doctoral students, post-doctoral fellows, and proteges. His contributions to cultivate talents and to advance traditional Chinese medicine had influenced generations of doctors.

Dr. Liu, devoted his life to traditional Chinese medicine since his youth, from as a protege of a famous doctor, to practicing medicine in the three regions of Hunan, then to becoming a nationally renowned doctor in China. Because of being skeptical, genuine, and hard working, his dedications to the clinical practice, scientific research, and training in the field of traditional Chinese medicine were highly appraised nationally in China, winning different outstanding achievement awards from the Chinese Ministry of Health and others. In 2009, Dr. Liu was awarded the title of “Doctor of National Capital”. In 2014, Dr. Liu was honored with the title of "National TCM Grandmaster of China“ jointly-awarded by the Chinese National Health and Family Planning Commission, the Chinese Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and the Chinese National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Dr. Ru Xiu Liu

Dr. Ru Xiu Liu, chief physician, professor, doctoral supervisor, postdoctoral supervisor, appointed professor of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, among the first group of TCM disciples of Dr. Zhi Ming Liu, and the instructor for the 4th and 5th classes of TCM practitioners graduated under the "Double Hundred Projects" of TCM knowledge inheritance and transfer work in Beijing. 

Study and Work Experience: Being the first born of Dr. Zhi Ming Liu, Dr. Liu inherited the first hand TCM knowledge and influenced by her father’s idealism of “serving the public and upholding highest medical ethics“. After secondary school years, Dr. Liu followed her father’s footstep to pursue in the path of Traditional Chinese Medicine profession. She was admitted into Hunan Medical University with excellent grades. Soon after graduation, she spent ten years working at Xiangya hospital’s internal medicine, cardiology departments. She had solid foundations of Western medicine combined with wealth of clinical experiences. She was known to have unconventional and unorthodox insights in her treatment for cardiovascular diseases. In 1991, in response to the call from the Ministry of Human Resources, the Ministry of Health,  and National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine’s objective for transferring the wealth knowledge of famous but ailing TCM doctors, Dr. Liu was recruited to study in China Academy of TCM at Guang 'anmen Hospital, under the instruction of her father, Dr. Liu Zhiming. She continued to work in Guang 'anmen Hospital in the present days. She devoted her life to the knowledge and clinical experience transfer of Dr. Liu Zhiming and further advanced innovation in the TCM fields.

Specialties: Dr. Liu specialized in the treatment of all types of arrhythmias, coronary heart disease, hypertension, heart failure, cerebrovascular disease, sub-health and other major intractable diseases of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular medicine, using integrated treatments combining both Traditional Chinese Medicine and Western Medicine. Her treatments, especially in arrhythmias, had distinctive results. Her treatments for ventricular, Bradyarrhythmia, atrial fibrillation, tachy-slow arrhythmia in the clinical settings also received outstanding results. In addition, she invented a prescription formula for promoting Yang and activating blood (to strengthening heart and to reinvigorating the arteries) for treatment of coronary heart diseases involving refractory angina pectoris, which would benefit many patients. The formula had obtained approval for clinical trial. Her formula would reduce the symptoms for angina pectoris patients, decreasing the amount of nitroglycerin needed, stabilizing the heart rhythms, narrowing or even eliminating arterial plaque, coronary stenosis and stent, and possibly bypassing surgery restenosis. 

Scientific Research: Over the years, Dr. Liu has devoted herself to the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases with integrated Chinese and Western medicine. She was one of the first to undertake a national science and technology grant project named "11th five-year plan", three national natural science foundation projects, five state administration of TCM scientific research related topics, two Beijing natural science fund projects, and other national and provincial projects, a total of eighteen projects. She published more than 140 scientific papers both in national and internal journals, six included in SCI, and authored four books. She had two TCM invention patents and won five science and technology awards from Beijing Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine and China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences. She was awarded the first prize of National Academic Experience Inheritance Work Paper for TCM Experts and the Doctor Award for Outstanding Contribution to World Traditional Medicine. The master's and doctoral dissertations from students under her supervision have won 5 Excellent Dissertation Awards of China Academy of TCM Sciences. Two master's students and one doctoral student under her supervision won the national scholarships, among which one master's student and one doctoral student were rated as outstanding graduates. The outbound postdoctoral thesis she supervised won first-class prize of national excellent postdoctoral thesis. She was awarded "Yifang" title as an excellent mentor. She trained more than 40 postdoctoral, master and doctoral students and apprentices.

Dr. Rong Gang Li

Professor Ronggang Li is the founder of the UTCMH Acupuncture System, the founder of the Canadian Traditional Chinese Medicine Development Alliance, a disciple of National TCM Master Liu Zhiming, a doctoral supervisor, a representative inheritor of the “Hundred People, Hundred Projects” program, and a renowned physician recognized for one of the world’s top ten innovative academic systems. He is the author of *The Science of the UTCMH Acupuncture System*.

Professor Li has long specialized in acupuncture techniques and has extensive clinical and teaching experience. He has taught at several international colleges of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Canada, with students across many countries and regions. He founded the UTCMH Acupuncture System, which includes *Diagnostics of the UTCMH Acupuncture System*, *Acupoints of the UTCMH Acupuncture System*, *Prescription Studies of the UTCMH Acupuncture System*, and *Therapeutics of the UTCMH Acupuncture System*. He has also established standards for the UTCMH Acupuncture System in diagnosis, acupoints, clinical procedures, and prescriptions.

Based on nine categories of the most common sub-health populations, Professor Li has developed clinical operating standards and protocols. The UTCMH Acupuncture System has been widely disseminated around the world and has formed an academic lineage of transmission, training nearly one hundred successors of the system. The UTCMH Acupuncture System is highly operable and reproducible, making it especially suited to clinical needs. It has expanded the therapeutic scope of acupuncture, benefiting tens of thousands of patients. From 2015 to 2022, more than 300 UTCMH Acupuncture System training courses and lectures were held in Canada, China, and around the world, benefiting more than 10,000 TCM practitioners and acupuncturists.

Professor Li has planned and sponsored numerous major international events in the TCM community. He has also reached deeply into grassroots communities by offering lectures and charitable clinics, making active efforts and contributions to the promotion of TCM and acupuncture culture, as well as to the internationalization of TCM and acupuncture. In recognition of his outstanding contributions, on February 18, 2020, the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada, formally read a motion on the “Contributions of Home of Canadian TCM Society to the Community and the Public,” acknowledging his service to the community and the public.

Professor Li served as Chair of the 1st World TCM & Acupuncture Week in 2021, the 2nd World TCM & Acupuncture Week in 2022, and the 3rd World TCM & Acupuncture Week in 2023. These events were hosted by Home of Canadian TCM Society and organized by the Ronggang Li UTCMH Acupuncture System Inheritance Studio. Under Professor Li’s leadership, each edition of the Week achieved great success. The Prime Minister of Canada sent congratulatory letters, and government officials from Canada and China at various levels either attended in person or sent congratulatory messages. More than 50 media outlets, including Phoenix TV, Qihuang.com, and Lahoo.ca, provided extensive coverage. To date, the Lahoo.ca series of reports on World TCM & Acupuncture Week has exceeded 7 million views and reads, not including audiences in China, setting a world record for the overseas promotion of TCM.

The 3rd World TCM & Acupuncture Week opened grandly in Vancouver, Canada, on June 18, 2023. The Honourable Anne Kang, Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, former Minister of Education, and then Minister of Municipal Affairs, attended the opening ceremony and delivered remarks. At the event, she announced that the Government of British Columbia had officially proclaimed June 18 to June 24, 2023, during the 3rd World TCM & Acupuncture Week, as “TCM & Acupuncture Week in British Columbia.” On behalf of Premier David Eby, she presented a certificate to Professor Ronggang Li, Chair of the Organizing Committee of World TCM & Acupuncture Week and founder of the UTCMH Acupuncture System. This marked a significant milestone in advancing the healthy dissemination of TCM culture.

Professor Li is not only an educator and scholar with substantial academic achievements; for many years, he has also led the Board of Home of Canadian TCM Society in putting into practice the philosophy of “integrating acupuncture and herbal medicine, and advancing the internationalization of TCM.” He has vigorously promoted TCM culture and the development of TCM and acupuncture in North America and overseas, making every effort to bring TCM and acupuncture into local society and grassroots communities. He creatively proposed the concept of “Greater TCM,” namely a collaborative model in which TCM, Western medicine, communities, associations, and government work together to promote TCM, ultimately achieving co-development, shared benefits, and mutual success.

Guided by the concept of “Greater TCM,” Professor Li has focused on building the platform of World TCM & Acupuncture Week and developing a new model of “Chinese-Western medical collaboration to advance community healthcare services.” On this foundation, he has expanded many projects and activities that support the development of TCM, gradually exploring a model suitable for the global TCM community in advancing the development of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Professor Ronggang Li has made tireless efforts and due contributions to promoting the healthy dissemination of TCM culture and technological innovation.

Seminar Topic: The Revolution of Acupuncture: Breakthrough Pathway in the AI Era from UTCMH Acupuncture System Perspective

Dr. Xiangyi Pu

Ph.D., China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences

Master’s Degree, Heriot-Watt University

Bachelor’s Degree, Simon Fraser University (SFU)

Seminar Topic: China's National TCM Master Zhiming’ Liu's Clinical Report on Syndrome Differentiation and Treatment of Coronary Heart Disease