A new national standard, "Traditional Chinese Medicine Constitution Classification and Determination" (GB/T46939-2025), has been officially released by the State Administration for Market Regulation. Developed by Beijing University of Chinese Medicine and led by academician Professor Wang Qi, this standard will be implemented on April 1, 2026.
Initiated by the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine and overseen by the National Technical Committee for Standardization of Traditional Chinese Medicine (SAC/TC478), the project involved over 20 organizations, including the Chinese Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine. It marks a significant step towards the scientific and standardized identification of CM constitutions.
The previous standard, released in 2009, has been used over 570 million times in primary healthcare and integrated into more than 20 national health policies, establishing a comprehensive service system that includes clinical, public health, and preventive services.
The updated standard defines nine constitution types: balanced, qi-deficient, yang-deficient, yin-deficient, phlegm-damp, damp-heat, blood-stasis, qi-stagnation, and special constitution. It includes three major updates:
1.Expanded application scope: The standard offers guidelines for applying constitution classification in healthcare, public health, research, education, and the health industry, ensuring a practical foundation for accurate constitution identification.
2.Updated characteristics: Incorporating research from 2009 to 2024, the standard updates constitution characteristics and disease predispositions, aligning with advancements in CM research.
3.Optimized tools: The revised CM Constitution Table reduces items from 60 to 27, cutting completion time from 11.6 minutes to 4.23 minutes, enhancing efficiency and applicability.
This standard is a milestone in CM constitution studies, promoting standardization and supporting the enhancement of public health literacy and the international reach of traditional Chinese medicine.
