The treatment for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) that happened epidemically this spring confirmed again that the integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine had its clinical advantage and vitality, and indicated that this integration could benefit the pathologic understanding and therapeutic strategies for the diseases. Based on the experimental research, western medicine focuses on the histological and structural changes of the diseases. In order to probe the key mechanisms of the disease's occurrence and development, it trys to develop the therapy targeting the mechanism.Materialism is the academic characteristic of western medicine. Based on the differentiation of individual patient and comprehensive analysis of all manifestations, with the academic characteristic of dynamics and dialectics, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) focuses on the regulation and recovery of the body functions. Theoretically, materialism and dialectics are complementary to each other. Their combination and unity is the key point for the integration of TCM with western medicine in order to improve the clinical effectiveness and TCM development. Therefore, we must adhere to the principles of the evidence-based medicine, strengthen the integrated study on "disease" of western medicine and "syndrome" of TCM, insist on "materialism" and improve the understanding of the mechanism of Chinese herb formula, pay efforts on the clinical study of difficult and common hepatic diseases, in order to develop the integrated traditional and western medicine on liver diseases.

Key words: hepatology, integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine