Abstract: During the late Qing Dynasty, a large number of western medicines entered China, which had a continuous impact on the TCM market, and the disadvantages of TCM became more and more obvious. Some people in the field of Chinese medicine conform to the trend of the times, learn from the West, and strive to innovate TCM, and the improvement of decoction has become an important part. Due to the close relationship between decoction and TCM treatment, its innovation process has not only attracted the attention of the medical community, but also become the focus of many debates between Chinese and Western medicine. Although the improvement of decoctions in modern China has not been fully scientifically developed due to the lack of realpolitik and objective research capabilities, the controversy over the process of its improvement also shows the balance between modern Chinese and Western medicine in pharmacy, and the reception and transformation of Western medical knowledge in the field of modern Chinese medicine.