Combination of disease and syndrome，as well as disease dominating syndrome are mainstream research models in traditional Chinese medicine(TCM).However，syndrome dominating disease inherits syndrome differentiation thoughts like syndrome differentiation based on prescription，pathogenesis and etiology，which embodies characteristics of diagnosis and treatment in TCM under dynamic time and space.In essence，it is a concise summary of the thought on syndrome differentiation based on manifestation，disease differentiation based on syndrome，and the combination of syndrome and disease，therefore verifies cognitive and practical characteristics in TCM.The idea of syndrome dominating disease provides a parallel way of thinking for clinical research design in TCM，differentiation and treatment of complex diseases in TCM，as well as establishment of clinical management model with TCM characteristics.