Objective To analyze the characteristics of the citations and the types of evidence supporting the recommendations in the clinical guidelines of traditional Chinese medicine（TCM）. Methods MESH in combination with entry words searching was used to search databases including CNKI

Wanfang

VIP and Sinomed for clinical guidelines of TCM published from January 2016 to December 2019. The basic information of the TCM guidelines were extracted; the citations

recommendations and sources of evidence were statistically analyzed. Results A total of 42 TCM guidelines involving 1604 citations were included. The annual publication volume of TCM guidelines was at an average of 10.5

and the average citation volume per guideline was 38.2. There were 786 recommendations involved

but only one TCM guideline provided the recommendations in an independent section. The evidence in support of the recommendations can be classified into 13 types according to the literature types and research types

and the top five frequently used evidence types were randomized controlled trials（n=740）

systematic reviews/meta analysis（n=104）

case series（n=86）

books（n=61） and reviews（n=51）. Conclusion Regarding the TCM guidelines published from 2016 to 2019

the number of citations in the guidelines is small; the location of the recommendations is not clear

and the types of evidence in support of the recommendations are complex and need to be further standardized.