On November 17, 1958, the National TCM Working Meeting was held in Baoding of He-bei province; at the same time, the "Exhibition of TCM of Hebei" was organized to coincide with the meet-ing. The exhibition displayed a collection of folk, empirical and secret prescriptions excavated and collected in Hebei province. The meeting decided to carry out a mass campaign of gathering secret and empirical pre-scriptions. In 1959 the "People's Daily" published an editorial on "collecting folk empirical prescriptions to explore the treasure of TCM". In June 1959, the Ministry of Health issued a special notification of "com-piling, studying and popularizing the secret and empirical prescriptions". From then on, a campaign of col-lecting folk, empirical and secret prescriptions was held throughout the country. Research work, including compiling, analyzing and testing, was also carried out during the process of collection.