Master-apprentice education in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an important approach for training TCM professionals. It compensates for the shortcomings of formal education, serves as a vivid practice of integrating Chinese traditional culture into TCM education, and is an effective pathway for cultivating high-level TCM talent. The implementation pathways for the innovative development of TCM master-apprentice education are as follows: fully utilizing the initiative of mentors and academic successors, innovating learning models that connect famous doctors and teachers, expanding master-apprentice model-based medical services to grassroots levels, integrating interdisciplinary, cross-border fields, and modern information technology with master-apprentice education, as well as promoting regular, systematic, and diversified theoretical learning. This approach aims to achieve innovative development of master-apprentice education in TCM under the background of the new era.