Although plastic surgery is a new specialty with a history of nearly a hundred years, the surgery to repair body surface defects can be traced back to ancient times. For example, cleft lip was recorded in the Book of Jin in China BC, and nasal reconstruction and earlobe repair were recorded in India in the 6th-7th century BC. /kloc-in the 9th century, more and more people engaged in plastic surgery, especially the appearance of skin grafting and a large number of plastic surgery books, promoted the professional development of plastic surgery. Maxillofacial injuries played an important role in the treatment of World War I in the early 20th century.

As a discipline, plastic surgery in China began in the late 1940s, and in the early 1950s, some medical schools set up plastic surgery and set up special beds to treat all kinds of plastic surgery patients. Zhu's Introduction to Plastic Surgery, Li's Practical Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, Song Ruyao's Repair of Cleft Lip and Palate, Kong Fanhu's Practical Plastic Surgery, Zhang's Revised Surgery and Wang Liangneng's Plastic Surgery have been published one after another. Yang Guofan and Li Ji (1975) pioneered the free transplantation of forearm flap with vascular anastomosis, which was praised as "China flap" by foreign counterparts. For professional development and academic exchange, 1982 formally established China Plastic Surgery and Burn Professional Group, and 1985 formally established Plastic Surgery Society.