Excellent traditional Chinese culture is the crystallization of wisdom accumulated by the Chinese nation in the long course of historical development, carrying the nation’s spiritual genes and value pursuits. Integrating excellent traditional Chinese culture into ideological and political courses in colleges and universities is conducive to enhancing the effectiveness of ideological and political theory courses, cultivating contemporary college students’ core values, and promoting the inheritance of traditional culture. Based on the significance of integrating excellent traditional Chinese culture into ideological and political teaching in colleges, this paper analyzes the current problems, such as insufficient content integration, outdated teaching methods, a lack of practical activities, and uneven cultural literacy of teachers. Correspondingly, it proposes optimized pathways, including refining teaching content, innovating teaching methods, organizing practical activities, and building high-quality teaching teams. The aim is to improve the teaching quality of ideological and political courses, realize the organic integration of inheriting excellent traditional Chinese culture and ideological and political education for college students, and provide useful references for the reform of ideological and political education in colleges and universities.