This paper introduces interior thermal comfort test along with simulation analysis of the target house. It is supposed to enhance the interior thermal comfort of traditional dwelling houses in Guanzhong region of Shaanxi Province in cold season, and provide reference for the research in other areas. The study was conducted in Xiaoliu village in this area by means of field test and questionnaire investigation. A brick concrete traditional dwelling house is chosen for test and research. The thermal test includes the indoor relative air humidity and air temperature. At the same time, the village residents filled in a questionnaire, which includes their thermal feeling and willingness to optimize. The test data are sorted and analyzed, the problems are found and the transformation strategy is put forward, and then the thermal simulation analysis is carried out to assess the improvement of indoor thermal comfort by the passive optimization strategy. Many existing studies describe a single factor qualitatively, lack systematic and comprehensive consideration, and can not provide accurate simulation results or quantitative results only for a certain factor. The contribution of this paper is that many factors of passive design strategy affecting building energy consumption and thermal comfort are taken into account, and the final scheme is simulated by finite element method using control variable method to quantitatively show the impact of passive design strategy on energy consumption and thermal comfort. In this study, the comprehensive passive optimization strategy is introduced into Guanzhong area for the first time. The field test and analysis reveal that thermal comfort of traditional dwelling houses in this area is poor, the spatial layout of houses is unreasonable, thermal properties of enclosure wall is not ideal and the heating mode is inefficient. Combined with the local situation, the passive design strategies such as optimizing the layout, improving the thermal insulation performance of the envelope and using solar energy are put forward according to local conditions. Through the simulation, the outcome indicates that the space division mode, the thickness of insulation layer of roof and wall, the structure of external window, the ratio of window to wall（WWR）, the depth of sunlight and other factors do affect the building energy consumption. The indoor thermal comfort of traditional dwelling houses may be enhanced by reasonably dividing indoor space, increasing the thermal insulation performance of enclosure structure, making better use of solar energy and natural ventilation. In this paper, after applying these measures, building energy consumption has been reduced by about 41%, the average temperature of the master bedroom on the first floor and the second has increased by about 4 ℃ and 4.2 ℃ respectively.