Depression is a common mental disease, mainly manifested in persistent depression and emotional disorders. Its pathogenesis is related to many factors, such as neurotransmitters, inflammatory factors, disorder of hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis, environmental changes of intestinal flora, mitochondrial structure and function, and so on. At present, the drugs used to treat depression in clinic face the slow onset, poor treatment effect and obvious toxic and side effects. Recently, the antidepressant effect of traditional Chinese medicine has been gradually paid attention to. Research has found that many traditional Chinese medicine individual drugs, pairs of drugs and compounds have antidepressant effects. This paper collates the research literature on the improvement of depression by traditional Chinese medicine, in order to provide a theoretical basis for the treatment of depression by traditional Chinese medicine.