Diabetic nephropathy(DN) is one of the common chronic complications of diabetes.Albuminuria and glomerular filtration rate decrease are the clinical indications in the diagnosis of DN.Since DN has a serious impact on the quality of life of the patients，early intervention in the risk factors of DN and mitigation of renal damage caused by long-term hyperglycemia induced by insulin metabolism disorder are the key to preventing the progression of DN to end-stage renal disease.Traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) with unique theories has therapeutic advantages.As the TCM research on DN advances，progress has been attained in the experimental research on TCM treatment of DN.This paper summarized the common methods of establishing animal models for the TCM studies of DN and reviewed the experimental research progress of TCM in the treatment of diabetes from regulating immune response，reducing oxidative stress，improving renal hemodynamics，and correcting glucose and lipid metabolism disorders，aiming to reveal the mechanism of TCM in the prevention and treatment of DN and support the clinical practice.