By reading and sorting out the ancient literature related to vertigo,it is found that most doctors of previous dynasties treated vertigo from the five aspects of wind,fire,phlegm,depression,and deficiency.This paper summarizes the traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) etiology and pathogenesis of vertigo in the ancient literature and analyzes the modern literature on the treatment of vertigo with TCM in the recent five years,so as to provide some references for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of vertigo.