The kidney is one of the main target organs of the complications of hypertension.The difficult control of blood pressure and the lingering symptoms affect the quality of life of the patients with hypertensive nephropathy.Autophagy，one of the mechanisms for maintaining cell homeostasis，is a self-cleaning way for highly differentiated cells to remove unnecessary intracellular components such as proteins.Excessive and inhibited autophagy can lead to cell damage in different degrees.This article summarizes the pathogenesis of autophagy in hypertensive nephropathy，mainly involving in the autophagy of podocytes and endothelial cells，and reviews the research progress in TCM treatment of hypertensive nephropathy via regulating autophagy.