Objective To explore the syndrome distribution and herb use rule of systemic lupus erythematosus based on modern Literatures study. Methods Retrieve related literatures from the China Knowledge Resources Integral Databases

Vip Database of Chinese Scientific and Technical Periodicals and Wanfang database on traditional Chinese medicine treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus. Literatures from the begining of the database to September2014 were collected. Extract the information on syndrome and herb use from the included literatures. After standardized processing of the information

the traditional Chinese medicine treatment database for systemic lupus erythematosus would be established

frequency of the syndromes

herbs and their categories would be analysed

degree of support

confidence and other items would be calculated

association rules for high frequency medicine would be analysed. Results Totally 106 literatures were included

49 syndrome types were extracted

291 Chinese medicine were involved. The top five frequency of syndromes appeared are followed by toxic heat flourishing（ 40）

internal heat due to yin deficiency（ 30）

Yang deficiency of spleen and kidney（ 25）

Yin deficiency of liver and kidney（ 21）

deficiency of both Qi and Yin（ 21）; The highest frequency of single herb medicine appeared in the top five are followed by Sheng Dihuang（ Radix Rehmanniae recens

131）

Mudan Pi（ Cortex radicis Paeoniae suffruticosae

110）

Gancao（ Radix Glycyrrhizae

84）

Huangqi（ Radix Astragali

83）

and Fuling（ Sclerotium Poriae

81）.The top five types of the 69 kinds of herbs with occurrence frequency more than 10 times are followed by tonic medicine（ 814）

heat clearing herbs（ 862）

promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis medicine（ 172）

diuretics for eliminating dampness（ 179）

rheumatism medicine（ 61）. There are 15 pairs of herbs with closer degree of relation

the highest degree of support of the top five are followed by Mudan Pi（ Cortex radicis Paeoniae suffruticosae） & Sheng Dihuang（ Radix Rehmanniae recens）

Chishao（ Radix Paeoniae rubrae） & Sheng Dihuang（ Radix Rehmanniae recens）

Chishao（ Radix Paeoniae rubrae） & Mudan Pi（ Cortex radicis Paeoniae suffruticosae）

Sheng Dihuang（ Radix Rehmanniae recens） & Xuanshen（ Radix Scrophulariae）

Sheng Dihuang（ Radix Rehmanniae recens）

Zhimu（ Rhizoma Anemarrhenae）. Conclusion The pathological nature of systemic lupus erythematosus generally belongs to root deficiency and branch excess. The deficiency often has yin deficiency and Qi deficiency.Heat evil and blood stasis are the main pathogenic factors. Therefore

reinforcing deficiency is a necessary method

while cooling blood and removing blood stasis is commonly used clinical treatment method.