Objective To explore regularities of Chinese medical syndrome distribution in patients with primary liver cancer. Methods Questionnaire of Chinese Medical Syndrome about Liver Cancer was used to gather messages about the four methods of diagnosis in 559 patients with primary liver cancer. Patients were divided into 8 kinds of basic syndrome including Qi stagnation

blood stasis

excess heat

wet with water

Qi deficiency

blood deficiency

Yin deficiency

and Yang deficiency. Distribution and scores of syndrome quantification of the patients with the different syndrome in different clinical stages（ Ⅰ

Ⅱ and Ⅲ stage） were also compared

and the syndrome combination rule according to clustering analysis was preliminarily discussed. Results According to occurred frequency from high to low

the sequence about syndromes in 559 patients with primary liver cancer was that blood stasis（ 380cases）

Qi deficiency（ 330 cases）

water with wet（ 264 cases）

Qi stagnation（ 250 cases）

excess heat（ 236cases）

Yin deficiency（ 136 cases）

blood deficiency（ 57 cases）

and Yang deficiency syndrome（ 57 cases）. The distributions of Qi stagnation syndrome in Ⅱ and Ⅲ stages were much fewer than that in Ⅰ stage

but the distributions of water with wet

Yin deficiency

and Yang deficiency syndrome in Ⅲ stage were much more than that in Ⅰand Ⅱ stages.（ P < 0. 01）; there were no significant differences in distributions of blood stasis

Qi deficiency

excess heat

and blood deficiency syndrome in each different stage（ P > 0. 05）. There were significant differences in scores of syndrome quantification of Qi stagnation

water with wet

Qi deficiency

and Yang deficiency syndrome in various clinical stages（ P < 0. 01）

but no significant differences in those of blood stasis

excess heat

blood deficiency and Yin deficiency syndrome（ P > 0. 05）. Result of clustering analysis showed that blood stasis and Qi deficiency syndrome were in the same category

Qi stagnation

water with wet and excess heat syndrome were in the same category

and Yang deficiency

Yin deficiency and blood deficiency syndrome type were in the same category. Conclusion Blood stasis and Qi deficiency are the most common syndromes in the basic syndrome of primary liver cancer. As stages of liver cancer progresses

there is less Qi stagnation syndrome

but much more wet with water

Yin deficiency and Yang deficiency syndrome.