Objective To provide basis for the syndrome differentiation of zang-fu by analyzing the five-tone attributes of tinnitus

based on the theory to summarize the rules of five-tone distribution of tinnitus. Methods Ti-nnitus acoustics test and tinnitus handicap inventory（THI） score were performed on 150 tinnitus patients

and audio files of tinnitus test sound were recorded. Patients were asked to choose the frequency closest to their tinnitus. According to the relationship between the five-tone and the phonographic name in the five-tone theory

the patients′ tinnitus frequency were matched with five-tone attributs

and the distribution of five-tone attributes of patients with different age

gender

disease course and THI score was calculated. Results Among the 150 patients

the distribution of tinnitus sound Gong（宫） tone was the most

and there was a statistically significant difference in the distribution of tinnitus among the other 4 tones of Zhi（徵）

Jiao（角）

Yu（羽）

Shang（商）（P

<

0.05）. There was a statistically significant difference in the number of patients with Jiao（角） tone tinnitus between patients aged 18 to 35 and the patients with other four tones. There were statistically significant differences in the number of patients with Gong（宫） tone tinnitus aged 36-55 and 56-72 compared with those with tinnitus of other four tones（P

<

0.05）. Compared with other 4 tones

the number of both male and female patients with Gong（宫） tone was statistically significant（P

<

0.05）; Compared with the number of Jiao（角） tone in patients with tinnitus with a duration of less than 1 month

1 to 6 months

6

+

-12 months and more than 12 months

the difference was statistically significant（P

<

0.05）; Except for patients with THI score 0-16 points

there were statistically significant differences in the number of patients with Gong（宫） tone compared with that of the patients with the other four tones

in those with THI score 17 to 36 points

37 to 56 points

and 57 to 100 points（P

<

0.05）. Conclusion Among the tinnitus patients

the number of cases in which the tone belongs to the Gong（宫） tone is the most distributed

and abnormal function of the spleen is a common pathogenesis of tinnitus.