Spectrum-effect relationship of traditional Chinese medicine is a scientific method based on fingerprint of traditional Chinese medicine, which studied the correlations between fingerprint and activity. The method revealed the activity related peaks and clarified the active components. It provided directions and thoughts for the clarification of pharmacodynamic material basis and establishment of evaluation method to reflect the inherent quality of traditional Chinese medicine. In this text we would make a systematic review about the progress in the study of spectrum-effect relationship of traditional Chinese medicine after summarized the latest years of investigations from researchers at home and abroad, including the establishment of fingerprint, efficacy evaluation, and data processing. The key problems in each part were clarified and corresponding discussions were made, providing thoughts and advices for the following study of spectrum-effect relationship of traditional Chinese medicine. At last we made a expecting on the development trend of spectrum-effect relationship of traditional Chinese medicine.