This paper systematically studies relevant literatures at home and abroad in recent years. China National Knowledge Internet (CNKI) was used to collect the literatures for acute pharyngitis treated with traditional Chinese medicine from January 1, 2006, to December 31, 2016, and the bibliometric method was employed for statistical analysis. A total of 493 papers were preliminarily selected. According to the inclusion criteria and exclusion criteria, 182 eligible articles were selected. According to the evaluation and analysis of the literatures, the Guidelines for Clinical Research of New Drugs is currently used as the common standards for the diagnosis and treatment of acute pharyngitis; Chinese patent medicines are the main traditional Chinese medicine for treating this disease; Decoctions for treatment of this disease include Lonicerae Japonicae Flos, Scutellariae Radix, Platycodonis Radix, Forsythiae Fructus, Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma, Scrophdlariae Radix, Isatidis Radix, and Ophiopogonis Radix; The bloodletting puncture is the common external therapy. Traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine have their own characteristics in the treatment of this disease. Western medicine for the treatment of acute pharyngitis are mainly antiviral, antibiotic and glucocorticoid drugs, whose disadvantages are toxicity, side effects, drug resistance and double infections. Traditional Chinese medicine doctors have rich experiences in the treatment of the disease, which is characterized by treatment determination based on syndrome differentiation, safe and reliable medication, significant curative effect, low drug resistance, and wide varieties of traditional Chinese medicine forms, convenient portability and taking, low price, and low toxic and side effects. It is an arduous and significant task to explore traditional Chinese medicine, and study and develop new-type effective drugs.