Diabetic neuropathy (DN) is one of the common complications of diabetes mellitus (DM), its incidence can be as high as over 90%. The lesion can involve the sensory, motor and vegetative nerves. As a whole, the lesion can be divided into symmetric multiple neuropathy and asymmetric single neuropathy. Because the pathogenesis of the disease is not clear, no specific therapy is available so far. Besides control of blood sugar level, vitamin B, vasodilators and analgesics are often used in West medicine for expectant treatment. Basic studies on chronic complications of DM show that aldose reductase and non-enzymatic glycosylation of protein are factors initiating the pathological changes, inhibitors against them have been tested in experimental studies and proved effective. Unfortunately, they are not used clinically due to severe side effects. Screening for herbal drugs to treat DN is still a popular trend in the TCM circle.