Cirrhosis is a chronic liver disease characterized by diffuse fibrosis of liver tissue, pseudobulbar and regenerative nodule formation. In China, cirrhosis ranks first in the world in terms of both relative incidence and absolute number of cases, 75% to 80% of which develop from chronic hepatitis B. It is a difficult-to-treat disease that seriously endangers people’s health and consumes social resources. Modern medicine believes that the conventional treatment of cirrhosis should take comprehensive measures, including antiviral, anti-liver fibrosis and treatment of complications. For decompensated cirrhosis, liver transplantation remains a successful and proven treatment, but its main limitations undoubtedly lie in the lack of donors, the high cost, and the complications and death rates associated with transplantation. Therefore, it is particularly urgent to promote the reversal of cirrhosis or to find alternative therapies to liver transplantation in the presence of persistent causative factors (mainly hepatitis B virus in China). Liver cirrhosis is not documented in Chinese medicine, but is usually classified as “drowsy pain”, “Y accumulation” and “dropsy”. Regarding the basic pathogenesis, most scholars currently believe that it is related to “dampness and heat, stasis of blood, and deficiency of qi and yin”. However, in recent years, many scholars have proposed that the pathogenesis of “phlegm and stagnation” is closely related to the formation and development of liver cirrhosis. I suggest that “liver qi deficiency and phlegm stagnation” largely influence the formation, development and regression of liver cirrhosis, which has important clinical guidance significance. As early as in the Nei Jing, it was suggested that the accumulation of blood was “the clotting of blood in the lining but not dispersed”. The Sui “Treatise on the Origin of Diseases and Phlegm” mentions that “phlegm is caused by congestion of the blood vessels and the accumulation of water and drink that does not dissipate, so it becomes phlegm.” It can be seen that at that time, it was recognized that blood stasis and water stagnation would form phlegm. In Yuan’s “Danxi Xinfa Duijian”, it is pointed out that “Duijian pain, liver fire, wood qi solid, dead blood, phlegm flow injection”; “Danxi Xinfa Essentials” also says: “accumulation is a form of evil, or food, or phlegm, or blood, stagnation into lumps. It is proposed that the formation of dysmenorrhea and accumulation is related to phlegm and stasis. In the Ming Dynasty, the book “Jing Yue Quan Shu Jie” has a record that “the disease is mostly in the blood”. Tang Rongchuan of the Qing Dynasty, “Blood stasis in the blood evidence”, emphasizes that “when blood stasis is between the meridians and organs, it is formed as Y obstruction”. Therefore, looking at the views of medical practitioners throughout the ages, it can be concluded that the formation of Y accumulation is closely related to “phlegm coagulation” and “blood stasis”. According to Guan Youbo, a famous contemporary hepatologist, liver cirrhosis is caused by dampness and heat that traps the spleen for a long time, which leads to a loss of power to transport and transform, a loss of vital energy, a deficiency of spleen qi, a failure to transform turbid qi, and a coagulation of damp and turbid phlegm. The heat is leeching the blood, injuring the yin and consuming the blood, deficient qi and blood stagnation, resulting in stagnation of blood stasis, sticking and not going away, clotting of blood and phlegm-dampness, blocking the blood channels to become a lump, and then condensing and hardening. Professor Li Shoushan, a contemporary Chinese medicine practitioner, also believes that phlegm and stagnation are the key to the pathogenesis of liver cirrhosis, one of which is that damp heat stays in the spleen and stomach, and when the spleen and stomach are out of harmony, phlegm and dampness become more abundant, and when they are not corrected, they become fatty and cloudy, and the disease recurs or worsens. Liver cirrhosis is a persistent disease. Clinical studies have shown that phlegm-stasis is a common symptom of chronic viral hepatitis, and that the phlegm-stasis score is positively correlated with serum hyaluronic acid (HA), laminin (LN) and pre-collagen type III (PCIII) levels, suggesting that phlegm-stasis is closely related to liver fibrosis. In addition, modern medicine believes that the key pathological basis for the formation of cirrhosis lies in the excessive deposition and insufficient degradation of extracellular matrix (ECM, the main component of which is collagen), and it is now generally accepted that this pathological change is related to the pathogenesis of blood stasis in Chinese medicine. However, morphologically, the collagen fibers in sclerotic liver are white in color, soft in texture and firm in consistency, which is different from the pain, lumps, bleeding and cyanosis of stasis of blood, and should belong to the category of stubborn phlegm in Chinese medicine. Therefore, combining the views of ancient and modern doctors, it can be considered that “phlegm and stagnation” is the pathological product of chronic liver damage and one of the key pathological mechanisms in the formation and development of liver cirrhosis, which is a link that must be taken seriously in the treatment of liver cirrhosis in Chinese medicine. In addition, the basic pathogenesis of cirrhosis is also closely related to “deficiency of liver qi”. Liver qi deficiency is first seen in the Nei Jing, such as the Su Wen Shang Gu Tian Zhen Lun, where it is written that “when the husband …… 7 or 8, the liver qi fails and the tendons cannot move”. The “Ling Shu Ben Shen” says: “Liver Qi deficiency is fear”. Sui’s “Treatise on the Origin of Diseases” mentions: “Liver qi deficiency, then the disease is unclear to the eyes, the two duress is urgent, …… then it is appropriate to tonic”. Qing Zhang Xichen “medicine in the heart of the West” said: “I since the evidence, where the liver qi weakness can not reach, with all the liver tonic medicine are not effective, heavy use of astragalus as the main …… he said liver deficiency no tonic method, the original is not to see the words of the road”. The above views have led to a gradual improvement in the understanding of physiological and pathological liver Qi deficiency and its treatment. In modern times, Qin Bowei believes that “the liver qi deficiency seen in clinical practice is a deficiency of the essence of the liver, often combined with a deficiency of liver blood”. According to the late famous veteran Chinese medicine doctor Zhang Bojian, “Liver Qi deficiency and Liver Yang deficiency are not uncommon in clinical practice, especially in cases of hepatitis and liver cirrhosis”. Liu Shounong, a famous doctor in Shanghai, believes that “in the case of liver cirrhosis, it is due to the deficiency of liver vital energy and the invasion of dampness and heat, which causes changes in blood circulation in the liver, resulting in unfavorable blood flow and stagnation of veins and channels”. Zhang Qin et al. conducted a comprehensive analysis of information on clinical symptoms and signs in 900 patients with post-hepatitis cirrhosis, and the results showed that the basic evidential pathogenesis reflecting the disease was qi deficiency and blood stasis. From perceptual to rational understanding, the basic pathogenic theory of liver cirrhosis “deficiency of liver qi” has become clearer. By condensing the views of ancient and modern medical practitioners, it can be concluded that the formation of cirrhosis is closely related to the pathogenesis of “deficiency of liver qi and stagnation of phlegm and stagnation of phlegm”, and that “tonifying qi, removing stagnation and eliminating phlegm” is the treatment method that should be emphasized in clinical cases.