The development of rheumatic diseases has a long history. Archaeologists have found that arthritis existed in humans in ancient times, and in primitive societies, humans have started to use baking fires and hot stones to treat limb pain. Rheumatic diseases have been recorded in both Chinese and foreign ancient texts. In the fifth century B.C., the earliest medical classics in China, “Huangdi Neiji” (Yellow Emperor’s Inner Path) and “Suwen” and “Lingshu” (Spiritual Pivot), repeatedly discuss “paralysis”, which refers to the pain in the joints and muscles of the body. The bamboo slips excavated from the Mawangdui Han tomb also contain the term “disease paralysis”, indicating that the term “paralysis” was widely used in traditional medicine at least during the Han Dynasty. In his posthumous work published in 1642, after his death, Cuillaume Baillou (1558-1616) introduced the concept of rheumatism as a generalized musculoskeletal syndrome: “Arthritis in the joints is the reaction of rheumatism in the whole body”. It was not until 1940 that the nomenclature of rheumatologists was settled by Bernard Comroe, and rheumatology was introduced in 1949 in a textbook edited by Joseph L. hollander. Historically, the concept of rheumatism was actually a combination of symptoms of the skeletal-muscular system, mainly pain and soreness, a vague concept that was difficult to reconcile with the modern specific diagnosis. Until the early 19th century, progress in specifically distinguishing different rheumatic diseases seemed minimal, so much so that William Heberden wrote in 1802, “Rheumatism became the generic term used to describe pains which, although causing many things, had no specific name. It is often difficult to distinguish it from a number of diseases that have been clearly named and classified”. Rheumatic diseases have flourished since the 20th century, and the common clinical rheumatic diseases that can cause pain now include gout, osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, osteoarthritis, systemic sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatic polymyalgia, vasculitis, polymyositis and dermatomyositis. The main manifestations are pain in joints, bones, muscles and soft tissues, which can be limited or generalized.