Drug repositioning, also known as conventional drug in novel use, is the discovery of new indications or novel use of the drug. It has received more and more attention not only in the research and development of western medicine, but also gradually become popular in the research field of Chinese medicine. The new phase of drug repositioning research is based on computer technology, and its research methods and techniques keep up with the time. Network pharmacology is playing more and more important role in the study of drug repositioning. At present, the strategies used in the study of traditional Chinese medicine repositioning include small molecules (or ligands), drug targets and network theory. In this paper, the concept, research status, application status of Chinese medicinals repositioning and application status and strategy of network pharmacology are reviewed, in order to provide references for the study of drug repositioning in Chinese medicinal.