Depression is of a high prevalence，recurrence and disability.From the perspectives of yang qi and clinical presentation of depression，the authors believe that the failure of yang qi to transform plays an important role in the pathogenesis of depression，and state that the treatment should be based on warming and transforming the yang qi，and the treatment should be carried out from the three aspects of activating yang and expelling stagnation，tonifying the middle-jiao and elevating yang，warming the kidney and reinforcing yang.The opinions can provide a new idea for clinical treatment for depression.