Abstract:Objective:To systematically analyze the medication rules of four major schools of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)—the Zhejiang School,Xin'an School,Lingnan School,and Longjiang School—in the treatment of infertility based on data mining methods,and to reveal their commonalities and differences. Methods:Medical records of infertility were collected from China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI),Wanfang Data Knowledge Service Platform (Wanfang),China Science and Technology Journal Database (VIP) and relevant medical books to establish a prescription database. Data mining analyses including herb frequency statistics, attribute, association rules and systematic clustering were performed using R language. Results:A total of 756 prescriptions were included (245 from the Zhejiang School,118 from the Xin'an School,214 from the Lingnan School,and 179 from the Longjiang School). The high-frequency herbs of each school were mainly Angelicae Sinensis Radix,Cuscutae Semen,and Paeoniae Radix Alba,etc. The properties were mainly warm and neutral,the flavors were mostly sweet,bitter,and acrid,and the herbs mainly entered the liver,kidney,and spleen meridians. Association rule analysis showed that the core herb pair of the Zhejiang School was Cistanches Herba→Cyperi Rhizoma,that of the Xin'an School was Cuscutae Semen→Lycii Fructus,that of the Lingnan School was Taxilli Herba and Dipsaci Radix→Cuscutae Semen,and that of the Longjiang School was Rehmanniae Radix Praeparata→Dioscoreae Rhizoma. Cluster analysis indicated that each school had distinct prescription characteristics:the Zhejiang School formed six herb combinations,the Xin'an School three,the Lingnan School six,and the Longjiang School seven. Conclusion:All four schools attach importance to the role of dysfunction of the liver, spleen, and kidney in infertility, with supplementing deficiency as the main therapeutic method and invigorating blood to remove stasis as the auxiliary one. However,there are significant differences in the compatibility of core herbs and the focus of efficacy among the schools, reflecting the characteristic of treatment based on syndrome differentiation of TCM,namely treating the same disease with different methods. This study provides an evidence-based basis for precise syndrome differentiation and integration of TCM schools in the treatment of infertility.