Paclitaxel is the first-line chemotherapy drug for a variety of cancers. However， the paclitaxel resistance greatly reduced the efficacy in the later treatment stage， which seriously increased the mortality and recurrence rate of cancer and limited the clinical application of paclitaxel. At present， Chinese medicine compound prescription， proprietary Chinese medicine， and Chinese medicine injection are widely used as the adjuvant chemotherapy drugs for the treatment of cancer in clinic. Chinese medicine has shown unique advantages in improving the efficacy of chemotherapy drugs and the prognosis of chemotherapy， and reducing the toxic and side effects. However， the specific mechanism and effective monomer composition of Chinese medicine for reversing the resistance of chemotherapy drugs are unclear， and the application of Chinese medicine in different types of cancer is also limited， which are worthy of further exploration. This review summarized the composition of Chinese medicine monomer with synergistic antitumor effect combined with paclitaxel in recent years. The specific mechanism and pharmacological activities of Chinese medicine monomer reversing paclitaxel resistance were classified. This review found that through acting on the membrane transport protein， Chinese medicine monomer promoted the accumulation of paclitaxel in tumor cells， inhibited the expressions of protein and metabolic enzyme related to multidrug resistance and the metabolism of paclitaxel， and regulated the levels of apoptosis genes and factors and apoptosis-related pathways to promote the inhibitory effect of paclitaxel on cell proliferation. Chinese medicine monomer also significantly improved paclitaxel chemotherapy sensitivity by regulating the expression levels of micro ribonucleic acid （microRNA） and long non-coding ribonucleic acid RNA （lncRNA）， inhibiting the characteristics of tumor stem cells and tumor metabolic reprogramming， improving tumor microenvironment， and triggering tumor cell death autophagy and oxidative stress response. This review provides a theoretical basis for clarifying the specific anti-tumor mechanism of Chinese medicine monomer combined with paclitaxel， which is of great significance for the development of new Chinese medicine and the clinical research of the drugs combined with paclitaxel， and has certain value for the application of Chinese medicine combined with other chemotherapy drugs.