[Purpose/significance] In the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) domain, the methods and technologies of knowledge engineering are used to construct a large number of knowledge resources such as libraries, knowledge bases, ontologies, and databases, which are valuable for TCM knowledge innovation. However, the related works are done by the domestic and foreign scholars in the field of TCM, medical informatics, artificial intelligence and so on, and are short of systematic summaries. Therefore, this paper presents a systemic summary and a comprehensive review of TCM knowledge engineering in order to provide references for TCM informatics researchers and knowledge engineers. [Method/process] This paper explained the concept and significance of TCM knowledge engineering, discussed a series of research topics such as knowledge modeling, knowledge acquisition, knowledge storage, knowledge discovery, and analyzed technology trends and future directions. [Result/conclusion] TCM knowledge engineering has become an effective method for protecting intellectual heritage, facilitating knowledge innovation activities, accelerating the knowledge transformation process, and promoting knowledge dissemination.