The study reviewed the current state of research on external therapies in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for the treatment of chronic pain. From the China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Web of Science, and PubMed databases, 628 Chinese articles were included after duplicate removal and manual screening. English articles were also analyzed, where the main author is Witt, Claudia M., and the institution with the largest production is Harvard University. For the Chinese articles, the lead author is Fang Jianqiao and the institution with the largest output is Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The total volume of publications has an increasing tendency. The main research hot spots are electroacupuncture therapy, tuin therapy and common diseases associated with chronic pain. Research trends include cupping therapy, warm acupuncture therapy, wrist and ankle acupuncture, and chronic pain associated with depression. The analysis provides a reference for further research in this area.