The invention provides hot salt based traditional Chinese medicine composition for treating rheumatic arthritis at the active stage. The composition comprises rock salt and traditional Chinese medicine components, wherein the traditional Chinese medicine components comprise the following ingredients: herba ephedrae, herbs of common pratia, amber, pyrolusite, radix clematidis, radix angelicae dahuricae, radix stephaniae tetrandrae, radix saposhnikoviae, rhizoma corydalis, pearl, radix angelicae pubescentis, radix tetrastigmae, myrrh, cortex cinnamomi, musk, crocus sativus and roots of caragana sinica; the rock salt and the traditional Chinese medicine components are in a weight ratio of (2-8):5. By means of hot salt, local introduction of the drugs is accelerated, blood circulation is promoted, permeability of cells is improved, local swelling exudates are absorbed, 17 effective components and the hot salt penetrate into the human body, so that the curative effect is improved, and use is convenient; besides, the composition can obviously improve the swollen joint count and the degree of joint pain and improves life quality of patients, and a new idea is provided for treating rheumatic arthritis by the hot salt.