Objective　To evaluate the theoretical knowledge level of Chinese nursing students based on the problem-based learning（PBL） versus traditional teaching methods. Methods　Databases including CNKI（1979-2013.03）， VIP（1989-2013.03） and Wanfang（1982-2013.03） were searched （up to March， 2013） for controlled studies comparing PBL and traditional teaching methods. The quality of included studies was critically evaluated and the data were analyzed by Stata 10.0 software. Results　A total of 659 articles were retrieved but only 22 were included. Meta-analyses showed that there were significant differences between PBL and traditional teaching methods in improving theoreti-cal knowledge of nursing students（SMD merge=0.79， 95％CI（0.55，1.03）， P=0.000）. Conclusions　PBL can improve the theoretical scores of Chinese nursing students. However， the above conclusion needs to be confirmed by more large-scale randomized controlled trials of higher quality due to the limitation of studies include in this paper.