This paper searches and combs the achievements of grey system theory in the past nearly 40 years based on databases of China national knowledge internet （CNKI） and ISI Web of Science. More than 227 thousands literatures were found by inputting 10 phrases such as grey system-grey number and sequence operator etc. in CNKI. After entering the 21st century， the number of grey system papers included in CNKI database is increasing rapidly. Since 2008， more than 10 thousands papers have been included per year， and more than 15 thousands papers have been included per year since 2014. The grey system method and model are widely used in natural science fields such as physics， chemistry， and biology， as well as engineering technology fields such as transportation， electric power and machinery， and a large number of valuable results have been achieved. From the large numbe of documents applying the grey system method and model， which are published by the project team undertaking important national science and technology plans and the double first-class universities in China， it can be seen that the grey system theory plays an important role in promoting China’s scientific and technological progress， innovation and development， and high-level talent training.