Objective Traditional Chinese medicine has been used for serval centuries and proved to be an alternative treatment method for cancer. This study aims to investigate the role of traditional Chinese medicine Yangfei-kongliu Formula (YKF) in autophagy and metastasis of lung tumor A549 cells. Methods The YKF dose for rats was converted according to the human clinical dose. Rats were given YKF by gavage of 5-, 10-, and 15-fold of the equivalent human dose, and their blood was collected to prepare 5×, 10×, and 15× YKF-contained serum. A549 cells were cultured with a medium containing 10% YKF-contained serum. Autophagy was evaluated by electron microscopy, LC3 II/LC3 I ratio, and autophagic flux tandem mRFP-GFP-LC3. Cell migration and invasion were evaluated by Transwell assay. Cell activity was determined using CCK-8. Results Three doses of YKF-contained serum inhibited cell activity and increased LC3/LC3 I ratio and p62 and Beclin-1 expression level in A549 cells indicating YKF promotes autophagic death. The result in support of this indication is that the increase of LC3 puncta induced by 5×YKF-contained serum was abolished after autophagy inhibition by 3-MA. Besides, the research observed that silencing Beclin-1 abolished YKF-induced the increase in LC3 II/I ratio and p62 expression, and the decrease in cell activity, migration, and invasion. Conclusion Traditional Chinese medicine YKF exerts antitumor activity in promoting autophagy and inhibiting metastasis of lung tumor cell A549 and Beclin-1 is the key molecule of its antitumor activity.