Objective To translate the 12-Item Pruritus Severity Scale (12-PSS)from English to Chinese, and evaluate its reliability and validity, so as to provide a tool for pruritus severity assessment in chronic pruritus patients. Methods The Brislin translation model was utilized to translate the original scale, and a Chinese version scale was formed after conducting a pilot study. Then the Chinese version was used to investigate 143 chronic pruritus patients to analyze its reliability and validity. Results The Chinese version 12-PSS was consisted of 5 dimensions and 12 items, the correlation coefficient between each dimension score and the total score of the scale was 0.625-0.818（P<0.01 for all）, and the correlation coefficient between the total 12-PSS score and the total score of Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale-Anxiety (HADS-A) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale-Depression (HADS-D) was 0.734, 0.535, 0.494 and 0.242 respectively （P<0.01 for all）. The Cronbach′s α of the scale was 0.783, and its test-retest reliability was 0.896. Conclusion The Chinese version 12-PSS has good reliability and validity, which could be used as a comprehensive and effective evaluation tool for chronic pruritus patients.