Qreliminary Research On Drugstore In Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing Dynasties

The drugstore is the place where traditional Chinese medicine and medicinal materials are sold. In ancient China, it developed from scratch and from town to city quickly. On the terms of ownership, the drugstore divides into the official pharmacy and the private pharmacy. The official pharmacy appeared in Northern-Song Dynasty and prospered in Southern-Song Dynasty, but vanished in Ming Dynasty. The Private pharmacy had existed before Tang Dynasty. In Northern-Song Dynasty it merely distributed in majorstreet of big city, but already spreaded Across the urban and rural areas in Qing Dynasty. From Song to Qing Dynasty, the official pharmacy which was protected by government and the Private pharmacy which produced and sold patent medicine by itself experienced different development tracks. In region distribution, both of them experienced from south to north expansion ,as well as from city to rural penetration development process. Next, in different dynasty the official pharmacy and the private pharmacy have different characteristics due to the different political, economic, traffic and demographic environment.Furthermore, the private pharmacy has always been the main force in Chinese native medicine industry. It leads to the prosperity of the town and the appearance of the so-called medical town. Druggistes who commute from production place to sales place become Drug Gang in same area. They play a significant role in the field of drug circulation.