[Xin'an Dispensaries and its role in medicine in the Ming-Qing dynasties].

The Xin'an Dispensaries were set up in the Song dynasty, completed in the Ming dynasty and reached its peak of development at the end of the Qing dynasty. The representative ones of the dispensaries include Lu's Baohetang of the Song dynasty, Xu's Baoyuantang, Zhengtian dispensary, and Baoyutang of the Ming dynasty, Hu Xian Chun, Zhongdetang of the Qing dynasty. All these dispensaries were mostly run by the physicians themselves in the Ming dynasty, while they were run by Anhui businessmen in the Qing dynasty. As a union embodying health care, production and trading of traditional handicraft, not a few of them had become famous pharmaceutical factories today, such as Hu Qing Yu Tang, Jianmin Pharmaceutical Factory of Wuhan. Rich experience on production and management were accumulated, alongside achievements on prescription, drug processing, storage, collection and ready-made drug manufacturing.