The Study On The Distribution And Utilization Of Chinese Herbal Medicine Resources In Hexi Corridor From The Tang Dynasty To The Qing Dynasty

In the ancient society where science and technology are not well developed,Chinese herbal medicine has an irreplaceable significance and value to human ‘s health, human’s existence and development.It also plays an important role in the social life,and has a noticeable impact on economic development. Hexi Corridor enjoys a high reputation,for it is an areal estate areas for medicine made from animals, plants and mineral,such as Chinese wolfberry,Licorice root, Cistanche,Rhubarb, Hutonglei, Musk, Ram horns, Sal ammoniac, Halite,etc. At the same time,in this areas also grows lots of Huangcen, Huangjing,Rhizoma gastrodiae,Luminous sand and other commonly used herbs.Hexi Corridor whose climate is cold and dry, with cold winter,hot summer, sand winds and adequate sunshine, is located in the hinterland of Eurasia,where the types of soil are various and the soil is with lots of sands and alkali.Natural conditions exert a great influence on the distribution of medicine that is made from animal and plant,while Social factors,like human exploitation and pharmaceutical technology,affect greatly mineral medicine’s distribution and development.Chinese herbs grow throughout Hexi Corridor unequally in number and kind from Tang Dynasty to Qing Dynasty;Chinese drugs are continuously increasing in kinds and distribute in a more widespread areas. In addition,plant medicine are especially rich and more and more mineral medicine have been discovered and put into use;Chinese medicine can be utilized in multiple ways, which mostly in medicine,national communication,commodity and soil tribute items.In addition, it is also treated as the tool to spread the doctrines of Buddhism,the high quality goods for keeping beautiful and landscape to be appreciated.This paper,based on Herbal works,Local chronicles,The official history books and Annals,study the Chinese herbs distribution,development and utilization in Hexi corridor,hoping to explore the characteristics of Chinese herbs distribution through statistics of the Chinese herbal medicine in Hexi Corridor from the seventh to the nineteenth century, especially of genuine medicinal materials,summarizing its ways of using, from the perspective of historical geography, which aims to provide some enlightenment and reference for the development of contemporary medicinal materials industry in the area.