title: [A brief history of Chinese royal court medicines].
abstract: With the establishment of an emperor and a royal court, the court physician came into being and the royal court medicines gradually began to evolve. In the first year of Kai Huang of the Sui dynasty (581), King Wendi of the Sui dynasty established the imperial medical bureau. Since then the royal court medicines entered a period of development and prosperity. In the Yuan dynasty, the scope of official duty of the imperial hospital narrowed, the development of royal court medicines lacked new growth. To the Ming and Qing dynasties, the royal court medicine began to decline and eventually ended with the demise of the Qing dynasty.
authors.affiliation: Xiyuan hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, 100091, China.
authors.forename: Chun-Sheng
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Li