Hospital-like organizations existed in China as late as the second year of the Han Dynasty (2 A.D.). In that year, when there was a drought and plague epidemic along the Yellow River, the emperor Liu Yan (音看) chose a moderate place, a larger house, and set up many doctors and medicines to treat the people for free. This may be the first public temporary epidemic hospital in Chinese history.
In the fifth year of Yanxi (162 AD), Huangfu was promoted to the rank of general of Zhonglang, and led a large group of people to fight in the Gansu Longdi area. The army was suffering from an epidemic, and the death rate was as high as 30-40%. Huangfu Ji rented a large number of private houses, set up medicine, and gathered all the sick people together for treatment. He also went to see the soldiers every day and was loved by the whole army. At that time, this kind of medical organization in the army was called "Anlu", which is similar to the present field hospital. Southern Qi Yongming nine years (491 AD), Wuxing area floods, epidemic, Jingling Wang Xiao put their own homes out, set up medicine, adopt the poor and sick, which may be the earliest form of China's private charity hospital.
Northern Wei Taihe 21 years (AD 497), Emperor Xiaowen (Yuan Hong) had set up in Luoyang, "other place", sent four doctors, purchased many drugs, all the poor and sick can not afford medical treatment, can be here to seek medical treatment. In the third year of Yongping (510 AD), the king of Nan'an (Tuoba Yu) ordered his Taishang officials to choose the right place, spacious houses, send doctors, medicine, all the sick people live in the treatment, which may be the first form of public charity hospitals. The hospitals of the Tang Dynasty were called "Sick Place", which began to be called "Sick Place" around the 20th year of the reign of Emperor Kaiyuan (733 A.D.), and most of the sick places at this time were located in temples. Not only in the big cities like Chang'an and Luoyang, but also in other states.
Because the sick workshop is located in the temple, the host is mostly monks and nuns, in the Huichang five years (845 AD) Tang Wuzong (Li Lu) once destroyed the temple, quite affecting the work of the sick workshop. Later by Li Deyu and other initiatives, the election of the township has a reputation to do the host of the sick workshop, the sick workshop system has finally been able to maintain unchanged down to the Five Dynasties, individual sick workshop has been renamed "hospital", after the Tang Dynasty, not only the hospital business has a great deal of development, the name is very close to the modern era.
In the Song Dynasty, the scale of the hospital gradually expanded. In A.D. 1063, Song Renzong Zhaozhen had to Baosheng, Shousheng two temples as the basis for each additional 50 houses, the establishment of two hospitals, each hospital patient quota is provided for 300 people, such a large-scale hospital is now also considerable.
Yuan You four years (1089 AD), Su Dongpo in Hangzhou as an official, he donated 50 two private money, and public funds together to run a sick workshop, called Anle Square, three years to heal more than a thousand patients, which is the first public-private hospitals in Chinese history. Later on, all counties had their own hospitals, called "Anji Fang". At this time, the hospital set up more complete, by the official leadership, the staff has a nurse, female make, clothing and equipment from the hospital supply, the government requires the hospital doctors to collect ten full effect, see the hospital doctors are quite capable.
Song Dynasty hospitals are not only unprecedentedly large, a lot of people, well-equipped, and also began to set up outpatient clinics, initially called the sale of medicines, and later renamed and agent bureau, there are doctors and medicines, to facilitate the general public to treat the sick, and even outside the state and county of the patient can also be circular letter treatment. Nowadays, there is a prescription book called "Wo Dyak Buk Fang", which is the "prescription manual" published by the clinic. Such clinic form of treatment institutions, the masses feel very convenient, in the Yuan Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty, the more development, especially in the Ming Dynasty, almost all counties have established a, commonly called Huimin medicine bureau, are government-run.
Europe's earliest hospital organization, can be equivalent to our country in the Han Dynasty, the first two years of the kind of organization, for the Christian women in the fourth century, established in Rome's sanatorium, and compared with China, the time is much later.