Abstract: OBJECTIVE To explore the mechanism and conduct preliminary experimental validation of Qiming granules in the treatment of diabetic retinopathy(DR) using the network pharmacology. METHODS The effective components of Qiming granules were screened by TCMID and TCMSP databases and literature mining. The target targets of the components were predicted by Drugbank, SwissTargetPrediction and ChEMBL database. CTD, GeneCards and Pubmed databases were used to predict and screen the DR related targets, and the corresponding targets of Qiming granules for the treatment of DR were obtained by overlapping targets. Cytoscape software was used to construct the target protein interaction network. Core targets and corresponding components were verified by molecular docking, and gene ontology and pathway annotation were analyzed. In addition, streptozotocin(STZ) induction was used to establish a diabetic rat model, diabetic rats were randomly divided into four groups:model group(equal volume of saline), low-, medium- and high-dose group of Qiming granula(3.75, 7.5 and 15 g·kg^-1·d^-1 Qiming granula), meanwhile, six normal SD rats were selected as the blank group(equal volume of normal saline), all of which were continuously gavaged with intervention for four weeks. The rats were monitored weekly for body weight and blood glucose concentration changes, and the mRNA levels of ALB, TNF-α, IL6, VEGFA, NOS3 and MAPK3 in the retinal tissues were determined by qRT-PCR. RESULTS A total of 33 active ingredients including astragaloside Ⅳ, isorhamnetin, puerarin, catalpol, hirudin, and 59 related targets for DR treatment including TNF, IL6, VEGFA, TGF-β, NOS3, MAPK3, PTGS2 of Qiming granule were obtained with the network pharmacology analysis. Molecular docking results demonstrated good binding score between hub targets and relative compounds. GO and KEGG pathway analysis revealed that these targets involved in the multiple signaling pathways, diabetes metabolism, immune system, cancers, etc. What's more, AGE-RAGE signaling pathway in diabetic complications, Type I diabetes mellitus, Type II diabetes mellitus, VEGF signaling, TGF-β signaling pathways were directly related with the occurrence and development of DR. Animal validation results showed that Qiming granules effectively increased the body weight and decreased the blood glucose concentration of diabetic rats, while significantly upregulating ALB, VEGFA, NOS3 and MAPK3 mRNA expression and downregulating TNF-α and IL6 mRNA expression in retinal tissues, and in a dose-dependent manner. CONCLUSION Qiming granula could play a role in the treatment of DR by up regulating ALB, VEGFA, NOS3 and MAPK3 mRNA expression and down regulating TNF-α and IL6 mRNA expression through its active ingredients.