Objective  To investigate the anti-hypoxia and anti-oxidation effect of Fufang Xueshuantong capsule on the retina of rats with diabetic retinopathy and explore its mechanism. Methods  It was an experimental study． One hundred and ten male SPF Sprague Dawley rats were raised for 7 days and 30 of them were randomized as the normal group. And the other 80 rats were induced by Streptozotocin， randomized 60 successfully induced diabetic rats， which were divided into two groups： 30 STZ-diabetic rats without treatment as the diabetic rat control group； 30 STZ-diabetic rats treated with Fufang Xueshuantong capsule at a dose of 900 mg/kg/day as the treatment group. After the animals were raised for 4 weeks， 12 weeks， 20 weeks， use immunohistochemistry method and RT-PCR to detect the expression levels of hypoxia inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) and CuZn super oxide dismutase (CuZn-SOD) proteins and mRNAs in the retina； determining the activities of T-SOD and CuZn proteins in the retina of rats in each group by a spectrophotometric method seperately. Data were analyzed using randomized block analysis of variance. Results  ①At 4， 12 and 20 weeks after treatment， the expression of HIF-1α protein were founded in the purkinje layer and inner nuclear layer of diabetic rats， and decreased in the treatment group （P＜0.05). The expression level of HIF-1α mRNAs was also lower in the retina of diabetic rats than in the treatment group （P＜0.05）. ②At 4， 12 weeks and 20 weeks after treatment， the expression of CuZn-SOD protein in the purkinje layer and inner nuclear layer of diabetic rats was obviously lower than the normal group′s， and was higer than the treatment group′s （P＜0.05）. The expression of CuZn-SOD mRNA was also higer in treatment group than in control group （P＜0.05）. ③At 4 weeks and 12 weeks， the activities of T-SOD and CuZn-SOD were decreased in diabetic rats compared with normal groups， but obviously increased in the treatment group （P＜0.05）. Conclusion  The anti-oxidation and anti-hypoxia effect of Fufang Xueshuantong capsule on the retina of rats with early diabetes maybe mediated by ameliorating the state of ischemia and hypoxic， downregulating the expression of HIF-1α， enhancing the activity of SOD and upregulating the expression of CuZn-SOD.