At different stages after establishment of the new China, with the constant change of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substance types, as well as drug abuse situation in domestic and overseas, the policy and system of the narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances in China constantly adapt to the complex situation under the inheritance and adjustment, and followed up to adjust the catalogues of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, as far as possible to adapt to the requirement and the situation of the drug regulation and anti-drug struggle. Based on a series of laws and other normative documents successively issued by Chinese government about the narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, according to the major changes of the catalogues or the listed control system of the narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, the catalogue changing process (1949—2019) of the narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances in China can be divided into five periods, and then this paper systematically analyzes the main contents, characteristics, causes, significance of the catalogue changes of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. This paper also provides a retrospective research in response to the current increasingly complex control problem of the narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, in order to improve the listing management system.