For a Chinese character X *** 30 years, Britain sent troops to attack the gate of the Great Qing Dynasty.

1832 Lin Desai, employee of Guangdong Chamber of Commerce of British East India Company, is a China hand. Dispatched by the East India Company, Huxiami pretended to be the owner and missionary Karl gutzlaff, and took the ship amherst to secretly survey the harbor waterways in Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningbo and Shanghai under the cover of business and missionary. 1935, Hu Xiami sent a personal letter to the British Foreign Secretary, urging Britain to send troops to open the door to China.

During the First Opium War, the British army chose the landing site according to the information provided by Hu Xiami.

Hu Xia Mi visited Shanghai for the first time before and was received by Wu Qitai in Su Song Daotai. They are not happy to talk. Wu Qitai first rejected Hu Xiami's transaction request. In the conversation, he called Hu Xiami a foreigner and called the British ship a foreigner. Hu Xiami asked Wu Qitai to come to their senses. Wu Qitai said vaguely that this is what China people call foreigners, and it is not worth making a fuss about. The storm passed, but after more than 20 years, something unexpected happened.

1852, Wen Han, the British minister plenipotentiary, proposed * * * to Bai Gui, the governor-general of Guangdong and Guangxi, demanding that the word "Yi" should not be used in notes and documents. Bai Gui was at a loss. Why do British people care about China's words?

It turns out that in the English translation of the corresponding note, the translator translated "Yi" into "Barbarians", which means "Barbarians, uneducated people and rude people belong to the indigenous groups colonized by the West", which is very unacceptable. Although China was defeated in the First Opium War, the Qing Dynasty still regarded itself as China, and calling foreigners "foreigners" was a traditional word for thousands of years. Bai Gui simply ignores Britain. In Beijing, the yamen for foreign affairs of the Prime Minister is called "Siyige".

Because Britain, France and other countries wanted to expand their interests in China, they joined hands with the United States and Russia with the same desire to launch the Second Opium War. The British and French allied forces captured Dagukou and reached the suburbs of Tianjin, threatening to attack Beijing, which made Emperor Xianfeng lose his head. So they sent people to sign the Tianjin Treaty with Britain, France, the United States and Russia. Article 51 of the treaty stipulates: "In the future, all kinds of official documents, whether outside Beijing or in Syria, shall not mention the Book of Changes. 」

A Chinese character has caused more than 30 years of political and diplomatic turmoil, which is rare in ancient and modern times. The Second Opium War dealt a great blow to the Qing Dynasty. From then on, the Qing Dynasty dared not call itself China, and the appellation of westerners changed from "foreigner" to "foreigner" and "foreigner's adult".