If I ask you now, if a foreign businessman in China asks to bring his wife to accompany you, can you agree to do so? You must be wondering, this question still needs to be asked, of course. However, in the Qing Dynasty, there was such a ridiculous policy that was explicitly prohibited, stipulating that Western "Yi women" were not allowed to enter China, including the families of Yi merchants in China.
Before the outbreak of the Opium War, the British government had been dissatisfied with the Qing government's foreign policy, including the strict control of foreign businessmen bringing female dependents to China. Foreign merchants brought their wives across the ocean, and they could enter the port themselves, but their wives could only stay on the ship. This caused a lot of dissatisfaction to the Qing government. In the end, two foreigners resisted with practical actions. One of them was the Dutch merchant "Lao Lian", who owned a 600-ton ship. Lao Lian's family took a boat from the Netherlands for more than ten months to finally arrive at the Lion Ocean, but they did not expect to receive a ban at this time, Lao Lian himself could enter Guangzhou, but his wife and daughter were not allowed to go ashore. At this time, the old man was upset, and he quickly asked the Dutch Trading House to intercede with the Guangzhou government, and his wife and daughter had come from afar, so how could they stay on the ship? The anxious old man could not wait for a reply for a while, so he had to take his wife and daughter from Macao into Guangzhou. The situation was immediately serious. However, Guangzhou officials considered that Lao Lian was a "big class" and decided not to punish him, on the premise that the female relatives must be brought back to Macao to live, and anyway, there are foreigners over there, go back to the circle where you should stay. Lao Lian had to do so.
After this incident occurred, the Guangzhou government issued an explicit decree that when Yishang came to China, they must search for foreign female dependents on the ship, and if they did, they would either send them to Macao, and if they did not want to grievance the female dependents, they would go back to their respective homes and not come to do business. If our relevant officials deliberately conceal the facts for foreigners, they will punish the officials. It stopped for a while. After a few years, for various reasons, Qianlong ordered that only one port be opened from then on, and that foreign ships that could only be moored from the Guangdong Customs as long as they traded. Then two years later, the Guangzhou government issued more stringent regulations for foreign businessmen, "Yi merchants can only live in commercial halls, can not spend the winter in Guangzhou, female relatives can not be brought to Guangzhou, can only stay in Macao, can not sit in a palanquin, can not learn Chinese" and other dumb iron orders. Under all kinds of regulations that violate the liberal democratic and open ideas of the West, the dissatisfaction of foreign businessmen has accumulated, and one foreign businessman has complained that these Chinese officials have turned us into monks, and in Guangzhou, you don't want to meet women.
Eighty years later, another "Lao Lian" challenged the Qing government, but this time he already knew about the ban but deliberately provoked it. This person is the chairman of a British company in China, a famous teacher. Pan Shi was strongly dissatisfied with the Chinese government's closed and inhumane foreign policy, so he colluded with a local merchant to provide him with a palanquin, and he openly took his wife in a palanquin on the main road in Guangzhou. It seriously challenged the majesty of the Guangzhou government. Guangzhou officials ordered Pan Shi to take his wife to Macau, but Pan Shi refused, and he wrote to the Guangzhou government, accusing him of not allowing foreign businessmen to bring their legal spouses into the country as inhumane and an insult to foreigners. The letter was ignored by the Guangzhou government. Government officials have issued an order that if you do not take your wife to Macau within three days, you will be sent to drive you away. At this time, many people on the British side were annoyed, and the next day they gathered a lot of armed personnel into the trading house, and the contradiction seemed to be about to break out. Fortunately, at this time, Panshi's company sent someone to send a message, saying that he did not support Panshi's use of force. In the end, the two sides mediated, and the Guangzhou government let them stay in Guangzhou for several months under the pretext of Panshi's wife's ill health.
The Opium War soon broke out. The Treaty of Nanking, the first unequal treaty signed by the modern Chinese government, clearly defined regulations on allowing foreigners to bring female dependents to China. At this time, the Qing government itself was difficult to protect, and it did not have the heart to manage so much, so it signed the matter. In fact, having said all this, I believe that everyone has a general understanding of why the Qing government regarded foreign women as flood beasts in the beginning. One point is that the Chinese atmosphere at that time was too closed, and it could not stand the exposed clothing and free words and deeds of foreign women, thinking that it was against morality. Another point is that by not allowing these foreign businessmen to bring their female dependents, they can effectively prevent them from staying in China for too long. For these two reasons, the Qing government chose to prohibit foreign businessmen from bringing female dependents, which is simply ironic. In fact, no matter when, opening up our minds and learning the courage of "hai na bai chuan" is also very important for our own development.