官员们紧紧抓住仪式和规则不放，但信念和效果却越来越差。

 到了18世纪末，外国人正在向南方的清帝国的大门逼近。

为了击退他们，官员们紧紧抓住仪式和规则不放，但信念和效果却越来越差。

他们放弃了来访者是来进贡的假象，并承认他们可以在选定的港口与天朝进行贸易。

在其中一个港口，即广州，当地商人于1720年成立了一个行会，被外国人称为Cohong，以垄断与商人的联系，并控制价格、费用和敲诈。

既要向不可避免的事情低头，又要设法管理外国人并从他们身上获利，这种结合成为中国持久的政策。

By the late eighteenth century, foreigners were pushing at the doors of the Qing empire in the south. To repel them, officials clung to ritual and rules, with decreasing conviction or effect. They dropped the pretence that the visitors had come to offer tribute and conceded that they might trade with the celestial empire at selected ports. At one of these, Guangzhou, local merchants set up a guild, known to foreigners as the Cohong, in 1720 to monopolise contacts with the traders and to control prices, fees and rakeoffs. The combination of bowing to the inevitable while seeking to manage the foreigners and to profit from them became enduring Chinese policy.

1760年，一个气急败坏的皇帝下令，所有贸易必须限制在广州。

外国人只允许在贸易季节居住在那里，这个季节受季风影响，从十月到三月。

此外，他们只能与漕帮打交道，在发生纠纷时只能与漕帮成员沟通。

帝国官员仍然保持着冷漠的隐居状态，没有屈尊去见野蛮人，而且常常不屑于审查他们的请愿书。

对某些人来说，这是为了激发他们的敬畏之心，而对许多中国人来说，这显得很壮观。

在一个西方列强的军事、经济和外交实力不断增长的时代，这是极不明智的。

In 1760 an exasperated emperor ordered that all trade must be restricted to Guangzhou. The foreigners were permitted to reside there only in the trading season, which was governed by the monsoons and ran from October to March. Moreover, they could deal only with the Cohong and might communicate only with its members in the event of disputes. Imperial officials remained in aloof seclusion, did not condescend to meet the barbarians, and often disdained to examine their petitions. To a certain cast of mind this was meant to inspire awe and to many Chinese it appeared magnificent. In an age when the Western powers were growing in military, economic and diplomatic might it was extremely unwise.