 As the editions progressed, each in turn featured new maps and geographical information regarding the West, using material that became available after the First Opium War.Although on publication the Treatise received scant attention in China, in the longer term, Wei and his contemporaries helped change the Chinese view of the outside world not only through the dissemination of new material but also by starting to change the view that China was the "center of civilization" or "center of the world" ("Middle Kingdom").Wei's work was also to have a later impact on Japanese foreign policy.