 This use of the pejorative to describe a foreign nation was not unusual for Chinese official documents of the time; so much so, that a major bone of contention between Imperial China and the Treaty Powers of the day had previously been the habitual use of the Chinese character 夷, ('Yi'...which literally meant 'barbarian'), to refer to those termed otherwise as 'Foreign Devils', (typically, those powers occupying the Treaty Ports).The use of the term 'Yi' (夷) by Chinese Imperial officials had in fact been considered so provocative by the Treaty Powers, that the collective bundle of accords known as the Treaty of Tientsin, (negotiated in 1858 to end the Second Opium War), explicitly proscribed the Chinese Imperial Court from using the term 'Yi' - to refer to officials, subjects, or citizens of the four belligerent powers, (namely, the Russian Empire, France, Great Britain and the United States of America); the signatories seemingly feeling it necessary to extract this specific demand from the Xianfeng Emperor's representatives.In the thirty-five years elapsing since the Treaty of Tientsin, however, the language of the Chinese Emperors would appear to change little with regards to its neighbour, Japan.