At that time, Qianlong began to completely close its doors politically and gradually closed its trade barriers with foreign countries. At that time, some western countries carried out industrial revolution and produced many advanced products. Especially after China obtained the manufacturing method of gunpowder, after many studies, he produced guns and pistols, which were very powerful. However, the Qing Dynasty ignored all this, neither recognized these scientific and technological products nor studied these western technologies, but stubbornly believed that he was the best.
In Qianlong's mind, the western countries are still in the era of eating and drinking blood, but they don't know that earth-shaking changes have taken place outside, and because they have lived in the palace for a long time, they know nothing about the changes outside. Although Xiao Shenyang is an official of the imperial court, he is also engaged in business. In order to make money, he often secretly sent ships out to sea to bring back goods from the west, and sold them to dignitaries in the Qing Dynasty at high prices for profiteering.
With more and more times of going to sea, Xiao Shenyang realized that the Qing Dynasty needed progress and change with his keen political sense, so he wrote down his thoughts in detail and presented them to Qianlong, but he was denounced by Qianlong. In Qianlong's view, those things in western countries are not as good as those left by our ancestors, and if those weapons are not well controlled in the west, how can their own safety be guaranteed? Therefore, Qianlong refused the memorial of Xiao Shenyang.