Treaty of Tientsin
The use of "Yí" 夷 continued into modern times. The "Oxford English Dictionary" defines "barbarian" (3.c) as, "Applied by the Chinese contemptuously to foreigners", and cites the 1858 Treaty of Tientsin prohibiting the Chinese from calling the British "Yí". () states, "It is agreed, that henceforward the character "I" 夷 ('barbarian') shall not be applied to the Government or subjects of Her Britannic Majesty, in any Chinese official document." This prohibition in the Treaty of Tientsin had been the end result of a long dispute between the Qing and British officials regarding the translation, usage and meaning of "Yí". Many Qing officials argued that the term did not mean “barbarians,” but their British counterparts disagreed with this opinion. Using the linguistic concept of heteroglossia, Lydia Liu analyzed the significance of "yí" in Articles 50 and 51 as a "super-sign":