The Catholic Church's unwillingness to allow Chinese converts to keep their Confucian traditions was not well received in China. To prevent a foreign religion from interring in Chinese domestic affairs, the Manchu government decided to close its door to all foreigners.

On 12th January 1724, the newly crowned Emperor Yong-zheng (雍正皇帝, reign 1722–1735), son and successor of Emperor Kang-xi’s (康熙大帝, reign 1661–1722), approved the recommendation by his Ministry of Rites (礼部) and issued an imperial edict proscribing Catholicism as “non-canonical (不经)." Proselytisation was banned.

Missionaries, except science experts who served in the royal court, were sent to Guangzhou and later deported to the nearby Portuguese colony of Macau.

On 11th February 1724, the decree was published and circulated throughout China.

This banning of Christianity effectively ended the Golden Era of Catholicism in China which started when Father Matteo Ricci stepped foot into the Forbidden City in 1601. Since then, over a quarter of a million Chinese had been converted, including a handful of high-level government officials, which was part of the Jesuits' "top-down" strategy of hoping to eventually transform the entire Middle Kingdom; however, this was not to be for by end Emperor Kang-xi’s reign, China was already frustrated by the increasingly rigid policies from Rome.

With the proscription, the Qing subjects were forbidden from practising Christianity — although enforcement varied in different places and at different times — for over a century, until the end of the Opium Wars.

When Portuguese ambassador Alexander Metello asked Emperor Yong-zheng to permit the unhampered evangelisation of his subjects, he was met swiftly with rejection.

The emperor did call in ten leading missionaries, including Father Antoine Gaubil (宋君荣, 1689–1759) and Father Dominique Parrenin (巴多明, 1665–1741), to explain his position on the matter.

Father Gaubil recorded Emperor Yong-zheng’s comments. “If you had kept in better touch with Metello,” the emperor said, “and if you had clarified my position to him, he would never have dared to speak to me as he did. He demanded that I let you have your churches back and preach your law, as you were allowed to do in the time of my father Kang-xi (康熙皇帝).… Even if the pope and all the monarchs of Europe were to come here in person, I would not grant them what Metello asked for.… The complaints I have heard about you from my people! You yourselves I know to be honest men, but a Prince less tolerant than I would have expelled you long ago.… Tell me, if I ever decided to send my bonzes to proselytise the people in your European provinces, would your rulers even let them in?"