During the reign of Guangxu，a large number of Choson people crossed the Tumen River and settled in the territory of Qing Dynasty. The way the Qing handled this problem swung between sticking to tradition and adapting to circumstances. Choson proposed a “borrowing settlement” approach to retain the management power over the refugees，which was not approved by the Qing Dynasty. After the signing of the Qing-Choson Trade Treaty，the two countries negotiated about the Li Fanyun Incident. From the negotiation process，it can be seen that the historical inertia of the tributary system still played an important role in the border negotiations.