The Society for the Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge Among the Chinese (S.D.C.K.) was founded in 1887 in Shanghai

Shanghai

Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

, China. It was founded and led by a group of American and British Methodist missionaries including Young John Allen

Young John Allen

Young John Allen was an American Methodist missionary in late Qing Dynasty China with the American Southern Methodist Episcopal Mission. He is best known in China by his local name Lin Yuezhi ....

, William Alexander Parsons Martin

William Alexander Parsons Martin

William Alexander Parsons Martin was an American Presbyterian missionary to China and translator, famous for having translated a number of important Western treatises into Chinese, such as Henry Wheaton's Elements of International Law.He graduated from Indiana University in 1846, known at that...

, Timothy Richard

Timothy Richard

Timothy Richard was a British Baptist missionary to China, who influenced the modernisation of China and the rise of the Chinese Republic....

 and Alexander Williamson (missionary)

Alexander Williamson (missionary)

Alexander Williamson was a Scottish Protestant missionary to China with the London Missionary Society. He was known for his scholarship and translation work as well as founding of the Society for the Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge Among the Chinese or the Christian Literature Society...

. The Society endeavored to communicate Western concepts of Christianity and science among the Chinese through the translation of materials into the Chinese language. Its members also sought to prompt legal and institutional reform in China.

See also

• Protestant missionary societies in China during the 19th Century