Congrégation de La Mission is one of the five Catholic orders that came into China during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It was founded at Paris in 1625 with a call to preach in the countryside and among the poor. The mission arrived in China on a large scale in 1773, totalling 946 missionaries (including Chinese priests) during 1697 and 1935, and inherited the legacy of Jesuits who had left China. Its missonaries played an important role in China's missionary history, in the history of cultural exchange between East and West, and in the history of Western Sinology.