**SHUNKING, DIOCESE OF** – In the central part of the province of Szechwan, in west-central China.
It was erected as an apostolic vicariate on 2 August 1929 with 7 civil subprefectures detached from the mission of Chengtu (v.) and entrusted to the Chinese secular clergy; on 11 April 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, it was elevated to a suffragan diocese of Chungking.
It covers an area of approximately 25,000 km². As of 30 June 1947, out of a total population of approximately 7,000,000 inhabitants, there were 18,755 Catholics; 25 priests; 7 major seminarians and 40 minor seminarians; 12 sisters. Among its works were 2 hospitals, 2 orphanages, and 44 schools.
Among the population entirely lost during the rebellion of Chang Hsieng-chung there were perhaps Christians who had been brought to the faith by the Jesuits, who arrived in Szechwan in 1640. The evangelization of colonists transferred to this territory from the provinces of Hupch and Hunan was the work of priests of the Paris Foreign Missions Society, who, after 1690, arrived in the city of Anyo and its surroundings.
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