caption death_date death_place birth_place image_size birth_date image article_title name
missionary to china 10 february 1887 london , england london , england 125px 6 april 1815 alexanderwylie.jpg alexander wylie -lrb- missionary -rrb-
 alexander wylie
alexander wylie -lrb- missionary -rrb-

alexander wylie -lrb- traditional chinese : 偉烈亞力 , simplified chinese : 伟烈亚力 -rrb- -lrb- 6 april 1815 -- 10 february 1887 -rrb- , british protestant christian missionary to china .
he is known for his translation work and scholarship during the late qing dynasty .
he was born in london , and went to school at drumlithie , kincardineshire , and at chelsea .
while apprenticed to a cabinet-maker , wylie picked up a chinese grammar written in latin , and after mastering the latter tongue made such good progress in chinese that in 1846 james legge engaged him to superintend the london missionary society 's press at shanghai .
in this position he acquired a wide knowledge of chinese religion and civilisation , and especially of mathematics , so that he was able to demonstrate in his paper `` jottings on the science of the chinese '' that sir george horner 's method -lrb- 1819 -rrb- of solving equations of all orders had been known to the chinese mathematicians of the 14th century .
he made several journeys into the interior , notably in 1858 with lord elgin on a british navy gunboat up the yangtze and to nanking , where he served as one member of a delegation of three to meet with officials of the taiping , and in 1868 with griffith john to the capital of szechuen and the source of the han .
he completed the distribution of one million chinese new testaments provided by the british and foreign bible society 's special fund of 1855 .
from 1863 he was an agent of the british and foreign bible society .
he was succeeded by samuel dyer , junior , the son of samuel dyer and brother-in-law of hudson taylor .
in chinese he translated books on arithmetic , calculus -lrb- loomis -rrb- , algebra -lrb- de morgan 's -rrb- , mechanics , astronomy -lrb- herschel 's -rrb- , in collaboration with li shanlan , and `` the marine steam engine '' -lrb- tj main and t brown -rrb- , as well as translations of the gospel according to matthew and the gospel according to mark .
in english his chief works were `` jottings on the science of the chinese '' , published in 1853 , shanghai , a collection of articles published under the title `` chinese researches by alexander wylie '' -lrb- shanghai , 1897 -rrb- .
`` memorials of protestant missionaries '' -lrb- 1867 -rrb- , `` notes on chinese literature '' -lrb- shanghai , 1867 -rrb- , he also published an article on the nestorian tablet in xian .
his health and eyesight was failing and he returned to london in 1877 .
in 1882 , he sold about 20,000 chinese titles and antique books which he had amassed in china to the oxford library .
his collection is now housed in the bodleian library as the alexander wylie collection .
blind and bed-ridden , he died at his home in hampstead on 6 february 1887 and was buried in highgate cemetery .
