Beyond the Stone Arches

An American Missionary Doctor in China, 1892-1932

Edward Bliss, Jr.

• Publisher: Trade Paper Press
• Year: 2007
• Print ISBN: 9780471397595
• eBook ISBN: 9780470232262
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Medicine Biographies

"The words of David Livingstone express my feelings better than any words of my own. 'God had an only son, and He was a missionary and a physician.' A poor, poor imitation of Him I am, or hope to be. In this service I hope to live; in it I wish to die." —Edward Bliss, 1892

In 1892—during the latter days of the Qing Dynasty—a 26-year-old Massachusetts native embarked on a dramatic journey to an outpost in feudal China. The man's name was Edward Bliss, and it was in the impoverished walled city of Shaowu that he fulfilled his dream of becoming a medical missionary and emerged as a true American hero.

In this inspired and riveting read, distinguished journalist Edward Bliss Jr.—the son of this original Peace Corpsman—tells the remarkable story of a courageous pioneer who selflessly risked his life to serve others. With the refreshing intimacy of a memoir and based in large part on letters Bliss wrote home, Beyond the Stone Arches takes us back to the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which saw an outpouring of missionaries to Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

Filled with drama and exhilarating anecdotes, Beyond the Stone Arches imparts the complete story of an American missionary: from Bliss's happy childhood in Newburyport, Massachusetts, to his rigorous days at Yale University, to the remote Chinese city where he battled malaria (which twice nearly killed him), plague, torrential floods, and, finally, the encroaching Communist armies to help make the world a better place in which to live. Bliss continued to heal the sick, toil as a farmer, deliver babies, and work to eradicate the rinderpest virus—all for the "glory of God and dignity of man"—until the early days of Mao Zedong when a Communist army descended on Shaowu.

This intimate glimpse into the life of Edward Bliss also provides a rare impression of the obstacles faced by missionaries in the feudal Chinese culture. A rare tribute, Beyond the Stone Arches is a luminous portrait of an exemplary figure, a man whose extraordinary life story offers us insight into how to face adversity in our own time.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Author’s Note
• I Feel I Have Fallen among Friends
• Below Nanping Are the Worst Rapids of All
• Strange How Clearly We Remember Long Past Events
• The Most Fool Thing I Ever Did
• I Found a Lifetime of Teaching Dead Languages Would Be Exceedingly Dull
• I Think I Always Have Been One to Get Off the Beaten Track
• At Night We Crawl into Our Cages
• Just Imagine That!
• It Is Good to Feel Needed
• A Strange Thing Happened on the Way to the Dispensary
• There Must Be Some Peculiarity in the Atmosphere
• A Great Way to Take a Tonic
• There Is No One to Consult, Only the Great Physician
• We Are Safe Here
• I Have Realized That Any Mail Might Bring Me News of Some Sorrow
• One Building Here Must Have a Lot of Patience
• How Good to Think of Being Home!
• I Have Come Home!
• There Is Still Hope!
• I Believe Now in Falling in Love
• There Was Plenty of Ventilation
• I Had to Move Warily to Avoid Gossip
• . . . Announce the Marriage of Their Daughter
• At Home after November the First, Shaowu, China
• Yes, I Played a Cornet
• Now We Are Three
• I Regret That We Did Not Put Up Houses Better Suited for the Chinese
• In This Way I Can Multiply Myself into Several
• They Are Highly Refined, Educated in Convents, I Suppose
• Come See the Clouds!
• I Am Growing Stronger All the Time for My Work
• There Are a Good Many Things Indicative of a Change
• Black Monday
• Marco Polo Climbed Here
• I Am Preoccupied with Cows
• We Aren’t Supposed to Solicit . . . but . . .
• Sometimes in a Certain Sense Discouraged
• I Must Admit I’m Tired
• Something May Turn Up to Keep Me Here for Some Time
• Now I Am Back Home Again
• We Must Help Them Extricate Themselves
• Now I Sleep Soundly at Night
• The Need Is Beyond Belief
• Rather Young to Send on Such a Long Journey
• On Christmas Day, as I Was Finishing My Pudding
• In the Morning I Found Havoc Everywhere
• Something in the Future Was Not Enough
• So That He Would Know There Was Something Here Worthwhile
• I Hope You Have Not Formed an Exaggerated Idea of the Importance of My Contribution
• Jianning Has Fallen
• The Red Army Is at the Gates
• Epilogue
• Index