Beyond the Stone Arches: An American Missionary Doctor in China, 1892-1932

257 Pages·2000·1.15 MB·English

by  Edward Bliss Jr.

B u s i n e s s C u l i n a r y A r c h i t e c t u r e
C o m p u t e r G e n e r a l I n t e r e s t
C h i l d r e n L i f e S c i e n c e s B i o g r a p h y
A c c o u n t i n g F i n a n c e M a t h e m a t i c s
H i s t o r y S e l f - I m p r o v e m e n t H e a l t h
E n g i n e e r i n g G r a p h i c D e s i g n
A p p l i e d S c i e n c e s P s y c h o l o g y
I n t e r i o r D e s i g n B i o l o g y C h e m i s t r y
e
WILEY
B O O K
WILEY
JOSSEY-BASS
PFEIFFER
J.K.LASSER
CAPSTONE
WILEY-LISS
WILEY-VCH
WILEY-INTERSCIENCE
Beyond the Stone
Arches
<
An American Missionary
Doctor in China, 1892–1932
Edward Bliss Jr.
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
New York • Chichester • Weinheim • Brisbane • Singapore • Toronto
fcopyebk.qxd 1/4/01 5:10 PM Page ii
Copyright © 2001 by Edward Bliss Jr. All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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ISBN 0-471-43703-4
This title is also available in print as ISBN 0-471-39759-8.
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Dedicated to Lois Arnette Bliss,
who wanted so much for the story to be told

Contents
<
Acknowledgments vii
Author’s Note viii
I Feel I Have Fallen among Friends 1
Below Nanping Are the Worst Rapids of All 7
Strange How Clearly We Remember Long Past Events 13
The Most Fool Thing I Ever Did 21
I Found a Lifetime of Teaching Dead Languages Would Be
Exceedingly Dull 26
I Think I Always Have Been One to Get Off the Beaten Track 32
At Night We Crawl into Our Cages 38
Just Imagine That! 43
It Is Good to Feel Needed 48
A Strange Thing Happened on the Way to the Dispensary 54
There Must Be Some Peculiarity in the Atmosphere 57
A Great Way to Take a Tonic 62
There Is No One to Consult, Only the Great Physician 68
We Are Safe Here 73
I Have Realized That Any Mail Might Bring Me News
of Some Sorrow 75
One Building Here Must Have a Lot of Patience 78
How Good to Think of Being Home! 83
I Have Come Home! 86
There Is Still Hope! 90
I Believe Now in Falling in Love 97
There Was Plenty of Ventilation 100
I Had to Move Warily to Avoid Gossip 103
. . . Announce the Marriage of Their Daughter 107
v
At Home after November the First, Shaowu, China 112
Yes, I Played a Cornet 115
Now We Are Three 117
I Regret That We Did Not Put Up Houses Better Suited
for the Chinese 122
In This Way I Can Multiply Myself into Several 125
They Are Highly Refined, Educated in Convents, I Suppose 128
Come See the Clouds! 131
I Am Growing Stronger All the Time for My Work 134
There Are a Good Many Things Indicative of a Change 138
Black Monday 142
Marco Polo Climbed Here 146
I Am Preoccupied with Cows 150
We Aren’t Supposed to Solicit . . . but . . . 157
Sometimes in a Certain Sense Discouraged 161
I Must Admit I’m Tired 164
Something May Turn Up to Keep Me Here for Some Time 168
Now I Am Back Home Again 174
We Must Help Them Extricate Themselves 177
Now I Sleep Soundly at Night 181
The Need Is Beyond Belief 187
Rather Young to Send on Such a Long Journey 193
On Christmas Day, as I Was Finishing My Pudding 199
In the Morning I Found Havoc Everywhere 206
Something in the Future Was Not Enough 209
So That He Would Know There Was Something Here
Worthwhile 213
I Hope You Have Not Formed an Exaggerated Idea
of the Importance of My Contribution 221
Jianning Has Fallen 224
The Red Army Is at the Gates 227
Epilogue 230
Index 237
vi
Acknowledgments
<
I AM IN DEBT to many people. Among them are Lurton Blas-
singame; Mervin Block; Leona Burr; Walter Cronkite; Joseph and
Margot Dembo; Bob Edwards; John K. Fairbank; Grace Funk;
H.T. Huang; Walter H. Judd; Philomena Jurey; Edwin Kellogg;
Robert McClure, Anne Bliss Mascolino; Edward R. Murrow; Gary
Nurenberg; William L. Plante Jr.; George Shepherd; Emerson Law
Stone; Julia Storrs Strode; Josephine Walker; and my sisters, Ruth
Bliss Buddington and Elisabeth Bliss Dinsmore, who shared their
memories.
I am grateful for the assistance of the American Board of Com-
missioners for Foreign Missions, the Yale University Library, and
the Houghton Library at Harvard University. I am profoundly
grateful to Deborah Grosvenor, my agent, and to Hana Umlauf
Lane, the editor at John Wiley & Sons who gave me invaluable
guidance. I appreciate the care taken by Faith Duvall in typing the
manuscript.
What I owe Lois Arnette Bliss, my wife and loving primary
editor, is beyond measure.
vii
Author’s Note
<
THIS IS THE STORY of my father in China. The life is re-created
from letters and long conversations, and some from firsthand
because I shared the adventure. Most of the action takes place in
Fujian Province, in a walled city called Shaowu situated on a beau-
tiful, dangerous river, the Min, which has its source in the moun-
tains west of Shaowu and slithers southeastward across the breadth
of Fujian to the sea. Until after World War II, no railroad con-
nected Fujian with any other province. Hemmed in by mountains
on three sides and facing the natural moat of the Taiwan Strait on
the other, the region was able for more than a thousand years to
remain proudly independent of the dynasties to the north.
China was my father’s life. A predecessor to those in the
Peace Corps, he healed, farmed, delivered babies, and bred cattle
for the glory of God and the dignity of man. He served from the
latter days of the Qing Dynasty to the early days of Mao Zedong.
viii
China about 1900
A
I
L
O
G
N
O
M
Inset Map
Guangze
Shaowu
M
i Nanping
n
Kienning River Foochow
F U J I A N JAPAN
KOREA
Peking
Nanking
Shanghai
Suzhou
Wuhan East
Jiujlang
Nanping China
Nanchang
Shaowu
CHINA Gutian Sea
Kienning Foochow
See Inset Map
Above
FORMOSA
Guangzhou
Hong Kong
© 2000 by D. L. McElhannon