The Thirty-Six Stratagems is an ancient bookconcerning the art of war. The thirty-six stratagemsare arranged in terms of their names and can fall intosix categories.The stratagems’names in the bookhave different origins.Some are from historicalstories, such as “besieging Wei to save Zhao”;some are from ancient military terms,such as“making a feint to the east but attacking in the west”;and some are from idioms, such as“pointing at the mulberry but scolding the locust tree”. Each stratagem name is followed by anexplanation and notes. The notes are mostly sharp statements quoted from war examplesbefore the Song Dynasty as well as from famous ancient strategists. After the composition ofthe Thirty-Six Stratagems, it has been widely read in the general public and the phrase “of allthirty-six stratagems, fleeing is the best” is also frequently used.

　　儒家學派(Confucianism)認為婚姻對家庭和社會都有重大意義。對于家庭，婚姻能將不同姓氏的家庭聚在一起，延續相關家族的家庭生活。對于社會，夫妻是人口的基本單位，婚姻有時能影響到國家的政治穩定和國際關系。從儒家思想來看， 婚姻的目的之一是培養美德。一夫一妻制(monogamy)的觀念根深蒂固，中國人明白婚姻應該建立在愛情的基礎上。出于孝(filial piety)與禮(propriety)的觀念，婚姻成了昂貴的儀式，被認為僅次于葬禮。聘媒人(matchmaker)可以確保丈夫和妻子彼此般配，但主要是為了家庭的最大利益。

　　To the Confucians, marriage is of great importance to both family and the society. As for family, marriage can bring families of different surnames together, and continue the family life of the concerned clans. Socially, a married couple is the basic unit of the population;sometimes marriages can even affect the country's political stability and international relations. From the perspective of Confucianism, one purpose of marriage is to cultivate virtue.The Chinese have seen that marriage should be founded on love since the concept of monogamy is deeply rooted in their mindset. Due to the concept of filial piety and propriety, marriage has become a costly affair and been seen as second only to funeral ceremonies. The employ of a matchmaker can ensure that the husband and wife are compatible with each other,but primarily work in the families'best interests.

　　中國最早的文字主要是商朝時期刻在龜殼或獸骨上的甲骨文(Jiaguwen)。1899年，商朝的甲骨文碑文(inscriptions)在商朝晚期的都城河南安陽被發現。迄今為止，安陽共出土了10萬多個龜殼和獸骨;龜殼和獸骨上發現的漢字約有4500個，其中1700個已得到確認。這為我們研究漢字起源提供了重要素材。過去，人們普遍認為商朝的甲骨文是最早的漢字。但是，20世紀80年代在西安郊區發現了一些刻有文字的龜殼和獸骨。考古學家證實這些漢字約產生于4000多年以前，比甲骨文還早。

　　The earliest characters once existed in China are Jiaguwen carved on tortoise shells or animal bones, mainly during the Shang Dynasty. In 1899，the inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty's Jiaguwen were detected in Anyang of Henan Province which was the capital in the late Shang Dynasty. So far, altogether more than 100,000 pieces of tortoise shells and animal bones have been unearthed from Anyang;about 4,500 Chinese characters have been found on the tortoise shells and animal bones, among which 1,700 have been confirmed.These are very important materials for us to research into the origin of Chinese characters. In the past, people generally considered Jiaguwen of the Shang Dynasty as the earliest Chinese characters. But in 1980s, some other tortoise shells and animal bones carved with characters were found in the suburb of Xi'an. Archaeologists made sure that these characters were about 4,000 years ago, even earlier than Jiaguwen.