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 importanceto both family and the society. As for family,marriage can bring families of different surnamestogether, and continue the family life of theconcerned clans. Socially, a married couple is thebasic unit of the population;sometimes marriages can even affect the country's politicalstability and international relations. From the perspective of Confucianism, one purpose ofmarriage is to cultivate virtue.The Chinese have seen that marriage should be founded on lovesince the concept of monogamy is deeply rooted in their mindset. Due to the concept of filialpiety and propriety, marriage has become a costly affair and been seen as second only tofuneral ceremonies. The employ of a matchmaker can ensure that the husband and wife arecompatible with each other,but primarily work in the families'best interests.

　　算盤(abacus)是中國傳統的計算工具，也是中國古代的一項重大發明。阿拉伯數字出現以前，算盤在世界各地廣泛使用。算盤是矩形的木框，木框上固定著帶算珠的木桿。木框中間的橫梁(beam)將木桿分成兩部分：木桿上方的兩顆算珠 (counting beads)每個代表5,下方的五顆算珠每個代表1。隨著算盤的應用，人們總結出很多計算技巧，提高了計算速度。由于算盤易于制造，而且計算口訣易于記憶和操作，因此算盤在中國十分流行。

　　As a traditional Chinese calculation tool and animportant ancient Chinese invention,the abacuswas widely used before the invention of Arabicnumerals in the world. The abacus is a rectanglewith a wooden frame. Within the frame,rods withstringed beads are fixed. The beam in the middle of the frame divides each rod into two parts.The two counting beads in the upper part of each rod represent five and the rest five beads inthe lower part represent one. With the application of the abacus, people summarized manycalculation tips to help improve the speed of calculation. As the abacus is simple toproduce, and its calculation tips are easy to memorize and operate, it is quite popular inChina.