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“Elopement” is a term or an event with some sort of mysteriousness. In China, stories about runaway lovers are quite a lot. Some may wonder, what eventually happened to the runaway lovers, or if there were happy endings to those brave lovers. “私奔”总是个神秘的话题。在中国，也有很多关于私奔的故事。你也许会好奇：私奔最终会有怎样的结局，那些勇敢的情侣们会有个圆满的结局吗？ In ancient China, elopement mainly referred to the act of running away with one’s beloved. The lovers, usually not able to gain approval of marriage from parents, had to resort to a secret runaway. Mostly the female lover would follow her beloved male lover. 在古代中国，私奔是指和所爱的人一起逃跑。情侣们的婚姻得不到父母的支持，不得不选择秘密逃跑。通常，是女方跟随男方逃跑。 In fact, “elopement” seldom happened in ordinary households. In the rich or official families, as the young generation received a relatively higher education, there were cases of young lovers going against their parents’ wish and running away for marriage freedom. However, as the act did not accord with the value of “arranging a match by parents’ order and on the matchmaker’s word” which was much advocated by the feudal ethics, not many stories of runaway lovers have been handed down. 事实上，在普通家庭中，私奔是很少发生的。在一些权贵家庭，年轻一代所接受的教育水平比较高，容易背离父母一辈的期望，为了婚姻自由而私奔。但是由于私奔的行为不符合“父母之命，媒妁之言”的封建传统价值观，流传下来的关于私奔的故事相当之少。 | 
