I now declare this bazaar open

Once upon a time, Japan was looking at China's texts and thought "wouldn't it be great if I could write and read like that?" But poor little Japan had a complete other grammar structure than big China, and so it just didn't work out. Japan sat down and set up some rules and secret codes in order to be able to read classic chinese texts. And so Kanbun was invented, a system that would last for many centuries way over the Meiji Restoration.

Unfortunately, that day someone had spiked Japan's tea, and the rules turned out to be pure crack.




Or, like someone in my class said, it's like trying to solve a 10 000 piece-puzzle of a blue sky over a blue ocean.