Believe it or not, it is the real thing
that not a few Japanese people who does not know Chinese
can read and understand text written in Chinese by using
special method such as the following method. 1. Historical backgroud
About 1500 years ago, Kanji had been brought up to Japan
from China, and The Japanese had no letters for writing
until then. But, The Japanese at those days invented
method native to Japanese, please see Japanese Kanji
symbols #2 in the left column. Todays, all Japanese
people can phonate Kanji #2 in two ways, which is HITO
and JIN. Though HITO in Japanese means Humans, Japanese
people at those days left another pronunciation similar
to Chinese, JIN(CHIN). As a result, The Japanese could
apply Kanji in Chinese to Japanese letters which have the
same meaning. Though it would be difficult to understand,
Japanese Kanji symbols have two aspects. In other words,
Japanese are very strange language, which includes
letters of another language, and are composed of inherent
letters (Kana letters) and letters of another language.
2. How to read and understand
text in Chinese
Though it's natural to differ between language, Japanese
and Chinese differ in word order, and so The ancient
Japanese added several special sign, which means reading
order, to original text in Chinese for reading as
Japanese like the left column. Though it may be
unbelievable thing, The Japanese can really read and
understand Chinese text as Japanese, adding these signs
to original Chinese text. What is more important, to
understand Japanese text, which are also Chinese text,
such as the left column was indispensable knowledge for
Samurai in Edo-priod (A.D1603-1867). At those days,
Japan's highbrows could learn Confucianism without
translating to Japanese from Chinese. Probably phenomenon
like this never exists in the world's history, and most
of Japanese highschool student must learn KANBUN , which
is Japanese like the left column as the example, even in
the todays. Again, sentence in the left column is in
Japanese but also is in Chinese. What The ancient
Japanese invented is the very groundbreaking theory, and
to my regret, you would never know the fact.
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