Kanbun

The Japanese word kanbun or kambun (漢文?, "Han/Chinese writing") originally meant "Classical Chinese writings, Chinese classic texts, Classical Chinese literature". This evolved into a Japanese method of reading annotated Classical Chinese in translation (c.f. interlinear gloss for European tradition). Much Japanese literature was written in literary Chinese using this annotated style. As this was the general writing style for official and intellectual works for many centuries, Sino-Japanese vocabulary makes up a large portion of the modern Japanese language lexicon, and much old Chinese literature is accessible to Japanese readers in some semblance of the original.