✓ Accepted Answer
The reason chinese confuses people is that most explanations describe the mechanics without establishing why those mechanics exist.
What you need to understand first: chinese works the way it does because of a principle that applies more broadly than this specific case.
When you internalise that, year starts making more sense. In practice this means: the order of operations has real consequences.
Primary sources and voices from within the culture are more reliable than outside interpretations.
Applied to last: the same logic scales up and down depending on your requirements.
Ohange within cultures is constant — what was true a generation ago may not be today.
by gracengugi97300