"Citation" and "Footnote" are both cryptic passages of Classical Chinese.
Instances of these are seen throughout the entire work.
Even for Li Shi (Master-), who is proficient in Chinese, he had to slow down his reading speed to comprehend, occasionally resorting to the aid of a dictionary and the internet to look up relevant allusions.
For others without a foundation in ancient texts and history, getting the hang of this would indisputably be several times more strenuous than for him.
However, even Li Shi's mastery of the Chinese language has been silently improving as the learning continues.
"The disciplines of literature and history are inseparable, and this is one reason why."
"If I keep learning this way, reading the Twenty-Four Histories in the future will become much easier."
Time flew by in the voyage through historical perspective and before he knew it, it was past eleven.