日文的文體，依形式可分為正格漢文、變體漢文、和文與和漢混淆文等。以候文採用和習、正字表記與倒置記法等表述方法，顯示該文體屬於變體漢文的文言文。同時，候文也是日文書面語中，與口語差距最大的一種，其特徵是以「候」字結尾。接續在「候」字後面，除了稀有終助詞「也、哉、歟、耶、乎」、形式名詞「事」與連語「了、畢、訖」之外，幾乎不得接續其他字彙。就語法形式觀之，候文雖有表達時態（aspect）的「致居候」、「罷居候」等表現，但在時貌（tense）的概念上並不明確。因此，閱讀候文時，除了時間詞外，亦須特別注意語境。另外，候文也有在表記上追求簡潔的特色，可以在省略標點符號，以及使用合字與踊字等方面窺見。
儘管研究候文的相關論著不少，但多數皆以日文書寫或出版，似乎無法給予初學者太多的幫助。反觀以中文撰寫的專著，或限於文法的說明仍未見完備，或在判讀方法上的剖析不足；有鑑於此，本文擬始自候文成立之緣由，漸次論及其句型、用字法與措辭法的特色，提供讀者作為判讀候文資料的參考。

Traditional Japanese language and writing styles fall within the following categories: seikaku-kanbun (Literary Chinese, 正格漢文), hentai-kanbun (Japanized Chinese, 變體漢文), wabun (Native Japanese, 和文), and wakan-konkoubun (a combination of Chinese and Japanese, 和漢混淆文). Souroubun (候文) belongs to the group of hentai-kanbun. There are numerous examples which illustrate how souroubun comes under the heading of hentai-kanbun. Washu (a mistake in wording as a Chinese, 和習), seiji (borrowed words from Chinese, 正字), and inversion clearly shows that souroubun falls under the category of hentai-kanbun. Souroubun is a Japanese literary language which is completely different from the spoken Japanese language. The most important feature of this writing style is that the sentences end with the character “sourou”(候). With the exception of a few final particles (終助詞), formal nouns (形式名詞) and compound words (連語) “sourou” is never followed by other words and is always the final character of every sentence. From a grammatical point of view, souroubun has expressions of aspect, for instance “itashi-ori-sourou” (致居候), “makari-ari-sourou” (罷居候) and the like, however, the concept of tense in souroubun is not clear, and so special attention must be paid to the time-adverb, auxiliary verb and context, that is the conjunction of the sentence, when reading souroubun. In addition, souroubun uses gouji (合字) or odoriji (踊字) and omits punctuation. This clearly shows that souroubun pursues brevity and compactness.

Although many studies on souroubun have already been published, most of the research is written in Japanese, and is not helpful for beginners, whose native languages are not Japanese. Meanwhile, studies written in Chinese focus primarily on explanations of grammar. They tend to be limited to a very narrow and specific topic, and do not provide adequate guidance in reading the language. For these reasons, in this article, I would like to examine the origins of souroubun, the features of its basic sentence pattern, the structures of character and phraseology.