China has no native grammatical tradition to speak of. (Both a blessing and a curse, I guess, considering the damage done by centuries of (mis)analysing English as an aberrant version of Latin.) From ancient times on, students were supposed to learn the rules by imitation of the classics, not direct analysis. The standards have changed--no one is expected to write like Confucius any more--but the methods don't seem to have. No wonder even many Chinese will tell you that Chinese "has no grammar".

Even linguists are still struggling with how best to analyse Chinese grammar. (Not surprising because, IMHO, they are still struggling with how best to analyse language in general.) My Chinese teacher still doesn't think she's seen a treatment that does the language justice. I need something for my analytic brain to seize hold of, however, so I rely on Li and Thompson's 1981 reference grammar.