Say: Uncle!

If you have never trained martial arts in China, or under a teacher that perpetuates Chinese culture, you would probably never have had to learn the titles used within a Chinese martial arts family. I appreciate that this is second nature in China (and places of Chinese culture), so let me attempt to bring the idea across here, in the hope that you find this helpful in your future training or maybe when watching a Kung Fu movie!

Western versions of traditional Chinese martial arts are constantly battling with the question of how to best bring across the beauty of the culture while making certain other aspects are more palatable to Western tastes and sensibilities. As a teacher in the West you might find that a hierarchical structure doesn’t work for you, and as it is your prerogative to choose what aspects you use when teaching, why should you perpetuate a practice you feel negatively towards? If you option aspects of a tradition, you should be really clear as to why you keep what you do, and why you have chosen to let certain things pass into antiquity, but before you go there, let’s explore the titles aspect here a little first.

A Show of Respect

It is common usage in China to use the term shifu to refer to someone who is skilled in what they do, and has obviously acquired that skill over a long period of practice. It relates to the shifu in question demonstrating 功夫 (Gōngfu) [Kung Fu] with their chosen skill. The definition of Kung Fu being; ‘skill acquired over time, through consistent effort’. Should you meet the chef of a particularly tasty meal or receive a ride from a talented taxi driver, it would not seem strange to refer to her (or him) as shifu. Whatever their skill or trade, referring to them as shifu acknowledges the hard work they put into it. Were I to write this version of shifu down, I would use: 師傅 (Shīfu) [master-teacher]. Side Note: sometimes this can get used when just being polite to an older adult.

Kung Fu teachers are sometimes referred to as 師父 (Shīfu) [Sifu in Cantonese]. Shifu and Sifu use the same hanzi (Chinese written characters), the only difference being dialect. Shifu literally means ‘Teacher-Father’ but it is also used for a female martial arts teacher too. If you hear 老師 (Lǎoshī) [respected teacher] being used, this would indicate more of a standard nature to the relationship rather than a familial one. Think of it like calling your teacher ‘coach’ or ‘instructor’. Laoshi is also used in an academic environment, like evening classes or how children would refer to their school teachers.

Tudi or Not Tudi

Referring to your teacher as Shifu is supposed to indicate that you have gone through a 拜師 (Bàishī) [discipleship ceremony]. The student is then referred to as a 徒弟 (Túdì) [disciple] or an ‘inside-the-door’ student. A non-disciple is known as a 學徒 (Xuétú) [student] (lit. apprentice / learning-disciple), or sometimes as a 學生 (Xuésheng). Xuésheng is the also the version of ‘student’ that a child at school would be referred to as.

Becoming a disciple comes with responsibilities and benefits. The teacher becomes a father-figure, and this can extend to caring for him, should he become ill or infirm. A disciple is to show the same respect to his shifu as he would his own father, and he is also required to carry on the style’s lineage through teaching and promotion. The benefit of taking on the responsibility of being a disciple is that (s)he is then supposed to be taught without anything being held back. The logic of this is that traditional teachers didn’t teach all the ‘secrets’ to just anyone who walked through the doors to their schools. Martial arts were often family or village systems of protection, and as such you wouldn’t want other people to be able to second guess your attacks, just because they had had the chance to study your fighting methods. If you taught completely openly you could end up teaching thugs and mobsters, which although you could argue that their money is as good as anyone else’s, it could also lead to you (socially) being considered an advocate for their criminal or anti-social behaviour.

The bottom line is that disciples would be taught the true version of the art, and the public would potentially be taught a slightly faulty or ineffectual version of the system. When a public student became trusted, they could be brought into the Kung Fu family and become a tudi. Prior to the introduction of firearms into society, trust was very important in regard to passing on potentially lethal techniques. Today’s society is quite different and it is rare that criminal types are likely to put in the effort to acquire these skills. A weapon will level the playing field with little to no training, so why would it be in their interests to pursue a path that would likely lead them to grow as people and challenge negative behaviours? Personally, I feel that these days “the secrets keep themselves” ₍₂₎

It’s a Family Affair

One side benefit to the familial hierarchy system is, if your teacher is not around, you could ask your senior brothers and sisters for further instruction. It is implied that they would have the greater experience and knowledge through having spent more time with their teacher. Another scenario would be to imagine your teacher has passed away and you want to continue to learn that same style. The most logical place to start would be to see if his Kung Fu brothers and sisters (your Kung Fu uncles and aunties) would be willing to teach you. In theory, their version of the system would be the same (or nigh-on identical), having descended from the same grand-teacher.

Seniority

It would be too simple for the Chinese to just refer to their fellow disciples as brothers / sisters. In Chinese, brothers and sisters are never just that, the nouns for brother and sister always includes the information of whether they are older or younger too. In Chinese martial arts, ‘big’ or ‘little’ is purely a reference to the timing of discipleship, it has nothing to do with a person’s actual age. You can have a much older man become a disciple after you, he would still become your ‘little brother’. In case this seems confusing, let me give a few examples to help clarify;

To refer to a man (or woman) that became a disciple of my teacher’s teacher before my teacher did, I would use ‘big uncle’ (even if she is a woman, although ‘auntie’ is becoming popular now). If another person became a disciple after my teacher then I would call them ‘little uncle’.

If I were a disciple, then any other disciple of my shifu that came before me, I would have to refer to as big brother (or sister), and from this you can extrapolate the other relationships.

A Titles Outline

師伯 (Shībó) [Big Uncle]

師叔 (Shīshū) [Little Uncle]

Female classmates of your shifu would also be referred to as big / little uncle (irrespective of the literal meaning of the term) but I have also seen; 師姑 (Shīgū) used. This literally translates to ‘teacher-auntie’.

師兄 (Shīxiōng) [Big Brother], or sometimes; 師哥 (Shīgē).

師弟 (Shīdì) [Little Brother]

師姐 (Shījiě) [Big Sister]

師妹 (Shīmèi) [Little Sister]

師公 (Shīgōng) [Grand-teacher]

師爺 (Shīyé) [Grandfather-teacher] (same as Shīgōng)

師姥 (Shīlǎo) or  師婆 (Shīpó) for [Grand-teacher’s wife]

始祖 (Shǐzǔ) [School founding teacher / founder of the martial art (or style)]

宗師 (Zōngshī) [Ancestral-Teacher]. A title sometimes given posthumously to a well-respected martial artist.

A male teacher’s wife would be referred to as; 師母 (Shīmǔ) [Teacher-Mother], whereas a female teacher’s husband is addressed as;  師丈 (Shīzhàng) [Teacher-Husband].

Confucius Says

The concept of; 孝 (Xiào) [filial piety] has been a cornerstone of the Confucian thought for over two thousand years. Considering your Shifu as a father-figure, immediately implies that filial piety should be applied to the relationship. It should go without saying therefore, that filial piety is also extended to all senior members of the Kung Fu family including uncles & aunties.

So, if you are ever lucky enough to meet your teacher’s kung fu brothers and sisters, you can now

-hopefully- … Say Uncle!

Notes

1. If you know the copyright owner of the Bai Shi picture, please let me know.
2. Something that 曾帆祥 (Zēng Fānxiáng) [Sam F.S. Chin] (of I Liq Chuan / Zhong Xin Dao) once said.

You might find these wiki pages helpful if reading around the subject of this article;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shifu

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filial_piety

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucianism#Social_morality_and_ethics