
Sifu Ted, Sifu Linda, me and Sifu Lam, along with fellow students, Phil, John and Jerome after we did a Kung Fu demo at the County Fair in the mid-80s.
When do you become a Sifu? The simple answer is you become a Sifu when other people start calling you a Sifu. A more legitimate answer is you become a Sifu when your Sifu says youāre a Sifu. However, like many aspects of Chinese culture, thereās simple answers, and then thereās a deep dive. At the Academy of Martial and Internal Arts, we like those deep dives.
The title āSifuā is a fine example of simple answers versus deep dives. On the simplest level, itās the Chinese term for āmaster.ā It gets complex when you go deeper. āSifuā is the Cantonese pronunciation, which sounds kind of like āsea-fu.ā Master Ted Mancusoās lineage has both Cantonese and Mandarin influences. Among his masters are Grandmaster Adam Hsu from Taiwan where they speak Mandarin and Grandmaster Kwong Wing Lam from Hong Kong where Cantonese is spoken. In Mandarin, itās āShifu,ā which sounds a bit like āsure-fu.ā Although Cantonese and Mandarin use the same written characters, there are regional dialect distinctions and vast idiomatic differences, so the comparison isnāt always an X=X relationship. This gets even more complicated, deserving of an essay of its own, so we wonāt dwell on it too much here. At the Academy, we generally default to the Cantonese, most likely because that set the precedent in the 70s and 80s when Kung Fu was beginning to cross the Pacific.
For now, Iām going to default to Mandarin because Iām more conversant in the Mandarin system of romanization of Pinyin than I am with the Yale Cantonese romanization. Although I was raised with the Cantonese under Sifu Lam, I spent most of my time in China at Shaolin Temple where they speak Mandarin (with a Dengfeng accent) while I only spent a few days with Sifu Lam in Hong Kong back in 1991. Iāll come back to Canto later.
The Chinese martial arts have a familial hierarchy because we are mostly clan based. When you hear Tai Chi divided into Yang, Chen, Sun, and so on, those are surnames. Theyāre clans. This is different than the Japanese and Korean martial arts which are more militaristic. Itās one reason why they have ranking belts. The Chinese ārankā is not about how many examinations youāve passed. Itās based on when you joined the clan and entered the family. All the terms used in the Chinese martial arts are relative, as in your relatives, your brothers, your sisters, fathers and mothers, and so on. Seniority is not a measure of skill. Itās about when you started training under the Shifu and joined the clan. Confucianism demands that we respect our elders.
Shifu is comprised of two characters. Shi (åø«) most commonly means āteacher,ā but it can also mean āmasterā or āspecialist.ā There are two different characters used for fu in Shifu and they are phonetically identical: å
and ē¶. Fu #1 (å
) literally means āteacherā so itās a little redundant to Shi. Whatās more, this doesnāt specifically connotate āmaster.ā In mainland China, this term is not familial, so it can be used as a respectful term for any specialist, like a taxicab driver or a service repairman. Itās a polite term but not one that you would write down, just something you would say, which is a tad confusing since it sounds just like the other Fu.
Fu #2 (ē¶) means father. So fuqin (ē¶č¦Ŗ) means father and muqin (ęÆč¦Ŗ) means mother and fumu (ē¶ęÆ) means parents. This is more intimate implying lineage. The wife of a Shifu is called Shimu (åø«ęÆ). Thatās the same mu as in muqin and fumu (if you look at the character, you can see two breasts, which is as motherly as it gets). However, a female Shifu is still addressed as Shifu, not Shimu. Her husband is also addressed as Sifu. I think that’s a Confucian thing. Most of the terms in Chinese martial arts are masculine. Iāve heard that in Northern China, sometimes the term Shiniang (åø«åØ) is used instead of Shimu. Niang is another word for āmother.ā Iāve never been able to confirm this, but I bring it up just to demonstrate that thereās some wiggle room across different lineages with these terms.
Some schools are very rigid about using the hierarchical terms, but this just isnāt the Santa Cruz way. At the Academy of Martial and Internal Arts, weāre respectful, yet informal. Weāre all on a first name basis. Nevertheless, itās important to know the familial terms as part of the cultural enrichment that comes with training at the Academy.
Below are some of the commonly used terms in Chinese martial arts.
English | Chinese | Cantonese | Mandarin | Literal Translation |
Master | åø«ē¶ | Sifu | Shifu | Teacher Father |
Teacher | čåø« | Luosi | Laoshi | Old Teacher |
Coach | ęē·“ | Gaaulin | Jiaolian | Teach Practice |
Masterās wife | åø«ęÆ | Simou | Shimu | Teacher Mother |
Masterās Master | åø«å ¬ | Sigung | Shigong | Teacher Grandfather |
Masterās Master | åø«ēŗ | Siye* | Shiye | Teacher Grandfather |
Masterās Masterās Master | åø«å¤Ŗå ¬ | Sitaaigung | Shitaigong | Teacher Big Grandfather |
Founder | åø«ē„ | Sijou | Shizu | Teacher Ancestor |
Masterās Elder Brother | 師伯 | Sibaak | Shibo | Teacher Elder-uncle |
Masterās Junior Brother | åø«å | Sisuk | Shishu | Teacher Junior-uncle |
Masterās Sister | åø«å§ | Sigu** | Shigu** | Teacher Aunt |
Eldest Brother | å¤§å„ | Daigo | Dage | Big Elder-brother |
Elder Brother | åø«å | Sihing | Shixiong | Teacher Elder-brother |
Elder Sister | åø«å§ | Sije | Shijie | Teacher Elder-sister |
Junior Brother | åø«å¼ | Sidai | Shidi | Teacher Junior-brother |
Junior Sister | 師妹 | Simui | Shimei | Teacher Junior-sister |
Nephew | åø«ä¾ | Sijat | Shizhi*** | Teacher Nephew |
Brother | å 大 | Hingdaai | Xiongda | Elder-brother Big |
Disciple | å¼å | Daiji**** | Dizi | Junior-brother offspring |
Disciple | å¾å¼ | Toudai | Tudi | Disciple Junior-brother |
*Siye is seldom heard in Cantonese. It’s used in Mandarin.
**Sigu/Shigu is very rarely used. Iāve never heard it. Iāve only found it in academic tables such as this one.
***Shizhi is seldom heard in Mandarin. I donāt know what they say in Mandarin.
****Daiji is seldom heard in Cantonese. They usually use Toudai.
The relativity of these terms can be confusing at first, but hereās an example of how it works at our school. Sometimes, Iāll call Ted āSihingā and Master Linda Darrigo āSijeā. This is because we all trained together under our Sifu Kwong Wing Lam and they are my elders. Lam was from Hong Kong, so Iām going to shift back to using the Cantonese terms for the rest of this essay. Both Ted and Linda could reciprocate by referring to me as āSidai.ā However, this is only how we might address each other when speaking directly with one another. When speaking to the class at large, we would formally refer to one another as āSifu.ā
Formally, Grandmaster Lam is the āSigungā for the Northern Shaolin students at the Academy. Ted, Linda, and I called him āSifu,ā but our students would address him as āSigung.ā Strictly speaking, Adam Hsu would be the āShigong.ā This also makes me the āSisukā at the Academy and I could call all of the students āSijatā if I were so inclined. However, thatās a rare term in my experience. None of my Sibaak, Sisuk, or Sigu ever called me that. I had to ask around to figure out what that term was exactly. My Mandarin Shaolin masters didnāt use it either, at least not when I was listening. For those students at the Academy who are not studying Northern Shaolin, they would still formally address me as āSijatā even though I never studied with Sifu Hsu or any other of Sifu Tedās masters. This goes back to that Confucian influence ā always default to what offers the most respect.
One of qualities I admire about our Academy is that it is respectful without being ostentatious. We donāt need these formal terms to establish any pecking order or anything like that. Weāre all practicing and striving together to help each other improve, so I am not presenting this so that everyone starts calling me Sisuk in class. That would be a little annoying for me. Personally, Iām not that big on titles.

L-R: Grandmasters and Masters: Norman Chin, David Chin, Hoy Lee, Johnny Lee, Buddy Wu and me at the 50th Anniversary Celebration of Lee Koon Hung Kung Fu in Florida in 2019. When these gentlemen started calling me Sifu, I couldnāt deny it. Photo by William Britt.
It took me a long time to accept being called āSifuā for many reasons. First off, Lam Sifu never called me that. He wasnāt into certifying new masters. I was the one who pushed him towards granting instructor certificates. I even designed his first instructorās certificates back in the late 80s. My Shaolin master, Shi Decheng, hasnāt dubbed me as a āShifuā either. I never passed any test, never snatched that pebble from my masterās hand. However, a few of the other masters that Iāve trained under aside from Lam and Decheng started called me āSifuā because I was helping to coach at their schools. And more significantly, most masters and grandmasters call me āSifuā now in the martial community at large. Itās an honor to sit at tables with them and be accepted into that circle. After that, I can no longer deny the label.
My other trepidation was that Iāve gotten to know so many masters through my career as a martial arts publisher and writer and Iāve seen so many levels of skill, much of which I couldnāt come near matching. Iāve also seen so many paper tigers, people so desirous of title that they took it upon themselves before they achieved any level of real mastery. Iāll be the first to tell you that I have yet to master any of this stuff. And yet, my martial experience has been unique. My twenty years in service as Kung Fu Tai Chi publisher counts towards something so Iām fine with the Sifu title now, even though youāll never catch me putting it on my business card or using it as my TikTok moniker.
So in class, thereās no need for formality. Donāt feel that you need to call me āSifuā or āSisukā unless youāre practicing your Cantonese or asking some formal question. Just call me āGene.ā Iām sharing this with the Academy because some of you might venture forth into the martial world someday and will need to know these terms. Additionally, as some of you are exploring other aspects of Chinese culture, these familial terms exist within other disciplines. If you study Chinese calligraphy, or even Traditional Chinese Medicine, you may encounter terms parallel to these there too.
For me personally, beyond the designation of being ordained as a Sifu by your Sifu and having other Sifu call you Sifu, I believe you earn the title when you start acting like a father. A father thinks of his family first and foremost. He (and Iām using the masculine in a general sense ā I donāt mean to be exclusive to female Sifu but as weāve seen, thatās the way the language goes) provides and protects his family. He nurtures his children, guiding them towards adulthood when they can carry on the family name on their own. There is a turning point when an individual stops living for themselves and starts living for his progeny ā for the perpetuation of his clan.
For some of us, becoming a Sifu is a calling. To fully respect tradition, you must pass it down. Itās the very act of passing it down that makes it traditional. And an important aspect of our tradition is respect. Confucianism speaks of the five relationships: ruler and subject, father and son, elder brother and younger brother, husband and wife, friend and friend. This concept is reflected in Chinese martial arts relationships and when everything is good, it underpins the mutual respect within the clan. Respect your teachers, your seniors and especially your juniors, because the future lies with them.
Practice for the next generation.
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