How Many Grandmasters per system

[BSH]

This has been bothering me for a while, so lets hear some opinions.

IMO, a system should have only one Grandmaster. The Grandmaster is responsible for all of the knowledge contained in that system. They are also responsible for naming a succesor who will be given all of the knowledge so that the system can be maintained indefinitely.

Now maybe it is just semantics, but I have seen many systems recently with multiple grandmasters. One even had a "Great" grandmaster. Seems redundant. Can't wait 'til they find the Great, Great Grandmaster or the Greater Grandmaster and eventually the Greatest Grandmaster.

[BrentCarey]

There just aren't any accepted rules. That is one aspect of Chinese martial arts that separates them from Japanese, Korean, and others. Styles and ranking are so loosely defined that it becomes possible for anyone to say that they have any ranking in any style with no definition to contradict them.

Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. There are a few stylese that are more specific, and a few lineages have created or adopted a structured ranking system, but still no method exists for comparison across lineages.

A person can claim to be a Grandmaster of Shaolin kung fu, and who's to say he/she isn't. So, when all is said and done, it all comes down to the individual. This is how it should be. In Chinese martial arts one must evaluate a practitioner based on his own particular merit and expression of kung fu.

Many people would like to create more objective rules to enforce a more black-and-white structure, but the very nature of Chinese martial arts prohibits this.


Peace,

Brent Carey

[shaolinboxer]

There is a very good article on this subject here:

http://koryu.com/library/wbodiford1.html

[Shaolindynasty]

IMO all these titles are ridiculous. Any Kungfu teacher outside of my system I refer to as Sifu x to show respect in their field or Mr. x to show them respect as a person. Anytime i see someone call themselves master or grandmaster it makes me wonder what happened to humility in martial arts, it seems they are to satisfied with themselves to progress anymore.

[Richie]

There should be only one. Plain and Simple

[Unstoppable]

probably Between One and Eight

[friday]

is anyone confusing 'jueng moon yun' with 'sigong'
are ppl referring to
sifu as master and sifu's sifu (sigong) as grandmaster?
jeung moon yun (keeper of the style, style rep/leader) of the style or pai there should only be one.

[joedoe]

No more than one per lineage. That is my understanding of how it works. I could be wrong though.

[dezhen2001]

Well, heres my take :)

Sifu = my teacher/like father
Sigong = my teachers, teacher/like grandfather (Master)
Tai Sigong = my Sigong's teacher/like great grandfather (Grandmaster)

If anyone else is talking to them you would say for example Chen Sifu, not Sigong or Tai Sigong unless he is like your grandfather...

But Grandmaster is different from the lineage holder, the so called 'jueng moon yun' (I didn't know the term, thanks Friday :)). So there can be many 'Grandmasters' if they have students who have students etc. but only 1 family head...

It seems simple really, so i don't understand all the confusion :confused:

david