How Many Sifus ?

[Fist of Mantis]

I was taught to believe that you can have many teachers in life but, only one Sifu.To that Sifu you pledge your loyalty and to his style you pledge your devotion.But,it seems people adhere themselves to multiple ancestries and multiple Sifus claiming them all as thier Sifu.How can that be?

[old jong]

You are not getting married or something when you take lessons from somebody.
It is good to have a nice relationship with your instructor but you live in the 21th century and They run business now ,not temples.
Better be careful about those who advertise as ''temple'' anyway!
BTW, welcome in the gang!;)

[NorthernShaolin]

Fist of Mantis,

Old jong is right.

However their is an unwritten tradition with the older generation of sifus that your first sifu is your main sifu which is a tradition that is reconized among each other. It is a professional curisorty. Of course it also depends on how long one was with the first sifu. If it is a short while then the student really never had a chance to learn anything so in this case the first sifu would not count. There are maybe more exceptions to the rule of tradition but, like old jong says, its the 21st century.

[HuangKaiVun]

I've had many great sifu.

To claim one over any one of them is to do the others - and myself - a disservice.

Just because I learned Mantis from one guy doesn't make the Hung Ga I learned from the other invalid. And vice versa.

I honor ALL my instructors and the stuff I learned from them.

[Fist of Mantis]

Sure,some sifus are all about business/money.But,Sifu means teacher-father doesn't it? How many fathers can you have? Can all of your fathers acknowledge and support you. Will they really teach you if they know they don't have your loyalty?
Perhaps I'm too old fashioned and too caught-up in old fashioned traditions.
Yes,I know some of those old ways excluded non-chinese but,pioneers such as Wai Hong,Dean Chin,Willy Lin,Chan Poi,Ark Wong and many others forced it to change.And now a non-asian can Baai Si to an Asian Sifu.
Wong,Sifu of the Jow Ga Moon said at his recent tournament that Kung fu is about Loyalty.

[Lisa]

"Will they really teach you if they know they don't have your loyalty?"

If you don't consider them your sifu because you learned from someone else in the past, then maybe they won't teach you. But that seems like more of an issue of respect than loyalty. I'm not sure I understand what you mean by loyalty. Why would the order in which you learn things dictate which is most valuable to you? If you value and respect what both instructors taught you, what difference does it make if you call both of them sifu?

[TaoBoy]

I have the utmost respect for my sifu but my learning of martial arts is not only limited to what he can teach me. He is aware that I learn other martial arts from other instructors and is supportive of that. Whilst he is my 'main' instructor, this does not preclude me from learning elsewhere. As learning many martial arts becomes more common place - so will the idea of multiple instructors.

Cheers,
Adam

[joedoe]

Originally posted by Fist of Mantis
I was taught to believe that you can have many teachers in life but, only one Sifu.To that Sifu you pledge your loyalty and to his style you pledge your devotion.But,it seems people adhere themselves to multiple ancestries and multiple Sifus claiming them all as thier Sifu.How can that be?

Hmmmm. That is a bit of a fallacy. Even in the old days many MA learned from several sifus (usually not at the same time). It was not uncommon for a MA to have learned several styles.

I guess it also depends on the use of the term sifu. If you have done the tea ceremony with your sifu, then there is an implied loyalty. If you are just a normal student who has not gone through the discipleship ceremony, then there is still a certain degree of implied loyalty but not in the same way.