Quote Originally Posted by mooyingmantis View Post
Thank you! I will check that out.

Though I think Bawang has a point too.
Sure he does. I did not mean to comment on Bai Shi today. I was just responding to the idea that it's a new thing. It's clearly not. How it has changed over the centuries is a different story. Also worth mentioning is that it's virtually impossible to find records of it with regards to MA. It's much more common with literary student/teacher relationships. Most of what's written in the text I cited is written primarily with that in mind. People used to apprentice academic masters far more than military experts.