Interesting topic came up the other day in class. A new student was asking me about the whole SiHing/SiDai relationship.
I explained it as best I could but then I was hit with a question I didn’t have a good answer to.
The student asked me “if one students begins before another student but the newer student works harder and surpasses the older student in skill, does the SiHing/Si Dai relationship become reversed.”
For example lets say I’ve been studying for 10 years and I attend class one day a week and a newer student trains for 4 years and trains 5 days a week. Who is the SiHing?
Then it occurred to me that the reason this question would come up is that there is kind of flaw in the system.
As I understand it, in ancient China everyone started out as “outdoor students.” Your teacher would be addressed as “Lao Si” which is a generic term for teacher.
If you trained hard and consistently you would become an “indoor student” or a disciple. At this point you would go through a “Bai Si” ceremony and you would accepted into the “family.”
At this point you would begin to call your teacher SiFu. You would be “Si Hing” to the “outdoor students” and newer disciples and “Si Dai” to anyone that became a disciple before you did.
This relationship is based around the “Bai Si” ceremony. And once you are in the family this relationship is immutable.
The problem seems to be that many instructors have done away with the “Bai Si” ceremony and so it becomes unclear as to who is the SiHing and who is the Si Dai.
Any thoughts on this? And if there are any gaps in my understanding of Chinese culture please let me know.