[QUOTE=lkfmdc;896889]
(suet = shu btw)
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Thank you from those of us who can read mandarin pingyin transliteration but not that crazy cantonese transliteration.
Quan usually refers to the pugilistic category. It is technical in nature
Men or Pai refers to the organization. They can be used interchangeably or separately. When use together as Men Pai, it would mean the entire system, branches and sub styles. Sometime people shorten it to Men or Pai but they usually mean it as the entire system. The difference is that Men tends to be less religious leaning more like a school; while Pai has to do with more of a religious leaning as in a sect.
Technically, Chinese view the system and the people (as least 5 generations) associated with it as an entity. They are inseparable. In other words, it is rather meaningless to talk about a system without knowing the people in Chinese mindset. However, do not confuse this with Heroism. On the other hand, the system and the people are looked upon as two very different matters in the west, which leads to Heroism.
“Do” is a Japanese convention. It is a rather modern thing also. They wanted to make the point that there is a difference between Jitsu (skills/arts) and Do (philosophy/spirituality). the TCMA don’t use that convention to name the systems because “Dao” (Do) is inherit within the system. It’s redundant to designate any TCMA with the Dao distinction.
Mantis108
[QUOTE=mantis108;897149]Men or Pai refers to the organization. They can be used interchangeably or separately. When use together as Men Pai, it would mean the entire system, branches and sub styles. [/QUOTE]
Can you elaborate on the usage of Men Pai together? Like, what would be an example of proper Men Pai usage as opposed to just Men?
Well the simplest example would that “within the Wulin (martial forest), there are many Menpai.” Here Men and Pai are of equal status and is meant to be all martial arts organizations.
Cool topic, nice explanations given.I have a question. We call Forms TaoLu, which basically translates to Way Road. In Chinese, often Dao would refer to a more bigger road (like my office is locate din Jiefang Da Dao) and Lu usually probably refer to a normal road (my house is in zhengqing Lu). Is there a story behind this? Tao Lu?
small towns in China were usually just one road with houses and such on either side. A road at that point is a town.
yeah… good point. Still happen, for example, my son’s school is in Chong Ren Lu (Chong ren road), but the whole **** area is called Chong Ren Lu. Unless you tell the taxi driver you want to go to the school, they drop you off anywhere around the area.
[QUOTE=mantis108;897202]Well the simplest example would that “within the Wulin (martial forest), there are many Menpai.” Here Men and Pai are of equal status and is meant to be all martial arts organizations.[/QUOTE]
OK, but I guess I’m just too much gwai lo because it’s still a little vague to me. My Da Sigung uses “Men Pai” and “Men” when talking about the style, and it’s always confused me. I was told by another guy in the know here that “Men Pai” was never used together.
well, Menpai used together would be all inclusive. So it’s supposed to be vague. It usually means that it is not concerning just your own branch within the system but the whole system. It implies leadership. Men or Pai would not be used as a single word. It is often use with “Ben” (substance or subjectively ours). The word Ben also has the meaning of the original, which implies authenticity. 
When it is “Ben Men” it means our particular school or branch (usually starts with GGM or GM X).
Tao means a “set” or an theatrical act (ie Tao Zi) . Lu is road referring to the usually straight line back and forth movements of the form. One road of a form is denoted by a turning around move. There are usually 2, 3, 4 up to about 8 roads in a form. So Tao Lu is then to mean whole form.
Mantis108