Master Tse’s Qigong Dao #113

Bai Si 拜師 Part 2

The Sifu 師父 would then tell the student of the rules of his skill, for example, “Respect the teacher and respect the skill,” and the student would reply, ” Yes,  I will follow.”

This is quite a serious ceremony that lets heaven and earth know who is the Sifu and who is the student.  It could sometimes happen that when a teacher and student got a long they just did the ceremony very simply. The student would just kneel and bow down to the teacher and respectfully offer him a cup of tea and a Lai Si. They would not wait to choose a special day as they both felt right at that moment. This is how I did my Bai Si with my Qigong Sifu, Grandmaster Yang Meijun 師父楊梅君, in 1996, we both just felt right.

Today the Bai Si ceremony has become simplified and is not that important, so my Wing Chun Sifu, Grandmaster Ip Chun師父葉準, and Chun Yuen Sifu, Grandmaster Wu Chun Yuen師父武俊元, did not like to do a Bai Si.  It was not important to them.  I believe that over 30 years of loyalty and respect to them has proved more than a ceremony.