shifu

Shifu is a Chinese cultural term. Although its pronunciation always sounds the same, there are two ways of writing it using Chinese characters, and they bear two different meanings. The first variation, Shīfù 師傅 ('Expert Instructor'), is used as an honorific, which is applied to various professionals in everyday life.

The second variation, Shīfu 師父 ('Father-Teacher'), is an honorific usually reserved as a title to describe teachers of self and spiritual cultivation practices including those who might teach other encompassing Chinese traditions, such as martial arts, painting, sculpting, feng shui, singing, etc. While in China both variations are commonly used, in English-speaking countries people are mostly familiar with the second way of writing, in the context of the martial art traditions.