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Article
Presented by Master Dennis Janes

Cultivation of a Virtuous Teacher-Student Relationship an excerpt from"Chen Style Ethics and Virtues" by Chang Jincai

The teacher-student relationship is very important and needs to be nurtured. A saying in Chinese goes like this:" Once a teacher, always a father." Another saying goes like this:" If someone gives you a drop of water of kindness, you should repay with a full fountain of gushing water." In today's society, these standards have been diluted. But I believe it's important to understand and reevaluate the correct conduct between a teacher and a student. Why do I state this dilemma? In martial arts, respecting the teacher is especially important. Without instilling proper respect, teachers would create disreputable, arrogant students that disrespect teachers, parents, elders, friends, or other persons. This will pull down the martial arts industry and cause martial art tragedies of disrespectfulness. There are many examples. Some teachers only emphasize the physical and ignore the ethical perspective. As a result many students, upon gaining fame, end up forgetting who taught them. Many might claim that they were born with these skills, or learned them from books and videos, instead of giving credit to their teachers. They also state that their teachers did not have a major role in their accomplishments. This is a very serious tragedy. Some students would learn with their teacher for a few years, until they had gained a reputation as a martial artist. The teacher also would have taken special care of this talented student, even to the point of not taking tuition from him. Such a student, because he acquired his martial arts easily, did not understand its value, or the teacher's efforts in teaching it to him. After learning from the teacher for a few years and believing that he had learned all of the teacher's skills, he would feel that the teacher no longer had any value to him and would cut all ties to the teacher. Even if the teacher happened to run into him unexpectedly, the student would turn his head away and pretend he did not recognize him. This demonstrates lack of virtue in not showing the proper level of respect. Another student, when learning martial arts with his teacher, would tell everyone that his teacher was very great, but as soon as this student believed that he had learned all of his teacher's techniques and his teacher was no longer useful to him, he would change completely, suddenly became like a mute and would say not a good word about his teacher anymore. He would cut all ties with his teacher. This also is an indication of a lack of virtue and the proper level of respect. In some cases, a teacher might introduce his student to his own teacher. As soon as this student had met his teacher's teacher, he would no longer acknowledge his own teacher, but instead would believe that he was now his teacher's colleague. This also is an indication of a lack of virtue and the proper level of respect. There are still more examples like these. It is commonly said that," Teachers search for disciples and disciples search for teachers." A good teacher always wants to find a good student and a good student always wants to find a good teacher, yet it is difficult for each one to find the other. Of all accomplished martial arts masters, all of them have very virtuous relationships with their teachers in which they never forget their roots and never forget their teacher's lessons. Proper teacher-student relationships are also a basic foundation of martial arts ethics as a whole. I hope that Chen Stylists will practice the cultivation of teacher-student relationships I the same way that they practice martial arts, putting down effort on the foundation. If the root is stable, the tip can reach great heights. In this way, we can reach the peak of the mountain and attain perfect achievement.

 

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