Glossary / Forms of Address
Forms of Address in Chinese: 86 Terms and Their English Renderings
How people address each other, and what each form implies about rank, warmth and danger.
86 terms
| Chinese | English | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 道友 | Fellow Daoist | The default polite address between cultivators. Works whether or not they share a sect. |
| 前辈 | Senior | Anyone clearly older or stronger. Used before a name or alone. The safe address when you know nothing. |
| 道兄 | Daoist Brother | Warmer than Fellow Daoist. Implies mutual respect between peers. |
| 师兄 | Senior Brother | A male disciple of the same generation who joined earlier. Also used loosely outside the sect. |
| 师姐 | Senior Sister | A female disciple who joined earlier. Address and title at once. |
| 师弟 | Junior Brother | A male disciple who joined later. The word itself puts him below you. |
| 师妹 | Junior Sister | A female disciple who joined later. |
| 师叔 | Martial Uncle | Your master's younger male peer. A family term holding a sect meaning. |
| 师伯 | Senior Martial Uncle | Your master's older male peer. Higher than junior uncle-master, and the difference decides who speaks first. |
| 师祖 | Grandmaster | Your master's master. Addressed with the flattest possible respect. |
| 师尊 | Honored Master | Formal, heavy address to your own teacher. More solemn and more distant than. |
| 师父 | Master | The everyday word for a teacher. Warm, used in speech rather than on documents. |
| 弟子 | Disciple | How a disciple names himself before his master, or how others label him. |
| 道号 | Dao Name | The name a cultivator takes on entering the path. Using it instead of the birth name is a mark of respect. |
| 真君 | True Lord | An honorific for a powerful cultivator, usually attached to a title. |
| 仙子 | Fairy | A respectful address to a female cultivator. Complimentary, not literal. |
| 老祖 | Founding Ancestor | The oldest living power in a family or sect. Said quietly, and with fear. |
| 小友 | Little Friend | How a senior addresses a much younger cultivator. Patronising, not hostile. |
| 阁下 | Your Excellency | Formal address to someone you do not know and cannot afford to offend. |
| 足下 | You | An old formal 'you' between equals. Sounds classical and slightly stiff. |
| 大人 | Lord | Address to an official or person of rank, usually in the mortal world. |
| 公子 | Young Master | Address to a young man of good family. |
| 姑娘 | Miss | Address to a young woman. Polite and neutral, works in almost any setting. |
| 少爷 | Young Lord | What servants call the heir of a house. Also sarcastic when aimed at a spoiled brat. |
| 师侄 | Nephew Disciple | Your senior brother's student. One step down in the line, and the step decides who bows first. |
| 师侄女 | Niece Disciple | The same relation, female. Used with more care, because the senior brother is listening. |
| 徒孙 | Grand-Disciple | Your disciple's disciple. The word that makes a character realise how old they are. |
| 大师兄 | Eldest Senior Brother | The head of the younger generation. Runs the disciples, answers for them, and gets blamed for them. |
| 小师妹 | Youngest Junior Sister | The youngest girl in the line. Protected by everyone, and underestimated by everyone outside. |
| 小师叔 | Little Martial Uncle | High in the line, young in years. Nobody knows whether to bow or to scold. |
| 仙师 | Immortal Master | What a mortal calls a cultivator. Flattering, and slightly afraid. |
| 仙长 | Immortal Elder | More respectful than immortal master. Used by mortals who want something. |
| 上仙 | Exalted Immortal | The word a kneeling mortal uses. It ends the negotiation before it starts. |
| 真人 | Perfected One | A title for cultivators past the core stage. Formal, and slightly old-fashioned. |
| 元君 | Primordial Lord | An honorific for a powerful female cultivator. Grander than fairy, colder than master. |
| 星君 | Star Lord | A title tied to the constellations. Rare, and always slightly mythological. |
| 天尊 | Heavenly Venerable | The highest honorific in common use. A book has two of these at most. |
| 道尊 | Dao Venerable | A title for someone whose understanding has become law. Almost never spoken aloud. |
| 圣主 | Holy Sovereign | The head of a holy sect. Sounds righteous; usually is not. |
| 魔尊 | Demon Venerable | The title a demonic overlord gives himself. Everyone else uses it too, carefully. |
| 妖尊 | Beast Venerable | A demon beast that has become a power in its own right. |
| 魔帝 | Demon Emperor | Above the demon lords, and below nobody. Usually asleep, always a threat. |
| 剑尊 | Sword Venerable | A title earned by sword cultivators who have nothing left to prove. |
| 丹尊 | Pill Venerable | An alchemist whose name is worth more than his pills. |
| 散人 | Free One | A self-chosen name for a cultivator who answers to nobody. Usually used as a suffix. |
| 居士 | Lay Cultivator | Someone who cultivates without joining a sect. Respected, underestimated, and hard to find. |
| 同门 | Fellow Disciple | Anyone from the same sect. Covers people you love and people you cannot stand. |
| 小辈 | Junior | Half an insult. It means the speaker has decided the conversation is concluded. |
| 后辈 | Younger Generation | Neutral in tone, and quietly final. Sits between junior and child. |
| 诸位 | Everyone | How you address a room. Opens a speech or ends a discussion. |
| 列位 | All Present | The older, stiffer version. Used in formal settings and mock-formal threats. |
| 令师 | Your Honored Master | Polite reference to someone else's teacher. Compliments two people at once. |
| 令尊 | Your Honored Father | Formal, and slightly stiff. Usually said before delivering bad news. |
| 贵宗 | Your Esteemed Sect | The matching compliment. The more elaborate, the less sincere. |
| 尊驾 | Your Esteemed Self | An arm's-length honorific. Used toward someone you do not quite trust. |
| 令徒 | Your Honored Disciple | Praising someone's student, usually in front of that student. |
| 高徒 | Your Excellent Disciple | Stronger praise. Said publicly, it is a compliment aimed at the teacher. |
| 爱徒 | Beloved Disciple | The one the master actually favours. Everyone in the sect knows who it is. |
| 关门弟子 | Last Disciple | The final student a master takes. The title carries the inheritance. |
| 老友 | Old Friend | Long acquaintance, no formality left. The only address that lets you skip titles. |
| 故人 | Old Acquaintance | Warmer than stranger, cooler than friend. Often said with a pause before it. |
| 知己 | Kindred Spirit | Someone who understands without being told. In this genre, usually a debt. |
| 少夫人 | Young Madam | The wife of an heir. Addressed by servants, feared by rivals. |
| 大小姐 | Eldest Miss | The daughter of a major house. What the servants say, and what enemies say to wound. |
| 二小姐 | Second Miss | The second daughter. Free of the expectations and the protection. |
| 师太 | Daoist Abbess | Address for a senior nun cultivator. Respectful, with an edge of caution. |
| 道姑 | Daoist Nun | Female Daoist, usually unaffiliated. Neutral to slightly dismissive. |
| 道童 | Daoist Attendant | The child who carries the master's things. Sees everything, says nothing. |
| 仙童 | Immortal Attendant | The flattering version. Used for attendants whose master is worth flattering. |
| 侍女 | Maidservant | Serves inside the house. Half servant, half witness. |
| 婢女 | Bondmaid | Below maidservant. Owned rather than employed, which the story tends to notice. |
| 小厮 | Errand Boy | Runs messages and carries things. Disposable, and knows everyone's secrets. |
| 护院 | House Guard | Guards a mortal household. Brave, badly paid, and the first to die. |
| 先生 | Sir | Respectful, scholarly, and slightly formal. Used for teachers and for people you want to flatter. |
| 师叔祖 | Junior Grand-Uncle | Your master's master's junior peer. The hierarchy gets deep fast. |
| 太师祖 | Great Grandmaster | One generation further up. Usually a name in a book rather than a person. |
| 师兄大人 | Honoured Senior Brother | The flattering form. Used by characters who want something. |
| 尊者 | Venerable | High respectful title, used for the top of the hierarchy. Also used ironically by villains. |
| 小僧 | This Young Monk | Junior monk's self-reference. Humble, and frequently a lie. |
| 施主 | Benefactor | How a monk addresses a layperson. Polite, and slightly transactional. |
| 天师 | Celestial Master | A hereditary title with real-world history. In fiction, an office with magic attached. |
| 道长 | Daoist Priest | General address to a practitioner. Also the correct word for a temple's head. |
| 圣子 | Holy Son | The male version. Less common and more often a villain. |
| 大公子 | Eldest Young Master | The heir's formal style. Used to establish that he has never been refused anything. |
| 小王爷 | Young Prince | Imperial relative, junior. Arrogant in every appearance, and connected enough to get away with it. |
| 师兄（同门） | School Brother | The martial-arts usage of the same term, from wuxia rather than cultivation fiction. |
If you learn only one category here, learn this one. Terms follow the free cultivation novels at cultivationnovel.com.
Where these words turn up
Stories on this site that use them the way the notes describe.
I'm the Hehuan Sect Master's Personal Disciple, but They Call Me HeartlessA disciple of the pleasure sect who takes none of it seriously.小师叔, 师兄, 师姐, 师叔 Master Broke His Vows: My 3,000 Years of Foodie Cultivation Can No Longer Be HiddenThree thousand years of cooking, disguised as three thousand years of seclusion.师兄, 师叔, 师尊 My Brother Wants My Dao Companion. Off to Martial Uncle He Goes.A family dispute over a dao companion, settled by the most senior relative available.师叔, 师尊, 尊者Source: cultivationnovel.com · Cultivation Glossary