Remember those old Bruce Tegner books?

[chud]

Sil Lum is Cantonese for Shaolin...

So would that have been Northern or Southern Shaolin?

[Joe L.]

Sil Lum is Cantonese for Shaolin...

So would that have been Northern or Southern Shaolin?

I'd imagine southern shaolin, some sort of short hand system.

[chud]

I'd imagine southern shaolin, some sort of short hand system.

Thanks Joe, I assumed Southern as well, but figured I'd ask.
It'd be cool if Sal Canzonieri jumped in right about now...or someone who studied under that lineage.

[Michael]

I don't know that much Chinese, but maybe I can help a bit with Chud's question.

Here are the simplified (mainland Chinese, post 1949) characters for "little forest".
小 林

The Mandarin transliteration to roman characters using the newest system, again the mainland Chinese, post 1949, is:
xiao lin

Using the older system of transliteration to Mandarin, Wade-Giles I think:
shao lin

Transliteration of the Chinese characters to Cantonese, not sure which system whether Wade-Giles or Yale:
sil lum

Mike's transliteration according to his imperfect ear:
siu lam

You just have to keep in mind there are two kinds of Chinese characters, simplified and traditional. Simplified is the post 1949 mainland Chinese changes to the older, traditional characters still used in places like Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and in Chinatowns around the world. There are multiple systems of transliterating Chinese characters to roman characters, and pinyin is the post-1949 mainland Chinese system that is the Chinese government standard today. Hope that helps.

[cerebus]

Yes, southern Shaolin is Sil Lum. In the case of T. Y. Wong it is related to Fut Gar. Wong's sifu was a Fut Gar master, though he taught Wong somewhat differently than his other students, so Wong's Sil Lum is actually a rather different art at this point and no longer Fut Gar.