For what it's worth, when someone is doing graduate work (or probably undergraduate work towards a degree) in a particular subject, they "nian" that subject. Cai, on the other hand, has more of a sense of talent, ability, or expertise.
I suppose one could even have some kind of progression, where you start out as a shenian - kind of a journeyman (probably not just a student) - progress into a shecai... and then very senior respected folks would be a shishi (时师 - totally different words, different tones, etc - though there are like twenty characters for shi pronounced in the fourth tone, and there are classic drinking rhymes where every character is some version of shi or si).
As an honorific, I'd suggest Laoshi - it's used as a form of professional address for professors, and sometimes doctors and other people with terminal degrees. It literally means "elder master" and it's quite respectful.
"Bu" is the same term that is used (a lot) for foot work and stance work in the martial arts. It's not disparaging - in fact, footwork is often portrayed as the most fundemental part of the martial arts, and also the thing that young folks are most likely to not have the patience to give the proper attention, which strikes me as possibly appropos.* In my household, "practicing your footwork" is a general idiom for any kind of repetitive skill building task (say, doing math problems, or practicing surgical techniques). Like finger exercises are to a pianist. It makes it a name that can be read on many levels (which is very Chinese). “Zou", by contrast, can mean just kind of generally going (or even leaving) - I mean, it does mean walking, but it's less explicit, and... oh, just kind of less satisfying to me. （"Walk" isn't an incorrect translation of bu - but it's a lot more explicit about it being with your feet, on the ground.)
Lord Dragon... So, would you like more of an aristocratic title (and if so, a specific one, as in someone who inherits, or the kind of courtesy title a second son would have)... or a scholarly one (remember, in China the scholar-official held a lot of the power)? Or the kind of thing that would be given to a respected magician or priest? I'd tend to expect one of the latter two (which have some overlap).
* As something of a side note, there's quite a bit in Meier Shahar's history of the Henan Shaolin Monastery about the convergence of Taoist and Buddhist meditative (and by extension magical though he doesn't particularly call that out) practices in the Ming Dynasty. Certainly from that time forward, if he's running around looking for magicians, some of them are very likely to also be martial artists - especially in terms of the more meditative open hand arts.
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I suppose one could even have some kind of progression, where you start out as a shenian - kind of a journeyman (probably not just a student) - progress into a shecai... and then very senior respected folks would be a shishi (时师 - totally different words, different tones, etc - though there are like twenty characters for shi pronounced in the fourth tone, and there are classic drinking rhymes where every character is some version of shi or si).
As an honorific, I'd suggest Laoshi - it's used as a form of professional address for professors, and sometimes doctors and other people with terminal degrees. It literally means "elder master" and it's quite respectful.
"Bu" is the same term that is used (a lot) for foot work and stance work in the martial arts. It's not disparaging - in fact, footwork is often portrayed as the most fundemental part of the martial arts, and also the thing that young folks are most likely to not have the patience to give the proper attention, which strikes me as possibly appropos.* In my household, "practicing your footwork" is a general idiom for any kind of repetitive skill building task (say, doing math problems, or practicing surgical techniques). Like finger exercises are to a pianist. It makes it a name that can be read on many levels (which is very Chinese). “Zou", by contrast, can mean just kind of generally going (or even leaving) - I mean, it does mean walking, but it's less explicit, and... oh, just kind of less satisfying to me. （"Walk" isn't an incorrect translation of bu - but it's a lot more explicit about it being with your feet, on the ground.)
Lord Dragon... So, would you like more of an aristocratic title (and if so, a specific one, as in someone who inherits, or the kind of courtesy title a second son would have)... or a scholarly one (remember, in China the scholar-official held a lot of the power)? Or the kind of thing that would be given to a respected magician or priest? I'd tend to expect one of the latter two (which have some overlap).
* As something of a side note, there's quite a bit in Meier Shahar's history of the Henan Shaolin Monastery about the convergence of Taoist and Buddhist meditative (and by extension magical though he doesn't particularly call that out) practices in the Ming Dynasty. Certainly from that time forward, if he's running around looking for magicians, some of them are very likely to also be martial artists - especially in terms of the more meditative open hand arts.