He was the head man, so I kept it exactly the way he wanted me to teach it. I never really asked him because he was the sifu. To my knowledge, there were only the three of us, because that is something I asked Bruce. No one other than myself, as far as I know, has been given a third rank instructor level in jeet kune do by Bruce Lee. It went from blank circle as first rank, through various color yin and yang symbols, to rank eight, which is the highest level.
Eighth level is for the founder of the system.
He began another ranking system in March 1968 and then disbanded it in 1969. In 1988, Taky Kimura and I decided to reinstate this ranking system. The blank circle represents a beginning student. Rank two is an advanced student eligible for apprentice instructor level. Rank three is for associate instructor level.