Praying Mantis Kungfu

In Chinese martial art books, there are many legends about the creation of the Praying Mantis Kungfu style. The most popular one is the following:

In Ming Dynasty about 600 years ago, Wang Lang, who had learned Kungfu from Shaolin Temple, on his way in a travel met a man called Shan Tong (whose two arms could move to left or right like one arm), and the two dicided to have a fight. In three days and nights, Wang Lang could not reach Shan Tong (as Shan Tong had the long arms). Leaning on a tree in a rest, Wang Lang thought very hard for a method to win, when he saw a praying mantis down from the tree. He used a piece of grass stem to play with it. When the stem touched, the praying mantis would turn its head and escape the body to by pass the stem though the stem was long. He tried many times, and found the praying mantis could move very fast. The two forlegs, with the left in the front and the right behind, or the right in the front the left behind, looked like: one foreleg did the hooking and the other the attacking in a tactical way. All of a sudden, Wang Lang realized what to do. He fought Shan Tong again and defeated him.

He took the praying mantis with him back in the temple, and played with it using a piece of grass stem every day in order to imitate its movements. Within only a few months, he relized all the praying mantis actions like: hooking, grasping, craning, picking, breaking, crushing, hanging, hacking sticking, pressing, leaning, inducing, jumping, shifting etc.

One day, a monkey took Wang Lang's robe away when he did his training under a tree. Wang Lang immediately ran after but could not get to the monkey. When the monkey had enough fun with him in half a day, he dropped the robe leaving its owner alone, fully exhausted. Wang Lang was surprised that with his fast speed he could not get to the monkey. He therefore studied the monkey's foot print and began to learn its foot work. Later, he combined the monkey's foot work and the praying mantis hand movements together, which was the beginning of the famous Praying Mantis Kungfu style. Wang Lang then became a known kungfu master of a time.

The said style has been taught for many generations. In the third generation, there came the division of the Seven Praying Mantis Kungfu style and the Six Harmony Praying Mantis style. The reason was that the teacher emphasized differenct tactics to students according to their different capabilities and the students sometimes accomplished different tactics from the same teaching. Students preferred only certain part of the style could be another reason.

The Seven Star Praying Mantis Kungfu was taught by Zhao Ju to Jiang Hualong in Laiyang of Shandong Province, who was the fourth generation Master and had many students in Yantai of Shandong Province. Among them, the known masters are: Cao Zuohou, Ji Chunting etc. The Seven Star Praying Mantis Kungfu was named for its seven star foot works. It is also named as: Plum Praying Mantis Kungfu as its hand attack always starts with 3 or 5 movements together. The plum's five petals symbolize the 5 movements of the hand attacks.

The Six Harmony Praying Mantis Kungfu was taught by Wei San to the family of Lin Shichun in Chuan Lin Cun village in Zhao Yuan of Shandong Province. The fourth generation Master Lin Shichun was a know kungfu master. Admiring his name, the family of Ding in Huang Xian county invited him as the kungfu teacher. In the Huang Xian county, the fifth generation Masters who were taught by Master Lin Shichun were: Ding Zicheng, Wang Jichen etc., who later taught only the boys of rich families aiming at good health and self defence. Therefore, the Six Harmony Praying Mantis Kungfu had not spreaded far as the two counties of Zhao Yuan and Huang Xian.

Cao Zuohou (fifth generation of seven star) of Peng Lai, a neighbouring county to Huang Xian admired the Six Harmony Praying Mantis Kungfu very much. Ding Zicheng (fifth generation of six harmony) also heard that the Seven Star Praying Mantis had its own specific tactics. The two masters then exchanged their styles. Thereafter, the Seven Star and the Six Harmony, the two schools of the praying mantis kungfu combined again. The Seven Star had the soft in the hard, and the Six Harmony, the hard in the soft, the hard and the soft, melted in one stove and support each other, which had the great significance in the development of the praying mantis kungfu.

In the recent time, the praying mantis kungfu have had more styles after inheritance for many generations, due to different nature of an individual, difference in physiques, applications on top, middle or bottom, and emphasis on different mottos etc. Though having quite different characteristics, all praying mantis kungfu styles follow the original basic praying mantis kungfu philosophy. The theories such as the twelve words motto, the eight hard and twelve soft, the eight attacking and eight not-attacking, the method of the seven long and the eight short are still laws in all the praying mantis kungfu styles, which have made praying mantis kungfu a style of the hard and the soft in a flexibility with hand movements and foot works.