Shaolin Kung Fu Styles
Tang
Lang Quan (Praying Mantis Boxing) (04 - Legends)
...Many
legends and stories have been told by Chinese Praying Mantis
Kungfu masters about its origins and its founder Wang Lang.
However, among these stories, some facts can be considered real,
but most of them are a result of legendary oral tradition, passed
from generation to generation by disciples and practitioners of
Praying Mantis Kungfu. Here are a few of the different versions :
The
Legend Described by the Grandmaster of Plum Blossom Praying Mantis
Boxing of the Great Ultimate Hao
Henlu (1887-1945/50?)
in chapter 9 of his unpublished manuscript written in 1926 and
entitled "Discourse about Plum Blossom Praying Mantis Boxing
of the Great Ultimate" (First English translation by Ilya
Profatilov)
"If
one talks about Praying Mantis Boxing then one must know that its
founder and patriarch was someone, named Wang
Lang.
However it is unknown when exactly he lived and what kind of
family he came from but certainly his family was not wealthy. Wang
Lang was famous for his passion for martial arts and was an
outstanding person. He traveled a lot around the Empire Under
Heaven (China), studied different styles of boxing and had many
friends skillful in martial arts.
Once,
during the mid-autumn festival Wang Lang went hiking to Lao Shan
mountains. He looked at the magnificent cliffs above and boundless
rivers below and felt astonished by this mighty vastness. When out
of curiosity he decided to climb even higher, following the curvy
and steep path going up the mountains, Wang Lang suddenly heard
the quiet sound of a bell ringing somewhere nearby. Walking along
the path Wang Lang soon reached an ancient temple, abode of
hermits and decided to enter in order to get some food and water.
The first thing he saw were taoist monks practicing the art of
boxing in the main plaza of the temple. Wang Lang counted about
sixty positions and styles that he had never seen before. Then
Wang Lang asked the taoist monks a question but was not regarded
with an answer, he asked again but the answer was just a silence
randomly interrupted by the sounds of their movements. Finally,
Wang Lang decided to attract the attention of one of the
practitioners by pulling his arm. The monk became angry seeing a
great boldness of this uninvited guest and lack of etiquette and
jumped on Wang Lang with clinched fists, ready to punish him.
However the monk was immediately knocked down by Wang Lang's quick
response. A dozen of monks ran to help their religious brother but
all failed. Monks started yelling and called the abbot. When the
abbot came Wang Lang explained to him the situation that he just
wanted to ask for food and water and did not have any bad intents.
Abbot replied: "All these are my disciples and monks and I am
strongly ashamed by their failure, would you please indulge me
with a just fight?" Wang Lang agreed but lost the fight.Then
Wang Lang realized the depth of the abbot's martial skills and
immediately left the temple.
Wang Lang went deep in the woods and decided to rest, he laid down
and started thinking about his unsuccessful fight and the reasons
why he lost it. Suddenly he saw two white praying mantises on the
tree branch. One of them was holding a fly in his front legs and
the other tried to take away the prey. During the fight one mantis
was attacking and another would jumping from side to side, ducking
and counter-attacking with the lightning speed. Wang Lang
concentrated all his mind on this fight and suddenly realized the
hidden principals of outstanding flexibility and agility of
praying mantis' attacks, counter-attacks and moves. Then he
immediately returned to the taoist temple and started a fight with
the abbot. As soon as the venerable abbot saw that hand techniques
of Wang Lang were noticeably different from the last time they had
fought and also had a feeling that this fight would be won by Wang
Lang, the abbot asked about the source of such a technique, but
Wang Lang continued fighting in complete silence. After a while
the abbot asked again but did not get an answer. Only when Wang
Lang won the fight, did he tell the abbot the reason of his
success. The abbot immediately sent his disciples to the woods to
catch about ten pairs of praying mantises. When the insects were
delivered the abbot put them on the table and set them to fight
each other. In this manner Wang Lang and the abbot spent quite a
long time learning movements and tactical positions of the praying
mantises, engaged in deadly fights.
Then
the two masters developed a new, secret technique of boxing which
was significantly different from other ones. Later Wang Lang said
to the abbot: "Even though you and I developed a new style of
boxing, we should not forget the cause and the source of our
knowledge. If the praying mantis while striving for food and
existence did not reveal us its secrets, we would never develop
this new style." The abbot replied: "You are right! In
order to perpetuate the memory of the source, we shall call this
style "The Gates of Praying Mantis" (Tang Lang Men).
Wang Lang and the abbot developed twelve characters - guiding
principles of the praying mantis fighting technique: zhan (contacting),
nian (sticking), bang (linking), tie (pressing), lai (intruding),
jiao (provoking), shun (moving along), song (sending), ti (lifting),
na (grabbing), feng (blocking), bi (locking). Also they developed
formal sets of praying mantis technique, such as: Beng bu (crushing
step), Lan jie (obstruction), Ba zhou (eight elbows), Mei hua lu (plum
blossom technique) and Bai yuan tou tao (white ape steals the
peach). However, this new style for a long time was a privilege of
the taoist monks of the Lao Shan taoist religious community and it
was kept as a part of the secret taoist doctrine and closed to lay
people. Wang Lang, for the rest of his days, lived in the taoist
temple practicing self cultivation, developing Praying Mantis
boxing and following the way of the Tao..."
The
Legend Described by the Grandmaster of Six Harmonies Praying
Mantis Boxing Ding
Zicheng (1880-1956)
and first recorded by his disciple Grandmaster Chen
Yuntao (1906-1978)
in his unpublished materials entitled "Brief Discourse about
Praying Mantis Boxing" (First English translation by Ilya
Profatilov)
"During
the Song Dynasty, the famous founder of Tong Bei Boxing style, Han
Tong, had a fight with someone named Wang Lang. After several
unsuccessful attempts to win, Wang Lang lost the fight. Feeling
psychologically depressed, Wang Lang ran away until he reached a
swampy ground covered with reeds where Wang Lang fell onto the
deep grass suffering torments from bitter thoughts about his
failure. Suddenly Wang Lang noticed a poisonous snake which raised
its head and slithered directly towards a praying mantis that
towered aloft the grass and leaves. As soon as the poisonous snake
reached the praying mantis it stopped still and motionless in an
attempt to hypnotize the insect. The praying mantis lifted its
front hooklike legs with its razor sharp spikes and waited for the
snake to attack. The snake attacked ferociously with the invisible
head strike. But the praying mantis used one of his hooks to catch
snake's tongue and then counter-attacked with another hook to the
eye of the snake. The snake made a pitiful attempt to escape but
just writhed helplessly . After seeing this fight and under its
strong impression Wang Lang reached enlightment and developed the
hand techniques of Praying Mantis Boxing and finally defeated Han
Tong"...
