The Shaolin Praying Mantis

[Luo Lang]

Dear Shaolin Wahnam family,
I would like to open this thread to let people get more information about Praying Mantis Kung Fu.

Of course this thread may also be a place for students and instructors who already have experience with this famous style, to share their opinions, experiences and knowledge.

I'd like to start with some basic backround of the history of Praying mantis Kung Fu:

Shaolin Praying Mantis Kung Fu (Tanglangquan) was founded during the Ming Dynasty by Wang Lang, a secular Shaolin disciple at the Shaolin Monastery (The Ming Dynasty ruled China from 1368 to 1644).
Partly because his was small sized, Wang Lang could not beat his classmates while using Lohan Kung Fu, which was practiced at this time.
One evening under a tree, after he got beaten, he noticed a praying mantis fighting a cicada. Although the praying mantis was smaller it could defeat the cicada. He captured some praying mantis and studied their fighting movements.
Motivated by his Master, the Abbot of the Monastery, who was impressed by his improvements, he was sent out to travel the country to study other styles of martial arts. He selected the best points of many different styles and found out that the footwork of Monkey style Kung Fu was the most suitable for his purposes. When he went back to the Monastery he thought the Monks and the disciples his Praying Mantis Kung Fu and it became very popular.
There was a Taoist priest, Sheng Xiao who visited the Monastery regularly. He was surprised not to see the former Kung Fu style. He was even more surprised that he could not match the monks with his Wudang Kung Fu. He asked the Abbot how this style would be called and it was answered: This is Praying Mantis Kung Fu. Master Sheng Xiao was curious about the fact that the Abbot let the monks training this unorthodox style instead of the famous Lohan Kung Fu, but the Abbot somehow seemed to have no choice than letting the monks cultivating this style.
The Abbot and the Taoist priest, who actually was impressed by the combat efficiency therefor made an agreement:
The Abbot would teach the Taoist priest all he knows about Praying Mantis, in return he would spread the Style to deserved disciples in the country.

Praying Mantis Kung Fu (Tanglangquan) was founded by a secular disciple, Wang Lang, developed by Buddhist monks at the Monastery and popularised by a Taoist priest Sheng Xiao.

[Luo Lang]

Some further historical notes:

Shang Sang Feng is regarded as the 1 th patriarch of the Wudang Kung Fu. He was living at the end of the 13th century, in the song dynasty
(960-1279). Actually to this time Tai Chi Chuan was better known as Wudang 32 pattern long fist. Later it eventually became Wudang Tai Chi Chuan and Tai Chi Chuan.

This may be an interessting fact, when we look at our different Kung Fu styles, according to their time of develpoment.

This would mean that the Wudang 32 mattern long fist of the Great Shang Sang Feng, later popularized as Tai Chi Chuan, was developed earlier than The Shaolin Praying Matis style.

That said what the Taoist priest Sheng Xiao was practicing when he regularly visited the Shaolin temple was eventually Wudang Kung Fu, which was developed by Shang Sang Feng.

[KungFuJoe]

Hi Luo Lang,
I've been away from the forums for a while but your mantis thread got my attention I do Wahnam Chi Kung mainly after some regional courses with Sifu Wong.
How do you do your mantis claw? Do you point with your middle finger or your index finger? Similarly, I wonder if you mostly use it for hooking and trapping or whether you actually strike vital points with the mantis claw itself?
Thanks! It promises to be a fun thread...
joe

[Luo Lang]

Hi Joe,
I shall go deeper into the different techniques and advantages later on, but I shall give you some short comments:

How do you do your mantis claw? Do you point with your middle finger or your index finger?

I would call it rather mantis paw than claw, but this may be an interpretation difference.

The mantis hook or paw is quite similarly used as the Monkey paw. It's mainly meant to defence incoming middle attacks in a droping in movement. The nuckles are as in Monkey Kung Fu used to sticke with.

The main difference may be that the index fingers are slighly more dominantly formed when looking at it from outside.

On the other hand the index finger in PM Kung Fu is often used to dot vitalpoints

I wonder if you mostly use it for hooking and trapping or whether you actually strike vital points with the mantis claw itself?

You can hook if necesserely, you can also drop the paw to deflect incoming attacks, mostly middle attacks, you may also dot the opponent with your index finger after deflecting with the PM paw, or in a no defence direct counter manner.

There are no hard and fast roules!

To be able to perform PM effectively that's for sure the footwork must be very good!

[Luo Lang]

That said as my Specialisation is the Shaolin Monkey, my PM would most probably end into Monkey Praying Mantis.

So for the time beeing my experience in PM is still limited, but my aim is to research more about it. In fact about 60% of PM is also found on Monkey Kung Fu.

Of course there are main differences and I shall write them down later on with more backround.

[DiogoLuxembourg]

question?

Hello sifu Roland! Your thread is very interesting, I hoppe that more people will ask questions and add some more information so that the thread develops well. I don't know much about praying mantis, so I'm happy to read this .
Little question: Does anyone from our school teach praying mantis? I'm just being curious, because in the UK summer camp sifu taught eagle claw (doesn't belong to the 5 animals from our school).

Thanks

[KungFuJoe]

Thanks! I had a teacher once that said the middle finger was used more commonly in the past but now days it's mainly the index finger that's used. And yes I just call it the claw or "hook" rather than paw
It's nice to have overlap between styles. Monkey and mantis sounds like a fun combination. I've never ever done monkey, or even seen it live...
Thanks again for the info and looking forward to learning more!

[Jeffrey Segal]

Nice thread, Roland and welcome back, Joe

[Luo Lang]

Little question: Does anyone from our school teach praying mantis? I'm just being curious, because in the UK summer camp sifu taught eagle claw (doesn't belong to the 5 animals from our school)

So far there is no Shaolin Wahnam teacher teaching Shaolin Praying Mantis. But our aim is to restore all genuine styles of Kung Fu. The PM is directly related with the Shaolin temple, so it's our aim to get this glorious style back alive.
Especially in termes of using PM with internal force and getting the applications back to alive

Of course there may be some students who have trained PM before joining Wahnam.

Well the good thing is that Switzerland will host the first course ever in Shaolin Praying Mantis thought by Sifu. Later on I am pretty sure there will be some instructors especially training and teaching it. That said we shall keep that up to Sifu

[Luo Lang]

Dear Joe,

And yes I just call it the claw or "hook" rather than paw

I did some further researches and you are completey right! The Praying Mantis is actually regarded as a claw, and not a paw!

That said, that you for helping me to go deeper in my researches!

I shall write some more later on, so stay tuned!

[drunken boxer]

BRILLIANT! I asked Sifu at the Summer Camp if he had any plans to teach other styles like Praying Mantis or Bagua, he said he wasn't sure which courses he would offer at the time, but from I first opened this thread I was praying that you were going to say there would be a future Praying Mantis course or class in Shaolin Wahnam!

I was very inspired when I read the story about how Praying Mantis was created, about how the creator was small and found it difficult to spar with his classmates, which I can identify with!

Recently I had the pleasure of sparring with some friends from a Praying Mantis school and they were very very combat efficient, many times more so than me. Not sure what internal component they had in their training, but they were using only genuine kungfu forms for fighting, it was very impressive.

I have also heard from many friends in the UK Emptyflower Xingyi/Bagua/Taiji scene that one of the most devsatating fighters in the UK uses Praying Mantis. Apparently he has been lined up for cage fights but his opponents have pulled out after checking out his skills and reputation.

Can't wait to hear more details of this course, when it is likely to be etc, so I can make plans to attend if accepted. Brilliant!

[Mohammed]

Wow what an amazing thread. Thanks for starting it and the news about Sifu doing the course has got me really excited.

I have been studying Southern Mantis for a few years on and off and I think it is a little bit different from Northern Mantis.

It is a specialty of the 'Hakka' Chinese people and is a very esoteric style that very few people in Southern China know about or even have the patience to practise for a long time.

Like Bak Mai(White Eye Brow) the Phoenix Eye Fist is used alot and the training is mainly done by using something called two man 'jongs'.

I remember at the 2006 UK Summer Camp, Sifu very kindly showed me some Shaolin counters to use against my Southern Mantis friends.

Just a quick note also that the Hakka people in Hong Kong are based mainly in the New Territories and that Southern Mantis sometimes gets a bad press for being linked to their Triad gangs.

[Chiahua]

Sihing Mohammed, you pointed out some interesting points. I was actually wondering about the use of the phoenix-eye fist---from what I seen in the videos, the phoenix eye is used extensively in Shaolin Wahnam's Monkey style as the primary form of punching (Sihings please correct me if I'm wrong).
In contrast, the Praying Mantis I've seen the most of (Taiji Praying Mantis) uses a regular fist.
Also, the two man "jong", I wonder if these are just two-person drills like the one shown here (link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3L0mJ0Cu9U8)

...one of the most devsatating fighters in the UK uses Praying Mantis

Wow, do you have any info on this guy? Or about your friends' school?

[AlexBaranosky]

Northern Praying Mantis is totally different than Southern Mantis. They are miles apart.

[Luo Lang]

Originally posted by Chia-Hua
the phoenix eye is used extensively in Shaolin Wahnam's Monkey style as the primary form of punching (Sihings please correct me if I'm wrong).

I agree on that. Besides that the Shaolin Monkey uses often his Monkey paw to strike with there is a lot of Phoenix Eye involved. I personally use lots of Ohoenix punches.

That said the Praying Mantis also often uses its Knuckles to strike, but there are also vertical firsts often used.

I was very inspired when I read the story about how Praying Mantis was created, about how the creator was small and found it difficult to spar with his classmates, which I can identify with!

Dear Paul,
That was exactly why I am so in touch with this style. The history of this style touched my heart indeed.

Northern Praying Mantis is totally different than Southern Mantis. They are miles apart.

Dear Alex,
Could you please elaborate more about your statement? While I agree with it, I would like to ask you about your observations or experiences.

I shall continue tomorrow. Hopefully some othes will share their knowledge for a fruitful discussion.

Thanks in advance,

Roland