History of Praying Mantis Martial Arts

The Invention and Development of the Northern Style Praying Mantis School of Chinese Boxing

 Originally written by Master Wong Hon-Funn. Translated into English and extended by Master Tony Chuy.

 At the end of the Ming Dynasty (mid 17^th century), there lived a native of Shantung by the name of Wong Long.  He was a very patriotic man; and since the Ming government was about to be overthrown, he was always thinking about giving forth his body and soul in defense of his country.  However, his attempts were futile and his enthusiasm rejected.  Hence, he retreated to the Sung Mountain and practiced boxing in the Shaolin Temple, hoping that one day this would be of help to him.

 When the Ching Soldiers took over the reign of China, Wong thought that this was the time to volunteer his services.  However, he found no place in the government nor the army for him.  So he returned to the Shaolin Temple and planned to fight with guerrilla forces against the current government.  Unfortunately their plans were discovered by the latter.  Because of his superior skill, artful maneuver, and the assistance of his colleagues, Wong escaped, accompanied by his instructor.  To avoid being caught by the soldiers again, they took the route of the highland, by way of the Ngo-Mei Mountain and Kwan-Lun Mountain, eventually arriving at Lao Mountain in the Shantung province.

 Before long, Wong Long’s Sifu died of old age; and one of his colleagues succeeded in his place.  To pass the time, Wong combated playfully with his senior, both empty-handed and with weapons.  Wong’s senior was more skilled, and therefore Wong was always defeated.  Wong felt ashamed; he promised himself that he must set a goal to exceed his senior after three years.

 Three years passed quickly.  Well prepared, Wong combated with his senior.  He lost again.  Now Wong felt so ashamed he even thought of killing himself.  Then, one day Wong’s senior decided to take leave and spend some time traveling and wandering about the country.  As he was leaving, he bid Wong to practice diligently, and he said that he expected to see great advances in Wong’s skills when he returned.

 One hot day during his leave, Wong became bored while in the confines of his surroundings.  So he took his sword and some books and sought resort in the woods.  Just as he cooled himself down and began to turn the pages of a book, he heard some hissing sounds.  The sounds even seemed desperate.  Wong looked up and found high in a tree, a praying mantis and a cicada engaged in mortal combat.  By means of his strong arms and chisel-like claws, the mantis attacked the cicada ruthlessly.  The battle was soon over and the cicada fell dead.

 An idea came in to Wong’s mind.  The praying mantis played artfully during its kill.  He timed his advances and retreats perfectly; he used long-distance blows and close crushes correctly; and he grasped and released methodically.  Wong thought “does this not resemble the skills one uses in boxing?  So Wong captured the praying mantis and brought it back to the temple.  From then on, Wong provoked the mantis everyday with a piece of straw.  At the same time, he watched it carefully and observed its reactions.

 Being an analytical and intelligent man (and an expert at several martial arts styles), Wong soon discovered that the praying mantis made use of twelve principal methods for attack and defense, which are now known as the twelve verbal keywords of the Praying Mantis Style.

 12 Keywords

 NGOU, LOU and T’SAI.  Individually, their respective meanings are:  to hook, to grasp and to snatch.  But when all three are used in combination, the actual movements are a hook, a grasp and then a strike.  The fourth keyword is KWA, which in this case means upward block.  The fifth and sixth keywords are DIEW and JHIN meaning intercept and advance.  The seventh and eighth keywords are DIEW and DAH, together they mean to hook and strike.  The ninth and tenth keywords are JIMM and NEEM.  Their respective meanings are to adhere and to paste, reflecting very similar principles of close contact fighting.  The eleventh and twelfth keywords are TIPH and K’AO, meaning to stick and to lean on someone.  Wong then took the best points out of seventeen other schools of Chinese Boxing at that time, combining them into one unique concise style now known as the Praying Mantis Style.

 When Wong’s senior returned three years later, he combated again with Wong.  Not knowing Wong’s great improvement in skill, he was thrown yards away during the combat.  Shocked, he asked Wong the reason behind his great advancement in boxing.  Wong told him all that happened.  Thereafter, they practiced with each other more frequently than ever, refining the art to a superior level.  Thus, the Praying Mantis style of Chinese Boxing was invented.

 A few decades later, both Wong and his senior had died.  But the art of the Praying Mantis style of boxing was not lost.  Rather, it was taught to the monks in the temple and was developed further with each generation.  However, the art was still limited only to people inside the temple until a Taoist priest by the name of Sing Siew went there on his hike over China.  He studied the art under the monks.

 After Sing Siew left the temple, he then taught the art to Lee, Sarm Jin.  When Lee had learned the entire system, he established an escort service in China.  For a certain fee, the service would guard and transport valuable goods to a set destination for its clients.  Lee’s service was noted for its reliability and security throughout Northern China.  Lee himself was known to robbers as Lee, the “Lightning Hands”.  No one was able to defeat him.

 Lee became worried that when he was older, there would be no one to pass on the art to that had brought him fame and prosperity, for he had no son.  So he went everywhere searching for someone who had sufficient basic training in boxing to inherit the art of Praying Mantis.  He was not disappointed.  One day while he was traveling to Fook Mountain, he heard of a man called Wong, Wing Sung who was the national boxing champion that year.  So Lee visited Wong and asked the latter to perform some of his winning techniques.  After watching Wong perform, Lee jeered at him, saying that such techniques should not have won him the championship.  Wong was extremely angry and tried to attack Lee.  Lee seemed to disappear into the air.  Laughter rose behind him so Wong turned around and tried to grab Lee again, but in vain.  On the contrary, he was held, completely unable to move.  Realizing that he was no match for the elder man, he asked Lee to become his teacher.  In the few years that followed, he learned without reserve all that his teacher knew.

 Wong’s family was wealthy so he did not have to worry about money.  Nor did he want to show off the art he had learned to outsiders.  He just practiced it as recreation.  During his last years though, he decided to teach the art to Fahn Yook Tung.

 Fahn was a huge man, weighing over three hundred pounds and was known to people as “Giant Fahn”.  He also excelled in the skill of the Iron Palm Technique.  Once as Fahn was walking in the fields, he came across two bulls fighting.  Seeing Fahn, the bulls mistook him for an invader and charged at him.  When the first arrived, Fahn put all his strength into his right leg and gave the bull a hard kick in the belly.  The bull (huge tough it was) fell down at once.  The second bull was treated just as harshly by Fahn.  He grabbed his horn with his left hand and hit hard at its back with his right.  The second bull fell dead also.  The farmer who owned the bulls asked for a sum of money as compensation for the bulls killed by Fahn, but Fahn argued that he was acting only in self-defense.  So the issue was settled.

 Thus, Fahn’s name spread all over China.  In the early 1870’s, some Russians requested that Fahn compete in a boxing tournament in Siberia.  If not for many friends and colleagues (who supplied him with the necessary financial resources), he could not have gone.  When Fahn arrived there, he defeated the host, as well as later challengers.  He took the championship and an excessive share of glory back to China.  Unfortunately, this incident was little known to outsiders because of poor methods of communication at that time.

 In 1919, the committee of the Shanghai Jing-Mo Athletic Association was astounded by the perfection of this school of Chinese Boxing.  Therefore, they sent someone to Shantung to personally escort Mr. Fahn back to Shanghai to teach the art.  However, Mr. Fahn declined the invitation due to his old age.  Instead, he sent two of his disciples to the Jing-Mo Athletic Association to represent him.  They were Wong, Wai Sun and Law, Gwong Yook.  Wong, Wai Sun was in charge of the Shantung province branch of the Jing-Mo Athletic Association.  However, he could not get used to city life and so he resigned and returned to his native country.  Law, Gwong Yook (whose nickname was “Fourth Uncle”) started learning under Master Fahn at an early age.  He was famous for his Teet Sah Jeung (Iron Palm Techniques) and Law Hawn Gung (a Praying Mantis Internal Power Set).

 In 1929, a national contest of Chinese Boxing was held in Nanking.  One of Law’s top students named Ma, Shing Garm represented Shanghai in the contest.  Ma won first prize.  His name, as well as that of his instructor, appeared in the headlines of all the newspapers of Shanghai.

 A few years later, Law was sent by the Central Jing-Mo Athletic Association to inspect branches of their organization in the Southern provinces, notably those in Hong Kong and Macau.

 Master Law taught in Hong Kong until the war broke out.  It was at that time he decided to return to his native Shantung province.  Master Wong, Hon-Funn (a closed-door disciple of Master Law) carried out the mission of promoting the Praying Mantis Style after Master Law departed.  Master Wong, Hon-Funn trained many students in Hong Kong during his forty year teaching career.  He retired from teaching in 1972 and passed away in December, 1973.  He was famous and reputed for teaching Praying Mantis in Hong Kong.

ADDENDUM

 Among Wong, Hon-Funn’s disciples there are approximately twenty who were certified to teach.  One of these disciples is Grand Master Brendan Lai who was teaching in San Francisco.  Grand Master Lai was one of the forerunners who promoted Chinese Martial Arts in the United States in the 60’s.  Grand Master Lai had sponsored many martial arts exhibitions and tournaments.  Grand Master Lai was also selected as one of the Top Ten Instructors in the United States by Inside King Fu magazine. Grand Master Lai passed away on September 23^rd, 2002 .

 From the invention of Praying Mantis Boxing until today, there has been a history of over 3 ½ centuries.  With continual refinement and improvement of the art, it has now become one of the most complete and effective systems of Chinese Boxing currently being practiced.

 Note:  all names in this journal have been translated into the Cantonese pronunciation.  Other publications may translate using various other Chinese dialects.