Tanglang Boxing
01 · Historical Records
Mantis Boxing is said to have been created by Wang Lang, a native of Jiaodong in the late Ming and early Qing period. Observing the mantis catching a cicada, Wang Lang took from it the sense of arms like knives and of using stillness to control motion, integrating the hand techniques of the eighteen traditional schools into one; it first circulated in village boxing halls along the coast of the Jiaodong Peninsula. In the mid-to-late Qing period it was transmitted in succession by Li Bingxiao, Liang Mengxiang, Song Zide, and others. Laiyang, lying in the hinterland of Jiaodong with dense villages along both banks of the Wulong River, became the place where Mantis Boxing was most extensively practiced in Jiaodong; the twelve-character formula of hooking (gou), drawing (lou), gathering (cai), hanging (gua), sticking (nian), adhering (zhan), pressing (tie), leaning (kao), snatching (diao), advancing (jin), collapsing (beng), and striking (da), together with the external and internal skills of Iron Sand Palm and Arhat Skill, were also fixed in this branch.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Mantis Boxing is said to have been created by Wang Lang, a native of Jiaodong in the late Ming and early Qing period. It is widely transmitted in the Jiaodong Peninsula along the coast of present-day Shandong Province, and is most extensively practiced in Laiyang City. Legend has it that Wang Lang, observing the movements of a mantis catching a cicada, took its bearing and spirit, imbued it with the principles of yin and yang, hardness and softness, emptiness and fullness, applied the methods of up and down, left and right, forward and back, advance and retreat, and synthesized the hand techniques of the eighteen traditional schools into a single art, thus creating Mantis Boxing. His transmitters included Li Bingxiao, Liang Mengxiang, Song Zide, and others. Although Mantis Boxing has many schools, all emphasize imitating the form in order to capture the idea, with the emphasis on the idea rather than the form. Hand techniques, footwork, leg techniques, and body methods are closely linked and ingeniously combined: steady yet flexible, seeking speed within liveliness, steadiness within speed, and refinement within steadiness. The hand techniques of Mantis Boxing consist mainly of the twelve-character formula: hooking (gou), drawing (lou), gathering (cai), hanging (gua), sticking (nian), adhering (zhan), pressing (tie), leaning (kao), snatching (diao), advancing (jin), collapsing (beng), and striking (da). It demands a continuous chain of attacks: without snatching there is no striking; once you snatch, you strike; and one strike becomes several. The overall style of Mantis Boxing is swift and fierce, decisive and resolute, pressing forward courageously. Its features are meeting attacks head-on and striking from the side, emptiness and fullness interchanging, long and short ranges combined, hardness and softness complementing each other, and hands and feet used together, making the art hard to read and impossible to guard against completely; with chained, tightly linked hand techniques it presses directly at the opponent, leaving the enemy no chance to catch breath. The hand techniques are very rich: there are both wide, extended long-range strikes and short, quick slipping-through strikes, as well as elbow-and-lean seizing and ground-falling throws. In set practice, the emphasis is on being fast without disorder, hard without rigidity, and soft without limpness. The sets are rigorously structured, with ingenious linking between movements. The external skill is Iron Sand Palm; the internal skill is Arhat Skill.
The twelve-character hand formula
Twelve hand methods, from hooking and gathering to sticking and striking, insist that a feint and a blow arrive as one.
Iron-sand palm and arhat exercise
Iron-sand palm conditions the outside while arhat exercise cultivates the inside.
Li Bingxiao, Liang Mengxiang and Song Zide
Successive masters carried the art through the Jiaodong peninsula until it grew into several branches.
The four Jiaodong branches
Out of Laiyang the art branched into the Taiji, plum blossom, seven-star and six-harmony schools, all stressing intent over shape.
Fast but ordered, hard but not stiff
Routines must be fast yet ordered, hard yet not rigid, soft yet not limp, with ground work and elbow and shoulder techniques.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
After spreading out from Laiyang, Mantis Boxing gradually formed four main schools in Jiaodong: Taiji Mantis Boxing, Meihua (Plum Blossom) Mantis Boxing, Qixing (Seven Star) Mantis Boxing, and Liuhe (Six Harmonies) Mantis Boxing.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Tanglang Boxing · Tanglang Boxing · Tanglang Boxing.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Regular practice of Mantis Boxing can cultivate a strong fighting will and quick adaptability. Mantis Boxing is a concrete expression of the local culture of the Jiaodong Peninsula in the field of martial arts; it embodies the martial spirit of the Chinese nation, and its distinctive martial techniques are precious material for tracing history and studying Chinese martial arts culture. Mantis Boxing has practitioners in Jiaodong and throughout the country and the world, but with the overall decline of martial arts, the complete transmission of Mantis Boxing also faces severe challenges: the number of practitioners is dwindling, and there is an urgent need for excavation, rescue, and protection.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Sun Richeng 05-2550
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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