Tanglang Boxing
01 · Historical Records
Tanglang Boxing (mantis boxing) is a traditional art that evolved from imitating the movements of the mantis, and it is widely practised in the Jiaodong region of Shandong. Tanglang Boxing originated with Wang Lang of Jiaodong in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. Wang Lang took the way the mantis seizes the cicada, endowed it with the principles of yin and yang, of hardness and softness, and of the empty and the solid, and fused the hand methods of the eighteen old schools into a boxing system. After the art spread across the Jiaodong Peninsula it divided into several branches, and in the middle and later Qing dynasty it reached Qixia. In the hill villages around Mount Ya and Mount Ai within the county, practice halls were set up in many places, where pupils gathered to train in slack farming seasons and on festival nights. Three branches, Taiji Mantis Boxing, Meihua Mantis Boxing and Small-frame Mantis Boxing, circulated widely there, and the habit of chain attack expressed in the rule that one does not strike without a snatch but strikes as soon as one snatches was preserved.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Tanglang Boxing arose in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties and was created by Wang Lang of that period. Among its branches, Taiji Mantis Boxing, Meihua Mantis Boxing and Small-frame Mantis Boxing are the more popular in Qixia. Its technical style is marked by speed and courage, by decisive cutting force, and by a spirit that presses straight ahead. It meets the opponent head-on while striking from the side, alternating the empty with the solid, combining long and short techniques, uniting hardness and softness, and using hands and feet together, so that it is hard to read and impossible to guard against. It presses the opponent with tightly linked chain combinations, leaving the opponent no chance to catch a breath. Its hand methods are rich: there are long striking hands that open and close widely, and short, quick stealing hands; there are elbow and shoulder locks and grapples, and there are ground throws and trips as well. In the performance of set routines, it demands speed without disorder, hardness without stiffness, and softness without weakness. Routines are rigorously structured, and the movements are ingeniously linked to one another. Its external skill is the Iron Sand Palm; its internal skill is the Luohan Gong.
The small-frame branch in Qixia
One of the three branches current in Qixia, its short quick hands favour stealing strikes and tight combinations.
Practice halls in the Ya and Ai hills
In the hill villages around Mount Ya and Mount Ai, village practice halls kept the art alive in slack seasons and festival nights.
Meeting head-on while striking sideways
It meets frontally while striking from the side, mixing feint and force, long and short, so that the opponent is never allowed to breathe.
Long and stolen hands
The repertoire holds both broad long hands and small stolen ones, along with elbow seizing and ground throws.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Over the several hundred years since Tanglang Boxing arose, generations of martial artists have summed up, refined and innovated the art, gradually shaping a distinctive style that combines long and short techniques, unites hardness and softness, is brave and fast, and is highly practical for actual combat. Its principal schools include Taiji Mantis Boxing, Meihua Mantis Boxing, Qixing Mantis Boxing, Liuhe Mantis Boxing and Small-frame Mantis Boxing. As one of the ten great schools of China's outstanding traditional martial arts, Tanglang Boxing is a concentrated product of the cultural accumulation of the Shandong Peninsula region and a comprehensive expression of the Chinese nation's spirit of valuing martial skill. In Qixia, Tanglang Boxing is found mainly in the county seat and in the villages of townships such as Taocun, Shewopo, Zangjiazhuang and Sujiadian, and it is passed on through master-to-disciple teaching in village practice halls and in the courtyards of clans. Training proceeds by stages: first standing in the horse stance, next practising hands, eyes, body and steps, and then combining routines with paired exercises; weapons training covers the saber, spear, sword and staff. The locality has also introduced Tanglang Boxing into primary and secondary school physical education and into mass fitness performances, so that this art born in Jiaodong continues in the hill villages.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Tanglang Boxing · Tanglang Boxing · Tanglang Boxing.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Regular practice of Tanglang Boxing can cultivate a person's resolute fighting spirit and ability to adapt to changing circumstances.
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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