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 was created by Wang Lang of Jiaodong in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, after watching a mantis seize a cicada and fusing the hand methods of the eighteen old schools; it was first transmitted among the fishing villages and mountain villages of the Jiaodong Peninsula. The Laoshan area of Qingdao lies on the peninsula's southern shore, and there fishermen and farming households trained in the art during slack seasons and between fishing rushes, both for their own pleasure and for self-defence. By the late Qing and early Republican period Tanglang Boxing had taken root in the villages around Laoshan. The masters in the Wanggezhuang area taught pupils through village practice halls, holding that speed and courage, decisive cutting force and a spirit pressing straight ahead were the essentials, with the Iron Sand Palm for external skill and the Luohan Gong for internal skill.
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.
Mantis boxing in fishing-village halls
Village halls served as the school where fishermen and farmers practised together at night, kin teaching kin.
Training in slack seasons
Practice followed the fishing and orchard calendar, with the closed season and slack farming periods for intensive teaching.
Twelve characters and chain attacks
Twelve hand methods underpin the chain attacks that press the opponent without pause.
Fast, hard and soft in balance
Routines must be swift without disorder and strong without stiffness, steady within liveliness.
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 Wanggezhuang Subdistrict of Laoshan District, Tanglang Boxing circulates mainly in the coastal villages of Wanggezhuang, Xiaowang, Dongtai and Qingshan. Those who practise it are mostly fishermen and fruit growers, and practice time is usually arranged in slack farming seasons, in the closed fishing season and at night; practice halls and village cultural courtyards are the main places of transmission. The subdistrict office serves as the protecting unit, and it has incorporated Tanglang Boxing into community fitness performances and summer training courses for young people. It occupies the same ground as the Daoist health-nurturing tradition of Laoshan and the festival activities of the fishing villages, forming a picture of transmission handed on from mountain village to fishing village in unbroken succession.
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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