Lanshoumen
01 · Historical Records
Legend has it that in the early years of the Qing dynasty, Zheng Haining, a Ming-dynasty general who had drifted to Tianjin, taught the “road-blocking boxing” (lanlu quan) at the Tianfei Palace temple in Dazhigu, Hedong; later, Zheng Tianxing of Henan taught the “hand-training boxing” (lianshou quan).
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Lanshou School (intercepting-hand school) is a boxing style within traditional martial arts, mainly transmitted in the Tianjin area. After Li Jingang and others received this transmission, they continuously studied and practiced it, creating the Lanshou boxing and the Fan boxing. The transmission reached the sixth generation with Liu Changhai, Chen Lianfang, and others. On the basis of the Cao boxing, Lanshou boxing, and Fan boxing, they further created the Pao (cannon) boxing, which substitutes fierceness for swiftness and advances fiercely to strike swiftly, forming the four mother routines of Cao, Lan, Fan, and Pao. Professor Liu Wanfu, a seventh-generation inheritor, has received the honor of “Pioneer of Physical Education in New China”. While teaching at the Tianjin Institute of Physical Education, he distilled from the four mother routines the practical techniques known as the “Thirty-six Techniques”, used as a popular teaching manual for Lanshou boxing. The Lanshou School emphasizes a solid foundation and thick, forceful power, attaching importance to strength training. Its basic exercises include the Child's Skill (tongzi gong), the spirit-concentrating and qi-nourishing exercise, the elixir-way breathing exercise, pole shaking, jar grasping, rod twisting, board running, pit squatting, wooden-stake striking, sand rubbing, and the Thirteen Protectors (shisan taibao). The Lanshou School takes interception (lan) as its core. Its hand techniques include entangling, bursting, pressing, shaking, chopping, intercepting, poking, embracing, and tearing; its leg techniques include advancing, withdrawing, darting, sliding, inserting, and heel-treading. Its fighting method stresses intercepting and then striking, issuing force as soon as the hands make contact, substituting fierceness for swiftness, advancing fiercely and striking swiftly, and using speed to control stillness. The weapons practiced in the Lanshou School include the great spear, the flower spear, the Spring-and-Autumn great blade, the podao broadsword, the monk's spade, staves, the single saber, the double sabers, the single sword, the double swords, the short staff, the large and small shaozi (thrown sticks), the meteor hammer, the flying-head dart (shuaishou yizhi), and the thirteen-section tiger-tail whip.
The four mother routines
From the Cao, Lan and Fan routines came the fierce Pao, together forming the four mother routines of the school.
The thirty-six techniques
The seventh-generation master Liu Wanfu distilled thirty-six practical techniques from the mother routines as a teaching primer.
Child's skill and breath training
The school's basic exercises include child's skill, spirit-calming and Daoist breathing work, building solid power through breath.
Pole shaking, jar gripping and bench running
Instrumental drills such as shaking poles and gripping jars train the fingers, wrists and footwork.
Long spear, flower spear and great sabre
The school's long weapons, besides which it trains the monk's spade, staff, sabres, swords, short cudgel and thirteen-joint whip.
Zhang Wenzhong and the Jinquan research society
Zhang Wenzhong founded the Jinquan research society and the school's martial arts association, teaching for over fifty years.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Up to the present, practitioners of Lanshou School martial arts are found in every district and county of Tianjin, with the largest number in the Hedong District, and inheritors are distributed across more than twenty provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions nationwide.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Zhang Wenzhong (recorded in the official inheritor archive): Male, of the Han nationality, born in March 1941, a native of Tianjin. A boxing master of the Lanshou School, holding seventh duan (grade) in Chinese martial arts. In 2002, he established the Jinmen Lanshou Boxing Research Association and served as its president. In 2006, he founded the Lanshou School Martial Arts General Association, established a martial arts team, and served as head coach. In 2010, he established the Lanshou School Martial Arts Research Association within the Tianjin Martial Arts Association, serving as its president. He has taught students for more than fifty years, passing on without reservation the martial-arts ethics he has upheld for decades and the essence of his martial learning to disciples and enthusiasts of the Lanshou School; the students he has taught are spread across many regions at home and abroad, more than a hundred of whom have mastered superb skills. Representative inheritor of the Lanshou School, a national-level intangible cultural heritage item in the fifth national-level batch. He has been evaluated and named a national-level social sports instructor.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Zhang Wenzhong 05-2561
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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