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 17th 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 23rd, 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. .
