Tainan Mantis
07-10-2011, 07:57 PM
Some time ago I wrote an article documenting Wang Lang's earliest known appeareance in written published form called Wang Lang and his Pair of Swords
The book Chang's Pugilist Volume (Chang Shi Wu Ji Shu), Published in Henan sometime during the Chien Long reign (1736-1795) of the Qing dynasty, references Wang Lang, historical founder of Mantis Boxing, when it describes double sword (shuang jian) maneuvers.
That article, Wang Lang and his Pair of Swords, starts with an illustration of the double clubs. At the time of that writing I had only been able to gather that the illustration comes from some book of the Qing Dynasty.
I have finally managed to trace down the history of that illustration. It comes from the book Shaolin's Clothing and Bowl True Transmission. I already have a version of this book, but over the years many different ones have acumulated throughout China.
From this article Wang Lang and his Pair of Swords (http://plumflowermantisboxing.com/Articles/pre%2009/2008/WL%20swords.htm).
This is double good news, because it shows one more link between double weapons and Mantis, namely that this set of short strikes and weapons comes from a book of Mantis, the book called Shaolin's Clothing and Bowl True Transmission, by Sheng Shao Dao Ren.
Mantis and Double Sabers
Besides the above connection between mantis and double clubs in Shaolin's Clothing and Bowl True Transmission, this book also contains another reference to the overturning hands of Mantis boxing using the double sabers!
Mantis and Fanche together with double sabers and Wang Lang together with Double straight sword.
Why is this important?
Because it shows that someone, purportedly Sheng Shao Dao Ren, since he is listed as the author of this book, believed that the movement of Double sabers was very similar to movements of Praying Mantis! And, that the chopping of double straight swords was similar to the characteristic of Wang Lang.
Books
1. Besides this material I have managed to procure another version of the book Chang's Pugilist Volume (Chang Shi Wu Ji Shu). This version contains the illustrations of the two person weapons attacks, including double straight sword vs spear, two person monkey stick, as well as their monkey fist.
I look forward to finding what interesting tidbits of kung fu history and information lie between the pages of these books.
2. Also, a scholarly interpretation of the most important martial and military books of the Ming and Qing dynasty. This is important since the Chinese language of the Ming, Qing and present are substantially different. This book will help gaurantee my translations are accurate.
3. And to top it all off I have finally gotten my hands on a dictionary applying to ancient Chinese. Just flipping through casually has already answered some questions on terminolgy used by Mantis but not part of the Qing Dynasty vocabulary.
I was hoping to get a dictionary of Shandong dialects, but no luck. On the other hand, Zhou Zhendong has been teaching me the "hang Hua- spoken terms of Mantis fist unique to the style"
For example, free fighting, commonly called Sanda or sanshou, is known in Taiji Mantis as 'Lu Chui'
More to come...
The book Chang's Pugilist Volume (Chang Shi Wu Ji Shu), Published in Henan sometime during the Chien Long reign (1736-1795) of the Qing dynasty, references Wang Lang, historical founder of Mantis Boxing, when it describes double sword (shuang jian) maneuvers.
That article, Wang Lang and his Pair of Swords, starts with an illustration of the double clubs. At the time of that writing I had only been able to gather that the illustration comes from some book of the Qing Dynasty.
I have finally managed to trace down the history of that illustration. It comes from the book Shaolin's Clothing and Bowl True Transmission. I already have a version of this book, but over the years many different ones have acumulated throughout China.
From this article Wang Lang and his Pair of Swords (http://plumflowermantisboxing.com/Articles/pre%2009/2008/WL%20swords.htm).
This is double good news, because it shows one more link between double weapons and Mantis, namely that this set of short strikes and weapons comes from a book of Mantis, the book called Shaolin's Clothing and Bowl True Transmission, by Sheng Shao Dao Ren.
Mantis and Double Sabers
Besides the above connection between mantis and double clubs in Shaolin's Clothing and Bowl True Transmission, this book also contains another reference to the overturning hands of Mantis boxing using the double sabers!
Mantis and Fanche together with double sabers and Wang Lang together with Double straight sword.
Why is this important?
Because it shows that someone, purportedly Sheng Shao Dao Ren, since he is listed as the author of this book, believed that the movement of Double sabers was very similar to movements of Praying Mantis! And, that the chopping of double straight swords was similar to the characteristic of Wang Lang.
Books
1. Besides this material I have managed to procure another version of the book Chang's Pugilist Volume (Chang Shi Wu Ji Shu). This version contains the illustrations of the two person weapons attacks, including double straight sword vs spear, two person monkey stick, as well as their monkey fist.
I look forward to finding what interesting tidbits of kung fu history and information lie between the pages of these books.
2. Also, a scholarly interpretation of the most important martial and military books of the Ming and Qing dynasty. This is important since the Chinese language of the Ming, Qing and present are substantially different. This book will help gaurantee my translations are accurate.
3. And to top it all off I have finally gotten my hands on a dictionary applying to ancient Chinese. Just flipping through casually has already answered some questions on terminolgy used by Mantis but not part of the Qing Dynasty vocabulary.
I was hoping to get a dictionary of Shandong dialects, but no luck. On the other hand, Zhou Zhendong has been teaching me the "hang Hua- spoken terms of Mantis fist unique to the style"
For example, free fighting, commonly called Sanda or sanshou, is known in Taiji Mantis as 'Lu Chui'
More to come...