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Praying Mantis (螂螂拳)

Updated 2026-06-05
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Northern Praying Mantis (北派螳螂拳, Tanglangquan) is a Shandong-born system that imitates the snatching, hooking, and short-range striking of the mantis insect — fused onto northern long-fist footwork. Among the older and more technically distinctive northern arts, it is famous for the mantis hook (螳螂鈎) — the wrist-cocked hand for trapping, grabbing, redirecting and tearing — and for its "seven long, eight short" (七長八短) blending of long-range entries with a dense vocabulary of short percussive strikes. Mantis is mobile, continuous, and built around sticking-and-intercepting (黏截) once contact is made.

Origin — legend and what's documented

Tradition credits Wang Lang (王朗) of Laiyang, Shandong: a martial artist who, after losing a duel, watched a praying mantis defeat a much larger insect in a courtyard, then synthesized 十八家 ("eighteen schools") of northern boxing into a new style — the footwork said to borrow from monkey boxing (猴拳) or tongbei. The transmission is traced from Laoshan/Shaolin Daoists, especially the figure called 升霄道人 (Shengxiao Daoren), through the manuscripts 羅漢行功短打 (Luohan Short-Striking Conditioning) → 少林衣缽真傳 (True Transmission of the Shaolin Robe-and-Bowl).

The branch tree

Most lineages descend from a handful of 19th-century Shandong teachers and split into the major branches below.

七星螳螂 Seven Star Mantis

Robust frame and structurally stable; the seven-star stance (七星馬) gives the branch its name. Lineage in this branch's most-disseminated arm: 升霄道人 → 范旭東 → 羅光玉 (Luo Guangyu) → 黃漢勛 (Wong Hon Fan), through the Hong Kong Chin Woo (精武) Athletic Association — the route by which Seven Star reached the rest of the world.

梅花螳螂 Plum Blossom Mantis · 太極梅花 Taiji Plum Blossom

Rounder, more continuous "plum-blossom" linking. Lineage: 梁學香 → 姜化龍 → (霍耀池 / 郝家 taiji-plum lines). Softer in flavor than Seven Star.

六合螳螂 Six Harmony Mantis

The most internal and softest branch — 少剛多柔, sometimes called 暗剛 (hidden hard) — with markedly fewer hook techniques. Lineage: 林景山 / 丁子成 → 張詳三, 劉雲樵.

八步螳螂 Eight Step Mantis

A 20th-century synthesis: 姜化龍 + 王中慶 combined classical mantis with 八卦, 形意, 通背 material; popularized by 衛笑堂 (Wei Xiaotang).

Smaller branches

摔手螳螂 (throwing emphasis); 太極螳螂 / 光板 (趙竹溪 Zhao Zhuxi line, "Chu Hsi" Bamboo-Stream Taiji Mantis); 白猿 (White Gibbon) sub-line.

What it looks like — characteristics

  • The mantis hook (螳螂鈎): the wrist cocked into a hook, fingers loose, used for grabbing the partner's limb, redirecting their force, tearing, and trapping. The hook is the signature.

  • 七長八短 (seven long, eight short): long-range entries chained immediately into a dense vocabulary of short strikes — elbows, shoulders, headbutts, knees — once the gap is closed.

  • Sticking and intercepting (黏截): after contact, the mantis specialist sticks to the partner's arm, uses 撥 (deflect) and 掛 (hang) to neutralize force, and intercepts the next motion before it lands.

  • Mobile footwork: the seven-star stance (七星馬), the unicorn step (麒麟步), and continuous transitions. Mantis is rarely planted in one place.

Signature forms

  • 崩步 (Bung Bo, "Crushing Step") — the universal first set taught across nearly all branches; the "ABC" of mantis.

  • 攔截 (Lan Jie, "Block-and-Intercept") — including 黑虎攔截 (Black Tiger Intercept), one of the canonical short sets.

  • 插捶 (Cha Chui, "Inserting Punch") · 梅花路 (Plum Blossom Road) · 十八叟 (Eighteen Elders) · 八肘 (Eight Elbows) — the core curricular forms.

  • 採補 (Caibu, "Catching and Supplementing") — push-hands / application work, especially in the Taiji-Plum branch.

  • Each branch has its own 八步 sets, weapons (六合刀, 螳螂劍, etc.), and two-person drills.

Branch deep-dives

七星螳螂 Seven Star Mantis — branch deep-dive (forms, lineage, sources)

八步螳螂 Eight Step Mantis — branch deep-dive (Wei Xiaotang lineage)

Primary sources

The real archive of the classical mantis literature is the 黃漢勛 (Wong Hon Fan) Praying Mantis Special Collection at the Chinese University of Hong Kong:

  • CUHK Wong Hon Fan Collection (286 items) — Wong's complete Praying Mantis Series of ~27 published titles (螳螂拳譜, 螳螂拳術闡秘 1946, 崩步拳, 插捶, 梅花拳/落/手, 白猿出洞/偷桃, 大架式/小架式, 八肘, 連環錦套, 燕青單刀, 子午劍, etc.), the 范旭東 (Fan Xudong) manuscript that Wong inherited, plus 63 manuscripts, 17 photo albums, and 132 newspaper cuttings. Browser-only via IIIF viewer. The single most important Praying Mantis archive in the world.

Openly hosted modern English manuals (in copyright; linked at source):

A Chinese-language catalog of 70+ mantis manuscripts by branch, useful as a want-list: zhihu.com/p/561088656.

Lineage holders and continuing schools

  • 羅光玉 (Luo Guangyu, 1888–1944) — Seven Star; taught at the HK Chin Woo and trained Wong Hon Fan, the disseminator.

  • 黃漢勛 / Wong Hon Fan (1915–1974) — 7th-gen Seven Star; King of Praying Mantis; published the ~27-title series above. Continuing presence: hfwong-mantis.com.

  • 趙竹溪 Zhao Zhuxi (Chu Hsi, 1900–1991) — founder of 竹溪太極螳螂; archived footage of his teaching survives (see the wiki video index).

  • 衛笑堂 Wei Xiaotang — disseminator of 八步螳螂.

  • 王國典 Wang Guodian — Plum Blossom master filmed at 89 in 1995 by Austrian TV.

Video

Curated archival + form-walkthrough video is indexed in the codex's Northern Kung Fu Video catalog. Highlights:

See also

Northern Kung Fu Styles — the broader field guide

Sources & Method — how this wiki sources and translates

Sources

[1] Praying Mantis (martial art), Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org) — origin tradition, branch overview, Wang Lang attribution.

[2] 黃漢勛宗師螳螂拳特藏, Chinese University of Hong Kong Library (repository.lib.cuhk.edu.hk/en/collection/whf) — the 286-item special collection that anchors the historical record.

[3] 螳螂拳傳承體系, 六合螳螂拳官網 (6h-mantis.org) — lineage chart for the branches.

[4] 螳螂派黃漢勛, Wong Hon Fan family lineage site (hfwong-mantis.com) — published-titles list, archival film.

[5] 一种象形的民间拳法《螳螂拳》武功秘籍七十余部, Zhihu (zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/561088656) — index of 70+ classical mantis manuscripts by branch.

Details

Section:
Notes
Updated:
2026-06-05

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