Mantis Boxing

Mantis boxing is a type of boxing in Chinese martial arts created by imitating the form and the combat features of the mantis in conjunction with the attack and defense movements of Wushu. It utilizes mantis-style forelimb; in addition, it employs monkey-style footwork, and borrows effective techniques from 18 other schools of Chinese boxing including Shaolin Boxing, Tongbei Boxing, and Plum Blossom Boxing. The movements of Mantis Boxing are compact, light and skillfully connected. Its hand techniques are interlocking, but are quick and powerful. They have a strong attacking force. The movements are both hard and soft.

The northern-style mantis boxing is said to have been created by Wang Lang of Jimo County in Shandong Province at the turn of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Legend has it that Wang was fond of martial arts and went to study Wushu at the Shaolin Temple in Henan Province. After the temple was burnt down by the imperial army, Wang Lang returned to Jimo where, because of his shorter stature, he was beaten again and again by his senior fellow apprentice.

Wang resolved to practice hard for three years but, much to his dismay he lost the duel again. One day in the forest, he saw a mantis wielding its forelegs while fighting a big cicada in a tree. Before long, the mantis killed the cicada. Wang found that the mantis had a good rhythm in attack and defense and controlled its catch and release well. It fought both from distance and close-up with hard and soft blows characteristic of martial combats. He captured a number of mantis and took them home. Watching them closely while they fought, Wang Lang compiled a mantis boxing by adding the essentials of the Shaolin boxing to the actions of the mantis, even including the expression of the mantis. There are two other propositions about the origin of the mantis boxing. One holds that Wang Lang created it while fighting the long-style boxers of the school created by the first emperor of the Song dynasty; the other believes that between his fights with back-through boxer Han Tong, Wang saw a mantis capture a cicada and fight a snake and so created the mantis boxing.

The mantis boxing has many routines and branches. The major five schools are as follows:

(1) Seven-star mantis boxing, which is also called Arhat mantis, features seven-star steps, hard-hitting, and vigorous movements. It tends more towards hardness than suppleness and its stances are comfortably spread and extended. The basics of this school include waist technique, leg technique, shoulder technique as well as standing skills and hitting skills.

(2) Plum blossom mantis boxing, also called taiji plum blossom mantis boxing, uses small steps and its movements are continuous deft and smart, like blossoming plums. It is almost an exact copy of the mantis. This style of boxing demands clear-cut rhythms in unleashing the tricks and emphasizes a smooth, deft and supple generation of power. It uses more sideway than straightforward force.

(3) Six-combination mantis boxing, also known as monkey mantis boxing, stresses the inner and outer, three combinations which make six combinations. It uses mind to guide the movements of the body and pays equal attention to both the mental and physical. It uses hidden, rather than obvious hardness and resorts more to inner forces.

(4) Hand-wringing mantis boxing is also called plum blossom hand-wringing mantis boxing. It comes from the plum blossom mantis boxing but because it uses hand wringing tricks in its routines, it came to be called hand-wringing mantis boxing. When delivering blows, the hands are in the shape of palm; when retreating, they are in the form of hooks.

(5) Twin mantis boxing. This style of boxing also comes from the plum blossom mantis boxing. Its movements have a delicate symmetry and thus it is called twin mantis boxing.

The mantis boxing features force, power, dexterity, speed, a combination of hardness and suppleness, of substantial and insubstantial tricks end blows and of attack and defense. It necessitates a good command of catch and release and a variation of action. Mantis boxers will attack if provoked; they will not attack if untouched by opponents; they deliver fist blows in quick succession when offended. These characteristics of the mantis boxing are well known among Chinese martial artists.

A common featured of various styles of the mantis boxing is that their actions are accurate and performed in earnest. Mantis boxers move lightly, yet powerfully and their attacks are very strong with tricks that are delicately connected. The mantis boxing stresses eyesight, hand play, footwork and body movements as well as speed, agility, steadiness and careful choice of moves. Its power generation is strong but not stiff, supple but not soft, quick but not unconnected nor out of rhythm. The mantis boxing boasts of many skills and techniques and can beat its opponent with unpredictable changes of tricks and combinations of hardness and suppleness