"Without the hooking-seizing, do not strike —
once you have seized, strike — and strike in combination."
— Classical combat doctrine of Praying Mantis Fist
Born from Watching an Insect Fight
Tang Lang Quan (螳螂拳 — Praying Mantis Fist) is one of the most celebrated and distinctly characterized martial arts of China's Shandong Province, with a history traceable to the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. Its origin story is among the most vivid in all of Chinese martial tradition: Wáng Lǎng (王朗), a Shandong martial artist who had trained at the Shaolin Temple and mastered the techniques of seventeen prominent fist systems, was one day defeated in a challenge match. Disheartened, he wandered into the mountains — and there witnessed a praying mantis locked in combat with a cicada. The insect's precision seized his attention: the lightning-quick hooking forearms, the measured advance and retreat, the patient positioning followed by explosive seizure. He captured the mantis and studied it for months, gradually distilling its movement principles into a new fist system. To the mantis's arm techniques, he added the footwork of the gibbon-monkey (yuánhóu bùfǎ 猿猴步法) — agile, evasive, ground-covering — creating a complete system of hand and foot that could not be derived from either source alone.
The art was codified into its major classical forms through successive generations: Lǐ Bǐngxiāo (李秉霄) synthesized the Luohan short-striking methods with Wang Lang's original techniques, and his student Liáng Xuéxiāng (梁學香, also written 梁世香) created the signature routine Zhāi Yào (摘要 — Extracting the Essentials), which remains one of the foundational forms of the Mantis canon. By the time the art reached the Jiaodong Peninsula of Shandong in the 19th century, it had developed into several distinct branches — each a complete system with its own character and emphasis.
The Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage registry, which designated Tang Lang Quan as a protected national treasure in 2011, records its core principle: the art "emphasizes xiang xing qu yi (象形取意) — taking inspiration from the form but embodying the spirit. It is not the form that matters, but the intent. Hand method, footwork, leg technique, and body method are tightly and ingeniously connected — stable yet agile, and within that agility, fast; within speed, stable; within stability, precise."
Seven Stars, Plum Blossom, Six Harmonies
From Wang Lang's original creation, the art divided into multiple branches over generations — each retaining the core mantis hand methods and monkey footwork while developing its own emphasis, curriculum, and power quality. The three most historically significant are recognized across Chinese and Taiwanese martial sources as the primary lineages.
The Twelve-Character Formula
The technical heart of Praying Mantis Fist is expressed in the Twelve-Character Formula (十二字訣) — twelve action principles that together constitute the complete grammar of the art's hand techniques. These twelve characters are not mere technique names but embodied principles: each one a quality of engagement that the practitioner must develop in the body until it operates without conscious thought.
The first eight characters — Hook, Gather, Pluck, Hang, Adhere, Cling, Attach, Press — describe the controlling techniques: methods of making contact with the opponent's limbs and simultaneously nullifying their attack while creating the opening for the counterstrike. The last four — Seize, Advance, Smash, Strike — describe the decisive techniques: the entry and finishing actions that conclude the exchange. The classical formula that governs their use: "Without the hooking-seizing, do not strike — once you have seized, strike — and strike in combination."
Six Harmonies Mantis: The Rarest Branch
The Six Harmonies Mantis Fist (六合螳螂拳) is distinguished from the Seven Stars and Plum Blossom branches by a fundamental difference in power philosophy. Chinese martial sources consistently describe it as the "soft mantis" (ruǎn táng láng 軟螳螂) — not because it is weak, but because its force operates through a different mechanism: internal accumulation and sensitive redirection rather than direct hard impact. A source from Zhihu (知乎) records: "Six Harmonies Mantis is perhaps the rarest, with very few reaching the highest level."
The "six harmonies" that give the branch its name mirror the same principle found in Xing Yi Quan's foundational theory: three internal harmonies (heart coordinates with intent, intent coordinates with energy, energy coordinates with force) and three external harmonies (shoulder coordinates with hip, elbow coordinates with knee, hand coordinates with foot). The requirement is that no part of the body moves in isolation — every movement is a whole-body movement, every technique a whole-body technique. The arms express what the entire body generates.
In terms of body method, the Six Harmonies branch differs from the other mantis styles in a crucial way. Chinese sources record: "The body method requires neither the contained-chest curved-back of Taijiquan, nor the expanded-chest contracted-abdomen of long fist, nor the tight-back empty-chest of Bagua Zhang — but rather broad chest, solid abdomen, relaxed shoulders, extended shoulder blades, waist like a drill shaft, hands like a spinning wheel." This specific body structure — simultaneously expansive and connected — generates the centrifugal, whipping quality of Six Harmonies technique without relying on muscular tension.
Masters of the Transmission
In 1926, Dīng founded the Huangxian National Arts Research Society (黃縣國術研究社) at Ding Family Garden, teaching at first to wealthy merchant families and officials. In 1928 this was merged into the county's mass education department and renamed the Huangxian National Arts Research Association (黃縣國術研究會), broadening intake. His teaching method was characterized by an emphasis on fundamentals over complexity — he considered the basic pī quán (劈拳 — splitting fist), with its wheel-strike, downward chop, and forward punch, to already contain the complete upper-body attack grammar. "Master the few things deeply" was his approach.
The moment Liu Yun Qiao entered the Six Harmonies tradition is preserved in the Wu Tan primary record with rare humor: upon arriving in Huangxian with Li Shu Wen's student Zhang Xiang Wu's forces, the young Liu — already notorious as the "Little Tyrant" who had beaten every challenger — noticed an old man in the public park "leading students astray" (as Liu thought). He challenged the elder, and was immediately thrown by a single technique called "Spread Paw" (zhǎn pāi 展拍). Zhang Xiang Wu, recognizing that this was the Six Harmonies Mantis grandmaster Dīng Zǐchéng, arranged through proper ceremony for Ding to teach this humbled young Baji prodigy. Liu Yun Qiao studied Six Harmonies Mantis under Dīng Zǐchéng during his time in Shandong, receiving the foundational transmission that he would later carry to Taiwan.
When Dīng Zǐchéng sent Zhāng Xiāng Sān away from Huangxian, he gave him an extraordinary parting gift: a handwritten manuscript recording the complete 93-technique Mantis hand method formula (Táng Láng Shǒufǎ Mìjí · 93 Shǒu 螳螂手法秘芨93手). This manuscript — the distilled essence of a lineage master's lifetime — Zhāng carried with him to Taiwan and kept for decades. When Liu Yun Qiao learned of its existence, he requested copies; Zhāng had several copies made for Liu's Wu Tan disciples, and Liu's student Xú Jì (徐紀) later transmitted the manuscript and the Yan-feather Saber (yànlíng dāo 雁翎刀) back to Shandong — completing a remarkable cross-strait cultural cycle.
In 1949, Zhāng Xiāng Sān crossed to Taiwan with the Republic of China government, immediately setting up practice in Taipei's New Park (台北新公園) — one of the city's principal public practice grounds. He taught there for over thirty years without interruption. The Wu Tan Taiwan primary record describes the moment his and Liu Yun Qiao's paths converged: around 1966, two strangers at the park were discussing "our Liu Yun Qiao" — one saying "our Cangzhou Liu Yun Qiao," the other "our Tianjin Liu Yun Qiao." Zhāng smiled and corrected them both: "Might that not be my martial brother, our Shandong Huangxian Liu Yun Qiao?" — and a fellow villager present, knowing Liu was in Taiwan, arranged the meeting. The two were reunited as martial brothers who had trained under the same teacher Dīng Zǐchéng. Dài Shìzhé (戴士哲) is listed first among Zhāng's thirty-one formal inner-chamber disciples — the Seventh Generation of Six Harmonies Mantis. He also authored books on Six Harmonies Mantis, Seven Stars Mantis, and Pure Yang Sword, served as Chief Judge at the Second Taiwan Provincial Martial Arts Competition, and contributed to the Ministry of Education's martial arts dictionary compilation.
Six Harmonies Form in Competition
Watch Master Luis Mendez performing a Six Harmonies Mantis Fist form in competition — demonstrating the characteristic qualities of the branch: the contained yet explosive movement, the hooking-seizing hands, the full-body integration that makes each technique a whole-body action, and the continuous flowing combination that leaves no opening between movements. The mantis hand shape, the monkey footwork, the "flower concealed within leaves" — all visible in living practice.