If it clarifies things, the Praying Mantis is one of the animals used in kung fu styles, like cranes and monkeys.
Like so:
And here are histories for the Northern and Southern Praying Mantis styles:
Northern:
One day, Wong was practicing one day in the woods of Laoshan mountain, when he heard a strange noise. Finding the source of the noise he witnessed a Praying Mantis engaged in combat with a larger cicada. Wong was intrigued by the fighting prowess of the mantis, and thus captured it. Once he brought it back home, he prodded the mantis with a piece of straw and a pair of chop-sticks, studying its reactions. He then implemented the footwork of the monkey.
The 8-Step Mantis tradition offers a different chain of events leading to the invention of the style. Wong's desire to improve his martial arts skills led him to test his abilities by challenging the monks at the Shaolin temple. His initial challenge met defeat at the hands of a regular monk. Two years later, after intense training, he returned to defeat all the monks except for the head abbot. He then returned home to Shangtung to discovered the mantis and develop his new style of Kung Fu. Upon returning to the Shaolin temple he defeated the head abbot, to the amazement of everyone at the temple. It was only after this legendary fight that he implemented the Monkey footwork
Southern:
Chou Ah-Nan the son of a rich farming family from the province of Canton(Quanzhao), is said to be the founder of the Southern branch Tong Long. When Chou was a teenager, he developed a serious stomach complaint which would not respond to normal treatment. His father sent him away from home in hope that a change of climate would help his problem. But Chou became worse and as fortune had it, he came across a good samaritan who lent him money to see a friend of his, who was a monk. Under the care of the monk Chou was healed.
Chou was still in financial difficulties and as luck had it once again, he found work in the local temple as a cook. As all employees of the temple had to practise Shoalin boxing. Chou started his martial arts training and practised very hard. As in most good Chinese stories there was a temple bully who was fond of picking on Chou. The bully was called Shee.
One day Chou was out for a walk when he heard the distressed calls of a little bird. Chou investigated this noise to find a Tong Long (preying mantis) lifting up it's arms for a final strike. In a blinding instance the little bird was dead. Chou could find no trace of the wounds and realised that there was something special in this method of attack. Chou decided to further study the mantis by poking sticks at it, to study it's little 'fists' as they thrust outward to attack. He studied these technique's and used the technique to defeat Shee.
From that day Tong Long was on its way to be a most potent martial art. Chou started teaching his new art and accepted a student called Wung, who in turn taught Lau. Lau taught many others after he shifted to Hong Kong his best student was Yeh. Yeh also wrote a book on this system of Tong Long. This story differs from the Northern Tong Long version.
It's the fighting style taught to the Ming royal family. |
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(He's a Burragong Meat Processor. No lie.)
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