Tanglang Quan (or the mantis Chuan) and its legend

Tanglang Quan	Tanglang Quan

Tanglang Quan or the mantis Chuan is also an animal-imitating style of fist play. It copies the form and actions of a mantis adding the attack and defense skills of the martial arts. This unique style of Chuan boasts an assortment of routines which generally fall into the northern and southern styles.
The northern-style mantis Chuan is said to have been created by Wang Lang of Jimo County in Shan-dong 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 Chuan by adding the essentials of the Shaolin Chuan to the actions of the mantis, even including the expression of the mantis. There are two other propositions about the origin of the mantis Chuan. 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 Chuan.