Praying Mantis Fist is one of the most famous animal Kung Fu styles in traditional Chinese Martial Arts. It has also been listed as one of China?s national intangible cultural heritages.

According to oral legend, during late Ming and early Qing dynasty, Wang Lang (from our Shandong Province) invented a new style of animal Kung Fu by his observation of the praying mantis. Here is the full story: When Wang Lang was resting under a tree after losing a fighting contest with another martial artist, Han Cong, he saw a praying mantis trying to catch a cicada and was inspired by the agile and fast moves of the mantis. He then took a bunch of different mantises back to the Shaolin Temple where he became enlightened to form his own Kung Fu by mimicking the moves of the praying mantis spending his time observing the detailed gestures and manners learning from it creating the mantis fist. After developing his own mantis style, he eventually won fighting competitions against other martial artists.

From Ming dynasty till now, Mantis Fist fully developed and divided into numerous schools such as: QiXing Mantis, or Luohan mantis invented by Shaolin warrior monks, Meihua Mantis, Taichi mantis invented by Zhao Zhu in the early Qing dynasty, Liuhe Mantis or Mahou mantis invented by Wei Delin, and Mimen Mantis invented by Zhang Dekui in the times of the Republic of China. There are dozens of styles of Praying Mantis Fist like Yuanyang Mantis Fist, Eight-step Mantis Fist, Wrestling Mantis Fist, Ditang Mantis Fist, there is one named Honglian Mantis Fist, which is rarely known to us.

Mantis Style Kung Fu enjoyed a prosperous period in the 19th century and has become renowned worldwide.

Studying and training in Mantis Fist, Honglian Quan, and Shaolin Quan for many years, Master Zhang Xianhua invented his own Honglian Mantis Fist by absorbing the essence of Xingyi, Bagua, Taichi, Iron Palm, Eagle Claw, wrestling, free boxing and so on.

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He developed his own system with unique features. It mainly includes theory, forms, weapons, conditioning, strategy, and application. Theory means applicable theories of Kungfu. Fist means the forms of Mantis Fist. Weapon means training with weapons. Conditioning means basic conditioning and power training. Strategy means psychological fighting in the mind of oneself and in the mind of your opponent. Application means how to use techniques in a fight.


Content styles and Characteristics
There are both fist forms and weapons such as Straight Sword, Plum Blossom Sword, Liu He Staff and Long Handle Sword.
In the passed hundreds of years there developed a few different styles such as Taichi Mantis, Plum Blossom Mantis, Seven Star Mantis, and Liu He Mantis etc.

What you can learn in our school?
We feel honored to have Master Zhang, the founder of Honglian Mantis Fist to train students at our school. There are 12 national admitted branches and styles of Praying Mantis Kungfu in China. Master Zhang is the only Founder alive of the 12 styles of Praying Mantis Fist. Honglian style is based on Seven Star Mantis and Honglian style of Shaolin, it has its own full system of moves, methods, skills and theory. It can be good Kung Fu for health care, sparring, and competition.

He has over 30 forms including bare hand forms and weapons such as Sword, Spear, Staff, Three Section Staff, Long Handle Sword, Double Hook Swords, and the infamous Guan Dao.

Here is the school training plan for Mantis Fist Kung Fu:

	One Month Training	3months to 6months Training	Over 1 Year Training
Basicss	1. Hand Forms: a. palm ; b. fist ; c. hook 2. Stances: a. bow stance ; b. horse stance ; c. low stance ; d. empty stance ; e. sitting stance 3. Stretching: a. front stretching ; b. side stretching ; c. back stretching 4. Kicks: a. front kick ; b. cross kick ; c. side kick ; d. More than 11 kinds of kick
Formss	1.Five Step Form 2.Mantis Eight Step 3.Silu Snap Kick	1. Five Step Form 2.Mantis Eight Step 3.Silu Snap Kick 4.Basic Straight Sword Form 5.Mantis Continuance Form 6.Silu Bengda 7.Liu He Broad Sword 8.Mantis Staff Form	1. Five Step Form 2.Mantis Eight Step 3.Shaolin Continuance Form 4.Silu Snap Kick 5.Basic Straight Sword Form 6.Mantis Continuance Form 7.Shaolin Animal Forms 8.Silu Bengda 9.Liuhe Broad Sword 10.Mantis Staff Form 11.Mantis Kick 12.Mantis Defense 13.Mantis Animal Form 14.Mantis Fist of Fan Che 15.Mantis Broad Sword 16.Fang Tianji 17.Mantis Hooks
Techniquess	1.Application 2.Qin Na and Counter Qin Na 3.Take-downs 4.Qi Gong Baduanjin	1.Application 2.Qin Na and Counter Qin Na 3.Take-downs 4.Qi Gong Ba duan jin 5.Qi Gong Liu Zi Jue	1.Application 2.Qin Na and Counter Qin Na 3.Take-downs 4.Qi Gong Baduanjin 5.Qi Gong Liu Zi Jue 6.Taichi 33

In general, Praying Mantis Fist is tough and fast, and always goes forward boldly. The practicioner faces the coming attacks straight forward and defends from the side.