By Stuart Morales
Where oh where to being...Let’s see I’m Stuart Morales and I’m a Kung Fu junkie and I have been addicted to kung fu for about two years now.(Hi Stuart says the AA). I spend most of my days thinking and dreaming about kung fu when I’m not socializing and being a good student of course. I’m a sophomore at UCR now, Vice President and Head of Traditional Kung for CMAC (Chinese Martial Arts Club). I learned and practiced 7 Star Praying Mantis from Brian Wang and Sifu Wright for about a year now. Before I ever learned martial arts
I was also interested in fighting and fought for more years with my friends when I was young so when I heard about martial arts I was interested in the fighting aspect alone and how it could improve my fighting skills. However, I discovered something unexpected and wonderful, something culturally rich and traditionally sound, and obviously a way to defend myself. Martial Arts gave me the ability to relieve stress, improve my health and gain some muscle while learning how to fight, the history and tradition and embarking on me the discipline to be a better citizen in society. Before I was eager to fight but now I am willing to fight under certain circumstances such as a man is hurting a woman, my family and friends are in immediate danger or if I am in immediate danger. Martial Arts should only be used to defend and protect and never to hurt and for personal gain.
However I digress, I should first tell you what 7 Star Praying Mantis is and its history if you wish to understand the art that I practice so you may gain insight on the martial arts world. 7 Star Praying Mantis is popularly said to be founded by Wang Lang in the Shantung Province of China and he lived when the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) was collapsing. The rebels revolted against the last Ming Emperor Si Chueng and a rebel group led by Li Tsi Cheng finally managed to cause the death of the emperor. However, Li Tsi Cheng was unable to make himself the emperor after he forced Emperor Si Chung to commit suicide. The Machus allied with Wu San Kuei came and established the Ching
Dynasty during this time of confusion and uproar. The proud Chinese descended from the Han race soon became extremely resentful of being under the rule of the Manchus and National Heros soon organized actions to overthrow them secretly. Wang Lang is said to be a patriot but he soon realized that this atmosphere was not friendly so he set out to learn and master the best kung fu skills he could acquire in order to join the other patriots in the secret societies that were working to overthrow the Manchu government.
He entered the famous Shaolin Monastery, well renowned for their martial art skills, at Sung Shan in the Honan Province. The Manchus however were keeping an eye on the Shaolin Monastery because of their reputation of being friendly with patriotic kung fu practitioners and keeping a special interested on the unshaved disciples who only wished to learn kung fu. So Wang Lang chose to leave the Shaolin Monastery in order to learn kung fu from the best masters possible in Northern China. HE traveled to such places as O-Mei Mountain, Kun-Lun Mountain, the Western Territories (now Sinkiang Province), the Tien Shan (Mt.Tien), and many other areas of northern China. He visited famous masters of kung fu and either became their disciples or friends in order to learn and exchange kung fu skills and in this manner he managed to attain the techniques of seventeen kung fu styles. After all his hard work and travels he returned and rested in a monastery in Lao Shan (Mt. Lao).
Wang Lang’s former elder kung fu brother turned out to be the abbot, head of the monks, of monastery and Wang Lang used this opportunity to fight the abbot constantly in order to improve his skill. However, he was defeated time and time again so he made up his mind to train harder in order to overcome his Sihing and in order to be able to defeat the “Manchus.” After a long time of hard training, he was defeated again by his Sihing because the abbot had also been practicing hard so they were improving at the same pace. One day the abbot asked Wang Lang to take care of the monastery in his absence while he went on a tour to improve his kung fu skills by meeting other masters. Wang Lang understood that if he succeeded his Sihing would become even harder to beat and he became very sad.
Wang Lang went to a clearing in the forest to practice his kung fu during a hot day during the summer. Soon after, he became very tired and sweaty from practicing his kung fu for so long so he decided to sit under a tree. There he heard the strange cries of a Cicada upon further inspection, he saw a Cicada trapped in the forelegs of a Mantis whom was much smaller than the Cicada. Wang Lang felt sorry for the Cicada so he broke off a piece of reed which he used to brush away the mantis from the cicada but the mantis chose to raise its forelegs and challenge the reed to a fight! The mantis fought bravely and ferociously with the reed and this is where Wang Lang suddenly found a solution to his problems of being defeated repeatedly by the Shaolin Abbot. He brought the mantis back to the monastery where he played with it daily in order to learn how it manipulated its forelegs in both attack and defense.
Using the movements of the mantis and combining it with his knowledge of the 17 other styles that he knew he developed a fighting system. However, he noticed that there was poor coordination between the hand and feet so, one day while walking through the forest he noticed a monkey moving with high speed. The thought occurred to him where he should combine the footwork of the monkey and the hand work of the mantis thus leading to the development of the Northern Praying Mantis Style. (Dramatic music plays)
Wang Lang practiced Northern Praying Mantis style for three years and after careful observations he systemized his techniques into things like the Twelve-Keyword Formula, Eight Rigid & Twelve Flexible Movements, etc. After a long time, The Abbot returned and Wang Lang eagerly challenged the Abbot in order to test how far they both had grown. To his great surprise, within a few movements Wang Lang had gained the upper hand and defeated the Abbot. The abbot was so impressed that he asked about this strange new style so Wang Land described his new techniques and everything that had happened in the Abbot’s absence. So the two kung fu brothers strived to study together and this exchange of kung fu knowledge improved both of their kung fu skills greatly. After the style was created by Wang Lang the style spread far and wide and naturally variations grew such as Six Harmony Praying Mantis, 7 Star Praying Mantis, Eight Step Praying Mantis, Tai Chi Praying Mantis, Plum Blossom Praying Mantis, Tai Chi Plum Blossom Praying Mantis, and some rarer styles such as Spotless Plate Praying Mantis, Secret Door Praying Mantis, and Jade Ring Praying Mantis. HOWEVER, I practice 7 Star Praying Mantis which is said to be the closest to the original style of Praying Mantis.
If I continue to talk about the lineage holders of the Praying Manti style until it reached Sifu Wright then you would be reading a long time so maybe I’ll dedicate another blog to that someday…Anyhow, that is how 7 Star Praying Mantis Kung Fu was created so hopefully you can understand a little bit about my style now and what it takes to be a master of any respective style of martial art. Maybe I have rambled on for long enough so I’ll cut it short and just talk about what kung fu meant to me. Before Kung Fu, I was a delinquent who liked to fight, sneak out, and all that good stuff but after it taught me the discipline to become a responsible, confident man who had the discipline to succeed in whatever I sought out in life and that’s why I love kung fu and probably why I’m not the head of the Traditional Kung Fu section of CMAC.
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