History of Hao family Mantis

[chenyaolong]

I haven't written anything on Mantis for a while, so thought I should give my readers something new. Here is an article I translated, originally written by Hao Zhong Yue, about the history of the Hao Family Taiji-Meihua Mantis.

[url="http://www.monkeystealspeach.co.uk/history-of-hao-family-meihua-mantis.php"]http://www.monkeystealspeach.co.uk/history-of-hao-family-meihua-mantis.php[/url]

[chenyaolong]

http://www.monkeystealspeach.co.uk/history-of-hao-family-meihua-mantis.php

[hodmeist]

Really interesting reading. I particularly liked the swimming in the cold sea anecdote and the meeting with Bagua master Gong Bao Tan. Thanks.

[chenyaolong]

This wasn't in the article I translated... but my Shifu told me Hao Heng Xin would often swim in the winter, and also jog in his underwear. So he got the nickname "Hao Biao Zi" (something like Crazy-Ass Hao). He was also a strict vegan and ate nothing but pancakes.... quite an eccentric character

[edededed]

One of the more interesting branches of mantis for sure - skinny-dipping in ice water is certainly a pasttime for only tougher folk (I will be content to stay in my warm fleece pajamas doing tai-chi).

But pancakes - what kind of pancakes? (Scallion pancakes or the like, perhaps? I do like the taste of those.)

Some other topics I wonder about mantis:
- There seems to be a Christian link of sorts - maybe only the seven star branch? "Seven" is also coincidentally an important number in Christianity, of course. It seems that the "tian" in a lot of mantis exponents' names (e.g. Yu Tianlu, Yu Tiancheng, etc.) was a popular character to include in personal names due to the Christianity thing.
- The cool-looking mantis two-handed sword seems to have been created by the Hao family; has this weapon been found in other mantis branches, too? (Yu Chenghui of the original Shaolin Temple movie also created his own two-handed sword routine - but it seems quite similar (from a non-practitioner's point of view) to mantis two-handed sword; and he was from Shandong of course as well.)

[chenyaolong]

One of the more interesting branches of mantis for sure - skinny-dipping in ice water is certainly a pasttime for only tougher folk (I will be content to stay in my warm fleece pajamas doing tai-chi).

But pancakes - what kind of pancakes? (Scallion pancakes or the like, perhaps? I do like the taste of those.)

Some other topics I wonder about mantis:
- There seems to be a Christian link of sorts - maybe only the seven star branch? "Seven" is also coincidentally an important number in Christianity, of course. It seems that the "tian" in a lot of mantis exponents' names (e.g. Yu Tianlu, Yu Tiancheng, etc.) was a popular character to include in personal names due to the Christianity thing.
- The cool-looking mantis two-handed sword seems to have been created by the Hao family; has this weapon been found in other mantis branches, too? (Yu Chenghui of the original Shaolin Temple movie also created his own two-handed sword routine - but it seems quite similar (from a non-practitioner's point of view) to mantis two-handed sword; and he was from Shandong of course as well.)

Hi

From what I understand, Lin Jing Shan was a devout Christian. He was the teacher of Yu Tian Cheng and Yu Tian Lu. I knew Yu Tian Lu and he told me that while him and his brother were not religious, their family was from a Christian background. The Seven Star name itself is related to Taoism. The founder of the Seven Star school, Wang Yun Sheng, had previously studied Chang Quan and the Hua Shan school of Taoism at the Jade Emperor temple in Yantai. I can't remember exactly how he coined the name Seven Star but it was related to his previous training in Taoism. Coincidently, nowadays there is a huge hospital in front of the temple, which was built during the Republic era as part of the largest missionary in Yantai.

Yes the double handed sword, known as Damo Jian, was created by Hao Heng Lu of the Hao family. Yu Cheng Hui had learnt it from somebody in the Hao family, but I forget who. Most other branches who practice a double handed sword nowadays picked it up either from Yu Cheng Hui or from the Hao family themselves. It's sort of the "in" thing now in Shandong.

[edededed]

Interesting stuff - Chinese Christians, I guess, were more lenient in "loss of faith" than similar groups in Korea, I guess - probably a good idea back then, to avoid being persecuted. In terms of mantis, I guess I haven't really heard of other Christians besides Lin Jingshan and that group to be honest...

Yes, damojian - I wish Hao Henglu had chosen a different name, though, since there are other (normal length) sword routines with the same name in different schools! If Yu Chenghui learned Hao's routine somehow, that would explain a lot - the flavor of his sword set certainly shares a lot of commonality. He seems happy to spread it around, too - so I wonder which is more common in Shandong now, Yu Chenghui's sword, or damojian. But yeah, it may be the most famous traditional weapon of Shandong!

[chenyaolong]

Interesting stuff - Chinese Christians, I guess, were more lenient in "loss of faith" than similar groups in Korea, I guess - probably a good idea back then, to avoid being persecuted. In terms of mantis, I guess I haven't really heard of other Christians besides Lin Jingshan and that group to be honest...

Yes, damojian - I wish Hao Henglu had chosen a different name, though, since there are other (normal length) sword routines with the same name in different schools! If Yu Chenghui learned Hao's routine somehow, that would explain a lot - the flavor of his sword set certainly shares a lot of commonality. He seems happy to spread it around, too - so I wonder which is more common in Shandong now, Yu Chenghui's sword, or damojian. But yeah, it may be the most famous traditional weapon of Shandong!

Well Lin Jing Shan and Yu Tian Cheng were both persecuted during the CR. I think it was more for being wealthy than for martial arts or religion.

Regarding double handed sword, it's history doesn't go back far. Hao Heng Lu created it in the beginning of the 20th century, I doubt the weapon was used very much in serious combat. OTOH the sabre was a weapon which saw a lot of action during WW2 in Shandong. The Laiyang County Martial Arts School (which was run by and taught Taiji Mantis style) raised a small army of sabre fighters to defend against the Japanese.

The double handed sword is based on 13 keywords, which I believe are more-or-less originated from spear fighting.

[edededed]

Yeah - I guess either way, the double-handed sword was used in ancient times, but was lost for hundreds of years - and then was revived as an art in the 20th century. After the early 1900s, perhaps there weren't many sword (jian) duels anymore; in war, as you said, the saber (dao) seems to have been favored instead (it's easier to use, after all). Interesting about the 13 keywords of mantis double-handed sword.

Maybe one day I will get a chance to do some more mantis Seven star, taiji meihua, liuhe, it's all good...