dedicated to the discussion of the chinese internal martial arts of xingyiquan, baguazhang, taijiquan, related arts, and anything else best discussed over a bottle of rum
I wonder if anyone can shed some light on the following:
The first clip is a form that I learned around 1990 (one of my favorites) and I was told that it was Qi Xing Zhao Yao modified with Liuhe Mantis, however, the commentator says that this is the Seven Stars of the Liuhe Mantis system (I didn't know that system actually had this or a zhao yao form) - I am pretty sure this is from Zhang Xiang San Liuhe Mantis Master of Taiwan and I think I have a book which shows him doing Qi Xing Zhao Yao which is probably not part of the Liuhe Mantis system
The 2nd clip is Liuhe Duan Chuei (Six Harmony Short Punch) which is very close to what I learned and practiced - however, the flavor of the clips is very different from the way I was taught - the flavor I was taught was one of a slower flowing/fluid xing yi practice - no fajin and no choppy executions.
Thanks in advance on any ideas regarding these clips.
I've studied Liu He Tang Lang. There is no Qi Xing form. The Liu He system is quite small, it only has 8 forms, seven empty hand and one sword form. So many schools teach it along side something else.
Duan Chui is core part of the system but is a little different to the rest of the Liu He Tang Lang sets. A lot of people perform it like xing yi, like you said.
Zhao Dao Jing is a pretty good reference for stereotypical Liu He Tang Lang (he is also one of the best at it).
This is the flavor I was taught. The video says Duan Chui, but in this vid he does Duan Chui for the first part and switches to hidden flower at the end.
This combination set is also a recent invention. It was designed to blend the core parts of every empty hand set in the system into one single form.
Ma Hanqing was Wu style / Tang lang master I was trying to remember. Ma Hanqing learnt Liu He Tang Lang via Shan Xiang Ling. I learnt it via the Liu Jing Ru line, who also trained under Shan Xiang Ling.
I’ll second that. Thanks for sharing the videos and info. LHTL’s body method in general makes more sense to me in contrast with the main (Meihua/Taiji) lines. Here’s one vid that I really enjoy:
Nice Wu and the information was interesting Good to see that over in the west He came here after the stuff in 88 Had two friends at the peking institute in 88 they weren’t sure they would get home It’s a wonder Will didn’t interview him on Monkey
Don't put power into the form let it naturally arise from the form
六合螳螂拳 SIX HARMONY MANTIS Introduction Dante Basili
Introduction to the Six Harmony Mantis. It is the Praying Mantis style that less uses the so-called "mantis hand", preferring instead the fist and the open hand. Probably because the founder of the style, 魏德林 Wei De Lin, had a malformation in his hands from birth. Although his techniques appear to be vigorous, similar to Xing Yi, it is considered a "soft" Tang Lang style due to his concepts of listening and circularity, similar to Bagua. It develops in 16 keywords-concepts unlike the other Tang Lang styles which generally count 12. Another characteristic is that it was not developed by a single person, but by the continuous confrontation between two friends. The result of teamwork. From the Tiandihe School Archive, teaching material donated to me by my friend Wang Chong from Qingdao, Shandong, China
Liu De Ming was my other teacher in Melbourne. He is friends with Liu Jing Ru and picked up Liu He Tang Lang from him. Han Yan Wu is Liu Jing Ru's disciple student. He tends to be very explosive for demonstration purposes but he is bit softer when training day to day. He still comes to Melbourne every couple of years to teach.
At 22min in this documentary they visit Zhao Dao Jing's school. At 23.30 he wacks the presenter in the nuts while sparring. A technique I will never forget because Liu Jing Ru did the exact same thing to me when I met him in Beijing. "Good against tall people" I believe was the comment.
Out of everything I have ever studied Liuhe Tanglang Quan intuitively fit - I understood many of the applications. Thanks again for sharing - the liuhe art is my favorite.
Around 1988 or so, when I started with Wu Tan(g) we did a lot of these movements up and down a 75 yard area for the first half hour of class (required to do it even though I wanted to learn taijiquan) - didn't call them anything other than they were parts of a mantis system: