Zhang De Kui
Praying Mantis Shifu
The information presented in this chart was collected from different sources -see Bibliography-, therefore the romanizations in Pinyin according to the Mandarin pronunciation of the characters sometimes is not available. If you find any mistakes or inaccuracies please contact me.
His name is also romanized as:
Zhong Da Kwei / Chang Te Huei / Chan Te Kuei.
Born in 1902/7 in Shandong. He studied Mei Hua Tang Lang under under shifu Wang Zi Jing. Some sources also mention that he trained under his shi gung (shifu Song Zi De).
Shifu Zhang De Kui learned Mei Hua Tang Lang Quan from shifu Wang Zi Jing sometime in the late 20s or early 30s.
Due to the Communist revolution a lot of people migrated from the Shan Dong province to Taiwan, shifu Zhang De Kui was one of them.
When he arrived to Taiwan he worked collecting wood in the mountains and selling it in the town. He had to walk about five hours to the mountain and the same distance coming back to town. When coming back to town he used to bring with him about 100 kg. (about 50 pounds) of wood.
He used to meet a famous master in the road, that was well known because of his strength, his corpulence and his martial arts knowledge. Although shifu Zhang De Kui was older than this master, the big man never gave shifu Zhang De Kui the right to go first.
One day this master pushed Zhang De Kui trying to drop his wood and other people in the road laughed about this. Shifu Zhang De Kui got angry and dropped the other man's wood. The other master tried to punch shifu Zhang De Kui, but he intercepted the punch and controlled the man with a ching na technique. Still locked, the other master shouted because of the pain he was feeling and the people in the road was very surprised because he was a very strong man. Shifu Zhang De Kui "flew" with him (still locked) to the other side of the irrigation ditch and then jumped back. "If you want to fight come here", he said.
Since that incident the people in the town (initially eight persons) gathered money and asked him to teach them. The communications were difficult because shifu Zhang De Kui spoke Mandarin, and the people in town spoke Taiwanese dialect, but he agreed to teach them.
The first class shifu Zhang De Kui taught movements very different to the southern styles they knew in that area. Feet did not look firm or static, but unstable and soft, the southern ma bu (riding a horse stance) is wider than the northern one and the steps in the southern styles are shorter. A lot of people when to look at the first class, and noting the differences, they found funny the praying mantis' movements.
One hour later, shifu Zhang De Kui talked to the people: "I will give you an exhibition". After drinking a glass of liquor he bowed and did movements with their arms and legs (extremely fast), when finishing he performed a double flying kick and he appeared in the roof of a house (more than three meters high). From there he asked to the people: "Am I capable to teach you or not ?".
Shifu Zhang De Kui was a very traditional master and he made his students train eight basic exercisis for 6 months (even students who already were teachers themselves on other styles). That is probably why shifu Zhang De Kui only had a few students that visited him in his house in the mountains and he was not very a very famous master in Taiwan.
Shifu Zhang De Kui did not differentiate much on the terminologies used to designate Tang Lang Quan and he did not care what name to call his style and he called it Gu Tang Lang Quan (Ancient Praying Mantis Boxing) or just Tang Lang Quan (Praying Mantis Boxing). There were his students which started to call the style as Mi Men Tang Lang Quan (Secret Door Praying Mantis Boxing).
Shifu Zhang De Kui taught in Taiwan until he died in 1990/1.
Page Updated: 1st June 2006.
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Fernando Blanco Dopazo .