Ding Zi Cheng
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:
Tien Tzu Chieh / Ting Shih Cheng / Ding Jee Sing / Wang Ji Chen
Born in 1851/1880, shifu Ding Zi Cheng came from the wealthy Er Pu clan. His clan was well known and respected in the Huang county of Shandong province, and his family lived in modern Long Kou Shi. It is known that the Ding Family business was a network of pawn shops which were scattered all over Shandong province.
Shifu Ding Zi Cheng's first boxing was his family style called "Boxing of the Three Tongs " (San Tong Quan). After learning this first style, shifu Ding Zi Cheng learned Luo Han Quan - "The Boxing of the Arhats". Then shifu Ding Zi Cheng learned the hard qi gong of the Iron Sand Palm (Tie Sha Zhang Ying Gong). Shifu Ding Zi Cheng would develop incredible skills in the Iron Sand palm. Because of his fame in this skill people used to call him "The Iron Forearms Ding".
Once, shifu Ding Zi Cheng's father invited the famous shifu Lin Shi Chun to come and to teach martial arts to the pawn shop guards. Shifu Ding Zi Cheng was astonished by the great skill of shifu Lin Shi Chun and together with his younger brother, Ding Huan Qing, became disciples of Lin Shi Chun.
Shifu Ding Zi Cheng excelled quickly in his studies of Praying Mantis Boxing, due to his previous knowledge of and experience with different styles of Chinese boxing as well as his personal dedication and determination to training. Eventually becoming the shifu Lin Shi Chun's best disciple. Shifu Ding Zi Cheng reached the highest level of understanding of style and openly started teaching Six Harmonies Praying Mantis Boxing.
Unlike his contemporaries, shifu Ding Zi Cheng held an unorthodox belief in Kung Fu diversity. Looking for the good points in any martial system, he was able to develop a complete martial arts knowledge. Ding clan's network of pawn shops, which were all around Shandong province, was required to have squad of bodyguards in each shop. Shifu Ding Zi Cheng interviewed each applicant for the pawn shop guard job. If one was particularly good, shifu Ding Zi Cheng would hire him and would try to get as much martial arts knowledge from this guard as possible. His ability to implement such techniques is described in a story where he was able to learn the Tai Ji sword upon watching his brother perform the form only once. Shifu Ding Zi Cheng was interested in the "hard mantis" and shifu Cao Zuo Hou (Mei Hua Tang Lang shifu) admired the Six Harmony Praying Mantis boxing very much. Therefore, the two masters then exchanged their styles. The Mei Hua Tang Lang Quan had the soft in the hard, and the Liu He Tang Lang Quan, the hard in the soft. This exchange had a great significance in the development of shifu Ding Zi Cheng fighting ability.
Several times it has been said that shifu Ding Zi Cheng taught only to the boys of rich families aiming at good health and self defence and that is the reason why the Liu He Tang Lang Quan had not spreaded far from the Zhao Yuan and Huang Xian. But the truth is that, as early as 1926 shifu Ding Zi Cheng, inspired by the people of his town, established "The Martial Arts Research Organization of Huang County" (Huang Xian Guo Shu Yan Jiu Suo). Two years later under the guidance of the Health Institution of Huang County Education Department, he expanded his Martial Arts Research Organization. In addition to their regular martial arts classes, the members of the association gave free Chinese boxing lessons in the schools around Huang county as a part of a charity program.
Shifu Ding Zi Cheng invited many famous Chinese boxing masters to teach in the association. The most well known were:
* Shifu Li Shu Wen "The Magic Spear",a Master of Ba Ji Quan (Eight Ultimates Boxing) from the famous martial arts center of Cang Zhou
* Shifu Gong Bao Tian, a Master of Eight Trigrams Boxing (Ba Gua Zhang) from Yan Tai city
* Shifu Zhang Xiang Wu, the vice-president of the Central Martial Arts School of China (Zhong Yang Guo Shu Guan).
During the first years of the Republic after the Xin Hai revolution, a devastating earthquake in Huang county destroyed the house in which shifu Ding Zi Cheng lived. Completely buried under a huge pile of bricks, tiles and logs, the bodies of the building's inhabitants were slowly dug up by the rescue teams. Discovering one body after the next, the rescue team eventually found shifu Ding Zi Cheng, still alive. He was lying under the ruins of the main room and holding, curled up in a ball and using both hands to hold a huge horizontal beam of the house. "Iron Forearms Ding" had used his Hard Qigong skills and strength to survive in conditions that claimed the lives of those lying around him. However, as a result of the earthquake his ear drums were broken and he became completely deaf.
His deafness forced him to hone his perceptabilities as well as his already amazing grasp of internal techniques. One story involves a curious disciple. The disciple, shifu Chen Yun Tao, inquired shifu Ding Zi Cheng about the so-called "Cun Jing" (one inch special strength), and was asked by shifu Ding Zi Cheng to kick his abdomen. Shifu Chen Yun Tao kicked shifu Ding Zi Cheng's abdomen with as much force as he could, but felt some mightier force repel the kick and throw him backwards onto the ground. There was more to the old master than met the eye.
Shifu Ding Zi Cheng passed away in the '40s (or 1956 according to other sources), leaving a bunch of very good students.
Page Updated: 1st June 2006.
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Fernando Blanco Dopazo .