Ma Han Qing
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.
Shifu Ma Han Qing was born on 19th of September 1920 in a well-to-do family in Beijing. Unfortunately, his father died when shifu Ma Han Qing was a little boy, so he has been taken to live with the family of his uncle, who was a Chinese traditional medicine doctor for the ex-imperial family of Pu Yi in the Forbidden City. They lived in the nice area inside the City wall called Chaoyang Mennei. Shifu Ma Han Qing received a good classical education with the help of his uncle but he had another interest rather then reading and memorizing classical books all his life. His deep interest was in Martial Arts.
At the age of eight shifu Ma Han Qing started learning Wu Style Tai Ji Quan from shifu Yang Yu Ting (1887-1982), disciple of shifu Wang Mao Zhai (aka. Northern King of Wu Taiji Quan) (1862-1940). When shifu Ma Han Qing was fourteen years old shifu Yang Yu Ting introduced him to the eighty year old expert of Muslim Boxing (Cha Quan), Shaolin Quan and Tantui shifu Ma Yun Long, who also lived inside the city walls near the Chongwen Men Gates). Shifu Ma Yun Long had two favorite occupations in his life making drums and martial arts and he used both to make living. Shifu Ma Han Qing studied with shifu Ma Yun Long until the last passed away at the age of ninety. He learned all three Long-range systems taught by shifu Ma Yun Long, eighteen classical weapons and the art of Dart Throwing from the Muslim Cha Quan style.
At the same time shifu Ma Han Qing continued learning and refining Wu style Taiji Quan with shifu Yang Yu Ting. Soon shifu Yang Yu Ting who had a lot of students asked shifu Ma Han Qing to help him with teaching the style. Thereafter, throughout half of his life shifu Ma Han Qing taught Wu style Taiji helping his teacher. During the Republic period (1912-1948) they taught inside the city walls near the Jianguo Men Gates in the Buddhist temples Zhi Hua Si and Tai Miao which currently is the Cultural Palace of Working Class (Laodong Renmin Wenhua Gong) and later after 1949 in the Sun Zhong Shan (Sun Yatsen) Park inside the Forbidden city, which has been open for public admission, in the Pavilion called Shi Zi Ting. At the same time shifu Ma Han Qing would teach Cha Quan, Shaolin Quan and Tan Tui. During this period of life in his quest for the ultimate martial art shifu Ma Han Qing also learned Xing Yi Quan, Ba Gua Zhang, Tong Bei Quan and 72 techniques of Qinna.
During the last years of the Sino-Japanese War shifu Ma Han Qing joined the Liberation Army (Jie Fang Jun) and participated in the battles in the South of China. Right after 1949 he still stayed in the army in the Anhui Province in order to help to reconstruct the infrastructure in this destroyed by the war region. In the early 50s Master Ma Hanqing returned to Beijing and continued teaching martial arts and helping his teacher.
In 1958 he became a national champion in All China Martial Arts Tournament (Quan Guo Wu Shu Guan Mo Da Hui) performing Wu style Tai Ji long form of eighty three moves. In the same year he also became a national "Push hands" (Tui Shou) champion and during the Beijing City Martial Arts Tournament got a first place in Double Hooks (Shuang Gou) and Long Spear (Chang Qiang) forms competition. Soon he was chosen to take a post of a secretary in the Beijing City Martial Arts Association (Beijing Shi Wushu Xiehui). This was the time when he met shifu Chen Yun Tao. Praying Mantis Boxing was not a popular martial art style in Beijing, however with all his rich martial arts experience shifu Ma Han Qing recognized shifu Chen Yun Tao as one of the greatest martial artists at the time and became his only initiated disciple. Shifu Ma Han Qing studied Six Harmonies and Plum Blossom Praying Mantis for twenty years under shifu Chen Yun Tao. He spent eight years three times a week practicing Guo Shou or limited and free sparring with shifu Chen Yun Tao.
Both would benefit from it greatly. At the same time shifu Chen Yun Tao introduced shifu Ma Han Qing to his Six Harmonies Praying Mantis kungfu brother, shifu Shan Xiang Ling. Shifu Chen Yun Tao, shifu Shan Xiang Ling and shifu Ma Han Qing would spend weeks practicing, studying and analyzing Praying Mantis techniques and forms. That was a great time when three Masters could delve deeply into the depth of the given art and integrate into its the utmost essence. At that time shifu Ma Han Qin and his gong fu brother shifu Li Bing Si became shifu Shan Xiang Ling disciples.
In 1966 the bad days arrived, it was the beginning of Cultural Revolution. As a feudal survival the Beijing City Martial Arts Association was destroyed. All staff was dismissed and literally kicked out on the streets. But that was "the good news", a real calamities were yet to come. Shifu Ma Han Qing found himself in the middle of the mass psychosis. Crowds of single-minded Red Guards captured and publicly humiliated shifu Ma Han Qing for many days. Red Guards searched shifu Ma Han Qing's house in order to find criminal literature such as Praying Mantis manuscripts and manuals, but luckily shifu Ma Han Qin's wife hid them between the boards in the attic. During the years of humiliation and torture of Cultural Revolution shifu Ma Han Qin would still secretly teach Praying Mantis boxing. At the end of the Cultural Revolution shifu Ma Han Qing was send to the remote northern City of Da Qing of Hei Long Jiang Province.
Shifu Ma Han Qing lived there for about seven years and continued teaching Praying Mantis in the Martial School which he opened in Da Qing. Da Qing was to far away from Bei Jing, so the influence of the Cultural Revolution was not as strong as in Beijing. People in the north of China are usually tougher so they really like to practice martial arts. There were many gong fu Masters of different styles in Da Qing and shifu Ma Han Qin faced a lot of challenges as a new member of martial arts community. He won all these fights some of which were quite friendly and some not. Using Six Harmonies and Plum Blossom Praying Mantis boxing close range combat techniques shifu Ma Han Qing defeated four well known Masters of Shao Lin Quan, Xing Yi Quan and Tong Bei Quan from different parts of China.
Martial artists of Da Qing still remember his name. He also raised a few good disciples, who are currently teaching Praying Mantis in Da Qing.
After his return to Bei Jing shifu Ma Han Qing was invited to teach wushu in Bei Jing Normal Sport University (Bei Jing Shi Fan Ti Yu Da Xue) as one of the head coaches. During this time he trained many talented wushu sportsmen. Among them such figures as the head coach of the Beijing Wushu Team Wubin and a movie star Li Lianjie (Jet Lee). During the late 70s, while invited to teach gong fu in He Nan Province, he visited Shao Lin monastery prior to its reconstruction. There, he met an old monk (this monk passed away in the early 80s) who was a Master of Shao Lin Praying Mantis Boxing. They exchanged their experiences of the given style and then talked a lot about theory and practice of Praying Mantis.
During the filming one of the "Shaolin Temple" movies one of the main actors sent his student to Bei Jing to learn Praying Mantis Staff (Tang Lang Gun). Unfortunately shifu Ma Han Qing was not in Bei Jing at the time so one of his disciples taught a Staff form to the seeker. But the irony was that this student decided not teach a real Praying Mantis Stuff without shifu Ma Han Qing's permission and he taught another form that he knew. Therefore, one of the "Shaolin Si" movies portrays a wrong form as a praying Mantis Staff.
When shifu Ma Han Qing was seventy years old he once was walking home after his teaching session in the Di Tan Park (Altar of Earth) when near his house he saw two big men ready to start a fight. There were many women and children around this place and the fight between two men would not be quite appropriate. Shifu Ma Han Qing stood in between these hot-blooded youngsters and separated them. One of them tried to punch shifu Ma Han Qing but he just looked in his eyes and the hooligan yielded and finally run away. Another reason, besides a strong spirit in his eyes, why the man run away was a feeling of shifu Ma Han Qing's hand pressed against his chest. Shifu Ma Han Qing spent many years of his life training Iron-sand Palms so his hands felt like an iron bars.
In 1993 shifu Ma Han Qing established Traditional Praying Mantis Boxing Research Association of Bei Jing City (Bei Jing Shi Wu Xie Tang Lang Quan Yan Jiu Hui) which had a goal to unite all Praying Mantis practitioners in the world. In 1996 Master Ma Han Qing following the request from Master Sun Xue Po (disciple of Hao Bin) organized a reunion of both Masters and their disciples in Qingdao and Beijing.
Shifu Ma Han Qing was a living treasure of martial arts and particularly of Praying Mantis Boxing, he passed away on the ninth day of December in 1997 in Beijing. He was still teaching in Beijing till his last days.
Page Updated: 1st June 2006.
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Fernando Blanco Dopazo .