Jiang Hua Long
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:
Chiang Hua Long / Chang Hua Lung / Kong Hap Lung / Gong Hap Lung / Kang Hwa Lung (Korean pronunciation of the Chinese characters).
Born in 1855.
As he was famous for his lightening palm strike techniques, he was known as "Ghost Hands" .
Before starting his training in tang lang quan, shifu Jiang Hua Long together with his sworn brother (shifu Song Zi De) learned Hou Quan (Monkey Boxing). Some traditions state that shifu Jiang Hua Long had practiced Mei Hua Quan before starting his tang lang quan training but there is no proof of that and it seems not to be true.
Being a teenager, shifu Jiang Hua Long started training mei hua tang lang quan under shifu Liang Xue Xiang in Lai Yang County (Shandong Province). According to Tai Ji Tang Lang Quan sources, when studying under shifu Liang Xue Xiang, shifu Jiang Hua Long excelled at qi gong practise and his gong fu brother, shifu Sun Yuan Chang, excelled in sau fa (application's training).
Some of shifu Song Zi De descendants in PRC mention that shifu Song Zi De beat his gong fu brother Jiang Hua Long in combat and they also say shifu Song Zi De was the better boxer. Shifu Jiang Hua Long's descendants do not agree with this and in fact the majority majority of independent sources agree shifu Jiang Hua Long was the superior boxer. The fact that in the boxing school shifu Jiang Hua Long was sitting in a chair and shifu Song Zi De was the person who was actually teaching would demonstrate it.
Shifu Jiang Hua Long taught praying mantis together with shifu Song Zi De in the Zhao Ge Zhuang Praying Mantis boxing school (wu guan) for many years. Later, when shifu Jiang Hua Long became old, he moved to a different village and continued teaching praying mantis in the Chang Shan Praying Mantis boxing school (wu guan).
Being well respected because of his skill, shifu Jiang Hua Long, had the possibility of training with masters of different styles and he studied the footwork of many styles. In the city of Yentai he studied with shifu Wang Zhong Qing 
(Ba Gua Zhang) and shifu Chen De Shan 
(Connected Arms Boxing - Tong Bei and Xing Yi). Tong Bei and Ba Gua contain long boxing techniques which use the arms straighter and with more extended movement than the praying mantis system.
At the Chang Shan Praying Mantis wu guan, shifu Jiang Hua Long spent a great deal of time studying and experimenting with each movement. Very carefully, he considered each technique, and around 1912 shifu Jiang Hua Long developed the eight short and eight long steps. Jiang Hua Long incorporated long boxing techniques from Tong Bei and Ba Gua to complement his praying mantis arms techniques. The basics of this new style had eight postures and eight moving steps so it was named Eight Step Praying Mantis. Additionally, shifu Jiang Hua Long had learnt from his own fighting experience the importance of kicking low and added ground fighting techniques to the new style. Shifu Jiang Hua Long called these boxing forms Liu He (Six Harmonies) or Yi He Quan (Harmonious Righteousness Boxing), the latter perhaps in honor of the Boxer rebellion (1898-1900). Shifu Jiang Hua Long's creation has nothing to do with Liu He Quan (Six Harmonies Boxing) or Liu He Tang lang Quan (Six Harmonies Praying Mantis Boxing), the name is just a coincidence.
These Liu He boxing forms became a prototype style for the style that later would be known as Ba Bu Tang Lang Quan (Eight Step Praying Mantis Boxing). Shifu Jiang Hua Long elaborated a compilation of techniques in six forms that he named Ba Bu Zhai Yao Quan (Eight Steps Summary Boxing). These forms are the basis of all the Ba Bu Tang Lang Quan forms created later, and the framework to the transformation of the Mei Hua Tang Lang Quan forms, as for example the Ba Bu Tang Lang Quan form Li Pi Quan.
Jiang Hua Long taught Mei Hua Tang Lang to many students in Yantai (Shandong Province), but when he created the new style (Ba Bu Tang Lang Quan) he was old. Therefore he taught the second one to very few disciples. The most famous one was shifu Feng Huan Yi.
According to the Tai Ji Tang Lang tradition, shifu Jiang Hua Long mixed tang lang quan with plum flower boxing and created the style "Tai Ji Mei Hua Tang Lang Chuen".
Jiang Hua Long died in 1924/6.
Page Updated: 1st June 2003.
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Fernando Blanco Dopazo .