Li Kun Shan
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:
Li Yu Shan / Lee Kwan Shan /Lee Yuk Tong.
Shifu Li Kun Shan real name was "Yuk Tong" (c) in which the word "yuk" means jade, implying that he was as clean and pure as jade. It was after he reached Hong Kong that he changed his name to "Kun Shan", the name of a mountain where jade was found, as told in a Chinese classic.
Born in 1867, shifu Li Kun Shan came from five generations (other authors say four generations) of being taught the Tan Tui Men (Seeking Leg Gate) style which was his family style. In the early 1900's he was already a shifu in his family style and he was travelling around the country as an escort.
Shifu Li Kun Shan sought refuge in the Hua Lin Monastery located in Ping To county (Shan Dong Province). It was at this monastery that shifu Li Kun Shan, committed himself to 10 years of studying Shuai Shou Tang Lang Quan (Wrestling Hands Praying Mantis Boxing) under the guidance of Abbot Cheng Yang Dan, thus becoming a 5th generation of the Northern Praying Mantis System.
When shifu Li Kun Shan left the temple, he hired himself out as a guard again and that was when he started to combine Shuai Shou Tang Lang with Tan Tui Men and out of respect for the monk who taught him at the Hua Lin Monastery he called the combined system "Hua Lin Tan Tui Tang Lang Men".
When working as an escort he traveled widely. It happened that there were ten notorious bandits in Shan Dong province, who were adept in martial arts and famous for plundering merchant teams and killing all those who did not submit to them. On one of shifu Li Kun Shan's escort trips, he encountered three of them. Shifu Li Kun Shan succeeded in killing them and thus protecting the goods consigned to him by his clients. After this incident, he decided not to continue as an escort.
Shifu Li Kun Shan left Shan Dong and took the profession of teaching and demonstrating martial arts. In his life, he had given instructions, in Chinese kung fu, in four different places. The first place was in Guang Dong where he admitted disciples and passed on his techniques before leaving for Vietnam, which was the second place, where he taught martial arts.
It was said that he went to Vietnam via the town Nan-ning in Kwangsi Province. Having reached Vietnam, he began admitting disciples and promoting the Hua Lin style. In the vicinity where shifu Li Kun Shan taught gong fu, there was a scoundrel by the nickname of the "Black Tiger" who was jealous of his fame. A quarrel between shifu Li Kun Shan and the scoundrel was inevitable and eventually led to an open tournament between the two. The result of the fight was shocking. In just a few exchanges of blows, the "Black Tiger" was struck to death. Shifu Li Kun Shan was thus involved in a court case. To avoid being arrested to answer the hearing in court, shifu Li Kun Shan fled from Vietnam and went into hiding in Hong Kong.
There are some rumors spread in the USA that mention that shifu Li Kun Shan and shifu Zhao Zhu Xi (Tai Ji Tang Lang Quan) met in Vietnam and were good friends. This is incorrect because shifu Zhao Zhu Xi moved to Saigon (Vietnam) from Macau after 1945 and could not meet shifu Li Kun Shan in Vietnam because the later had already left Vietnam long time ago (early '30s).
Shifu Li Kun Shan got the post of Inspector of the Porters' Association in Causeway Bay in Hong Kong, where he accepted some students. Eventually shifu Li Kun Shan settled down in the remote village of Sha Cheng, at Po On county (Guang Dong province) in 1936. Shifu Li Kun Shan's new style was noted for his long fist forms, its spear and pole techniques, and particularly its whirling broadsword skills.
It was there, at Sha Cheng village, where shifu Li Kun Shan accepted most of his students. When shifu Li Kun Shan began teaching his disciples at Sha Cheng, he only mentioned that what he taught were the skills of the Praying Mantis Style. Later, to commemorate the monk who taught these techniques at the Hua Lin Monastery in Shan Dong, and to allow future generations to know the origin of these techniques, he eventually called his style the Wah Lum Style of Shantung.
Shifu Li Kun Shan's period in Sha Cheng was broken into two parts. After teaching at Sha Cheng for the first few years, he returned to Guan Dong and later, in 1945 he was invited to return to Sha Cheng by one of his favorite disciples, shifu Sin Ying Tang. On his return to Sha Cheng, he was appointed Chief Instructor of the Yu Hing Association of Sha Cheng. However, because of his old age, most of his teaching lessons were taken over by his disciple, shifu Sin Ying Tang.
Shifu Li Kun Shan passed away in Sha Cheng 1948, being 76 years old. As for his written manuscripts, all that remained was a scroll written by his own hand before he died, which read: "Ching Mo Association - Techniques deriving from the Tam Tui system, kung fu style succeeding Wah Lum".
He left behind a long handled broadsword (Guan Dao), a tasseled spear, a three-sectioned staff, and the famous double broadswords. These weapons, which he used when he was alive, are now historical keepsakes and are in the possession of shifu Sin Ying Tang.
Page Updated: 1st February 2002.
If you have comments please contact me !!
Fernando Blanco Dopazo .