Grandmaster Luo Guangyu

One of the best known Tanglang masters was Luo Guangyu, born in 1888 in Yantai. He started training the Mantis style under Master Fan Xudong in 1906, who taught him for about 7 years. Luo was poor, and in Yantai and Penglai, where he moved later, he earned his living as a shoemaker. As this profession couldn’t provide him with much income, Master Fan arranged for him to leave for Shanghai, where he started teaching Praying Mantis in the Jingwu Athletic Society in 1913. He had many students, of whom the most accomplished was Ma Chengxin, who won gold at the national championships in Nanjing in 1929. In 1932 Luo Guangyu moved to Hong Kong, where he also taught at the local Jingwu Society. Master Luo is considered one of the three most outstanding teachers of the Society. According to the Chinese Wushu Encyclopaedia, Luo returned to Shanghai in 1942, where he died two years later. According to other sources, he died in 1944 on his way back to Penglai.

Master Luo Guangyu’s Mantis style differs in several respects from the system taught in Master Lin Jingshan lineage. This can be explained by the influence of the Southern styles and schools, whose teachers also taught at the Jingwu Society. Also, not many people know that one of Master Luo’s legs was slightly shorter, and he had to adjust some of the techniques accordingly. This physical disposition, however, had no influence on his combat skills.

Training session at Master’s school was described by his disciple, Huang Qinyun:

At first, Master Luo’s students would train in the mabu (horse riding) stance, punching a suspended sandbag. At this stage, standing on one leg was also practiced. Then, students proceeded to strengthening their hands and fingers. The routine consisted in jabbing a basin filled with beans. This training lasted about 4 weeks, only then would Master Luo start teaching any forms.
He was very reluctant to teach beginners any applications of techniques from forms. Because the Mantis system is quite challenging as far as agility is concerned, he would teach forms only to students of older ages. Children were only taught forms that bore resemblance to Changquan. Huang Qinyun recalls that Luo was an exigent teacher, and yet at the same time warm-hearted and mild, like a true gong fu master. His best disciple in Hong Kong was Huang Hanxun (Wong Hon Fun in Cantonese) known as ‘the Mantis King’. Other students are: Wong Kam Hung (died in Malaysia in 1991), Chan Gin Yee, Chiu Chi Man, Lai Chun Choy (USA), Kwok Cho Chiu, Lai Yee Let and many others (the names are rendered in English transcription of Cantonese). Master Luo Guangyu should be credited more than anybody else for spreading the Seven Star Praying Mantis system outside the Chinese borders. It were his own students from Hong Kong and Shanghai and their disciples, who transplanted the system to Taiwan, the Philippines, the States and Europe.
 
Source from © 2006 Polskie Towarzystwo Kung Fu Modliszki