Jia Jin Ting
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.
Born in 1904 in Lai Yang county to the wealthy family of a peanut oil merchant.
In 1920 at the age of sixteen shifu Jia Jin Ting became a disciple of shifu Jiang Hua Long. Shifu Jia Jin Ting studied Mei Hua Tang Lang at the wu guan in the Laiyang area (Chang Shan Praying Mantis boxing school). At this school shifu Jiang Hua Long was the person who was actually teaching, not any of his gong-fu brothers.
During 4 years of studying under shifu Jiang Hua Long (until the latter passed away), shifu Jia Jin Ting learned the following forms: Beng Bu, Luan Jie, Ba Zhou (4 sections), Zhai Yao (7 sections), Mei Hua Lu and Bu Chan (2 sections) and one Dao form.
In 1945 shifu Jia Jin Ting moved to Taiwan following the Republican army and settled down in Taipei. Shifu Jia Jin Ting started teaching praying mantis rather late, when he was over fifty years old but he taught many students in Taiwan.
Shifu Kevin Brazier has tranmited Shifu Shi Zheng Zhong comments about shifu Jia Jin Ting:
"Many years ago I went to study with him and he taught me Luan Jie. I had already finished the Zhai Yao and Ba Zhou forms with other teachers and found them to be quite similar so I did not continue to study with him after learning Luan Jie. Shifu Jia Jin Ting was unique in that he had a typed curriculum of each form with a cost on how much you must pay to learn each form. Some of the advanced forms were very expensive. This sheet has been kept by my gong-fu brother Yang Feng Shi as a historical keepsake. Later shifu Jia Jin Ting became very angry with me because I listed him in my book as Mei Hua Tang Lang. He said ,'No! It is not Mei Hua Tang Lang, it is Lao Pai Tang Lang!".
Shifu Jia Jin Ting appeared in a Taiwan TV show back in the 70s where he demonstrated Luan Jie. One of his students has made a name for himself teaching in Taipei.
Page Updated: 1st June 2006.
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Fernando Blanco Dopazo .