Li Hong Jie
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:
Lee Hung Chieh / Lee Hong Jie.
Born in 1920 (other sources say 1925), shifu Li Hong Jie was the older disciple of shifu Li Kun Shan who lived in Lai Yang (Shan Dong Province) and later he moved to Taiwan.
It is little known that back in Shan Dong shifu Li Hong Jie trained under shifu Wang Song Ting (Chang Quan Tang Lang Quan).
In the mid 50's shifu Li Hong Jie was living with shifu Li Kun Shan but he was going behind his back to learn from shifu Wang Song Ting. Shifu Li Hong Jie learned several forms from shifu Wang Song Tin including Little Tiger Sparrow. On weapon forms he learned a straight sword form in a single evening but shifu Li Hong Jie forgot this form that had learnt in such a short period of time. Shifu Li Hong Jie kept asking to learn one particular form but shifu Wang Song Tin never taught it, that is just the way shifu Wang Song Ting was. When shifu Li Kun Shan found out this situation he was very angry with Li Hong Jie.
In addition to tang lang quan shifu Li Hong Jie also knew qi gong exercises such as Yi Jing Jing.
Shifu Li Hong Jie was a very open master willing to learn about other praying mantis styles. For example, he flew to Hong Kong to meet shifu Zhao Zhu Xi (Tai Ji Tang Lang Quan) but he arrived too late because the latter had passed away. Another example of his openess was when he ecouraged his student, shifu Shi Zheng Zhong, to seek out shifu Zhang Xiang Shan to learn Liu He Tang Lang Quan.
In 1990s when he was about 70 years old he could take a full blow to his gut or jump around like a young man while doing gong fu. In 2002 shifu Li Hong Jie was in coma and very sick.
Page Updated: 1st February 2004.
If you have comments please contact me !!
Fernando Blanco Dopazo .