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 Kwun San / Li Kuen Shan / Lee Kun San.
Born in 1894 (other sources say he was born in 1895) in Lai Yang county (Shan Dong Province). He studied Mei Hua Tang Lang at the shifu Jiang Hua Long wu guan in the Laiyang area (Chang Shan Praying Mantis boxing school) and became the most famous among all the disciples of that school. At this school shifu Jiang Hua Long was the person who was actually teaching, not any of his gong-fu brothers. However, shifu Li Kun Shan also studied with his gong fu uncle and shifu Song Zi De.
Eight of the most famous disciples of shifu Jiang Hua Long / shifu Song Zi De are known as the Ba Da Di Zi (Eight Great Disciples), being all of them: shifu Wang Yu Shan, shifu Li Kun Shan, shifu Cui Shou Shan, shifu Jiang Huan Ting, shifu Zhao Shi Ting, shifu Jiu Zhu Yuan, shifu Zang Yun Sheng and shifu Jiang Yu Long.
In 1933 shifu Li Kun Shan won the first place in the gong fu national weapons competition (spear) and 3rd in long fist at the competition held in Nanking (his gong fu brother shifu Wang Yu Shan was the shifu that won the first place in fist competition). Nanking was China's capital city at that time and it was a real fighting national level competition. This spear form that made shifu Li Kun Shan famous was from his family style, not from Mei Hua Tang Lang Quan.
Shifu Li Kun Shan toghether with shifu Wang Yu Shan, and shifu Cui Shou Shan, became famous in Shandong and they were known as the "3 Mountains of Lai Yang" county (Lai Yang San Shan). The last Chinese ideograms representing the three masters' names were "Shan", meaning "mountain" in Chinese. Laiyang County in Shandong Province is where many famous Tang Lang Quan practitioners were from.
Shifu Li Kun Shan moved to Taiwan after the Communist Revolution. After moving to Taiwan he lived in Chi Lung city (about two or three hours from Taipei). In Taiwan shifu Li Kun Shan taught a nimbler mantis technique with sudden changes of position, combining some longer boxing elements to his praying mantis boxing.
Shifu Li Kun Shan learnt what we would call now Mei Hua Tang Lang (Plum Blossom Praying Mantis) but he never used the terms "Plum Flower" to name his style, and as the stuff he was teaching was similar to what was known as Seven Stars Praying Mantis (forms, theory, etc.) a lot of people in Taiwan taught he was teaching Qi Xing Tang Lang Quan. The mistake spread out in Taiwan and is still common nowadays. Therefore, when a master from Taiwan says he teaches Qi Xing Tang Lang he will be probably talking about the shifu Li Kun Shan's teachings, not about what most of people in the West understand as Seven Stars Mantis Boxing (the style mentioned in other chart in this page). However, the name Mei Hua Tang Lang Quan was kept by shifu Li Kun Shan’s descendants in his home town in Laiyang and also some of his students in Taiwan (shifu Li Deng Wu, shifu Li Hong jie, etc).
His tang lang quan training kept shifu Li Kun Shan in very good shape and int the 60's (being 65 years old) he still kicked 200 kilos bags.
According to his Meihua Tang Lang Quan manuscript, shifu Li Kun Shan taught only 5 sections of the Zai Yao routine.
While in Taiwan, he also taught to his disciples Mei Hua Tang Lang, Ti Gong Quan (style in the floor) and all kind of weapons.
Some sources say that shifu Li Kun Shan died in 1980, but he actually passed away in 1976.
Page Updated: 1st February 2005.
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Fernando Blanco Dopazo .