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螳螂 in Chinese / Japanese...

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Personalize your custom “螳螂” project by clicking the button next to your favorite “螳螂” title below...

Northern Praying Mantis

 táng láng quán
 tou rou ken
Northern Praying Mantis Scroll

This can be translated literally as “Praying Mantis Fist.”

螳螂拳 is sometimes called Shandong Praying Mantis after its place of origin. It was created by Wang Lang and was named after the praying mantis, an insect, the aggressiveness of which inspired the style.

Shaolin records document that Wang Lang was one of the 18 masters gathered by the Shaolin Abbot Fu Ju, which dates him and Northern Praying Mantis style to the Song Dynasty (960-1279 A.D.).

The fact that the word “Northern” is used in the English title has more to do with where this style came from (Shandong is in northern China), but “north” is absent from this Chinese title.

Note: 螳螂拳 is also a title in Japanese - however, only a Japanese person who practices or is familiar with the “Praying Mantis Fist” style would recognize it.

Mantis / Praying Mantis

 táng láng
 tou rou
Mantis / Praying Mantis Scroll

螳螂 is mantis or “praying mantis,” as it's often titled in English.

Technically speaking, this especially applies to the narrow-winged mantis (Tenodera angustipennis)

It is best to use this very common two-character Asian title for the mantis, as the second character alone can mean mantis or dragonfly (totally ambiguous).

This title is antiquated in Japanese, as they tend to write カマキリ (kama kiri) in Katakana to mean praying mantis.


蟷Note: There is an alternate form of this title which uses the character shown to the right instead of the first character shown above. This is uncommon in both Japan and China (if you really want it anyway, please let us know).

Southern Praying Mantis

 nán pài táng láng
Southern Praying Mantis Scroll

南派螳螂 can be translated literally as “Southern School Praying Mantis” or “Southern Style Praying Mantis.”

Despite its name, the Southern Praying Mantis style of Chinese martial arts is unrelated to the Northern Praying Mantis style. Southern Praying Mantis is instead related most closely to fellow Hakka styles such as Dragon and more distantly to the Fujian family of styles that includes Fujian White Crane, Five Ancestors, and Wing Chun.

This style of martial arts focuses more on fighting skills rather than aesthetics.

Of course, you already knew that if you were looking for this term.

Note: This title can be pronounced and does have meaning in Korean but only to Koreans familiar with Chinese martial arts.


Not the results for 螳螂 that you were looking for?

Below are some entries from our dictionary that may match your 螳螂 search...

Characters

If shown, 2nd row is Simp. Chinese

Pronunciation
Romanization
Simple Dictionary Definition

螳螂

see styles
táng láng
    tang2 lang2
t`ang lang
    tang lang
 tourou / toro
    とうろう
    kamakiri
    かまきり

More info & calligraphy:

Mantis / Praying Mantis
mantis; praying mantis
(kana only) praying mantis (esp. the narrow-winged mantis, Tenodera angustipennis)

螳螂拳

see styles
 tourouken / toroken
    とうろうけん

More info & calligraphy:

Northern Praying Mantis
(martial arts term) praying mantis style

南派螳螂

see styles
nán pài táng láng
    nan2 pai4 tang2 lang2
nan p`ai t`ang lang
    nan pai tang lang

More info & calligraphy:

Southern Praying Mantis
Chow Gar - "Southern Praying Mantis" - Martial Art

擬螳螂

see styles
 kamakirimodoki
    かまきりもどき
(kana only) mantidfly (any insect of the family Mantispidae)

螳螂峠

see styles
 kamakiritouge / kamakiritoge
    かまきりとうげ
(place-name) Kamakiritōge

螳螂捕蟬


螳螂捕蝉

see styles
táng láng bǔ chán
    tang2 lang2 bu3 chan2
t`ang lang pu ch`an
    tang lang pu chan
the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind (idiom, from Daoist classic Zhuangzi 莊子|庄子[Zhuang1 zi3]); to pursue a narrow gain while neglecting a greater danger

北派螳螂拳

see styles
běi pài táng láng quán
    bei3 pai4 tang2 lang2 quan2
pei p`ai t`ang lang ch`üan
    pei pai tang lang chüan
Beipai Tanglang Quan - "Northern Praying Mantis" (Chinese Martial Art)

Variations:
擬螳螂
蟷螂擬

see styles
 kamakirimodoki; kamakirimodoki
    かまきりもどき; カマキリモドキ
(kana only) mantidfly (any insect of the family Mantispidae)

Variations:
螳螂拳
蟷螂拳

see styles
 tourouken / toroken
    とうろうけん
{MA} praying mantis style

螳螂捕蟬,黃雀在後


螳螂捕蝉,黄雀在后

see styles
táng láng bǔ chán , huáng què zài hòu
    tang2 lang2 bu3 chan2 , huang2 que4 zai4 hou4
t`ang lang pu ch`an , huang ch`üeh tsai hou
    tang lang pu chan , huang chüeh tsai hou
the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind (idiom, from Daoist classic Zhuangzi 莊子|庄子[Zhuang1 zi3]); to pursue a narrow gain while neglecting a greater danger

Variations:
蟷螂
螳螂
鎌切
蟐螂

see styles
 kamakiri; tourou(蟷螂, 螳螂); imojiri(蟷螂); iibomushiri(蟷螂); kamakiri / kamakiri; toro(蟷螂, 螳螂); imojiri(蟷螂); ibomushiri(蟷螂); kamakiri
    かまきり; とうろう(蟷螂, 螳螂); いもじり(蟷螂); いいぼむしり(蟷螂); カマキリ
(kana only) (occ. written 杜父魚) praying mantis (esp. the narrow-winged mantis, Tenodera angustipennis)

The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...

Title CharactersRomaji (Romanized Japanese)Various forms of Romanized Chinese
Northern Praying Mantis螳螂拳tou rou ken
tourouken
to ro ken
táng láng quán
tang2 lang2 quan2
tang lang quan
tanglangquan
t`ang lang ch`üan
tanglangchüan
tang lang chüan
Mantis
Praying Mantis
螳螂 / 蟷螂
螳螂
tou rou / tourou / to rotáng láng
tang2 lang2
tang lang
tanglang
t`ang lang
tanglang
tang lang
Southern Praying Mantis南派螳螂nán pài táng láng
nan2 pai4 tang2 lang2
nan pai tang lang
nanpaitanglang
nan p`ai t`ang lang
nanpaitanglang
nan pai tang lang
In some entries above you will see that characters have different versions above and below a line.
In these cases, the characters above the line are Traditional Chinese, while the ones below are Simplified Chinese.


Dictionary

Lookup 螳螂 in my Japanese & Chinese Dictionary


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When you select your calligraphy, you'll be taken to another page where you can choose various custom options.


A nice Chinese calligraphy wall scroll

The wall scroll that Sandy is holding in this picture is a "large size"
single-character wall scroll.
We also offer custom wall scrolls in small, medium, and an even-larger jumbo size.

A professional Chinese Calligrapher

Professional calligraphers are getting to be hard to find these days.
Instead of drawing characters by hand, the new generation in China merely type roman letters into their computer keyboards and pick the character that they want from a list that pops up.

There is some fear that true Chinese calligraphy may become a lost art in the coming years. Many art institutes in China are now promoting calligraphy programs in hopes of keeping this unique form of art alive.

Trying to learn Chinese calligrapher - a futile effort

Even with the teachings of a top-ranked calligrapher in China, my calligraphy will never be good enough to sell. I will leave that to the experts.

A high-ranked Chinese master calligrapher that I met in Zhongwei

The same calligrapher who gave me those lessons also attracted a crowd of thousands and a TV crew as he created characters over 6-feet high. He happens to be ranked as one of the top 100 calligraphers in all of China. He is also one of very few that would actually attempt such a feat.


Check out my lists of Japanese Kanji Calligraphy Wall Scrolls and Old Korean Hanja Calligraphy Wall Scrolls.