Plum Blossom Praying Mantis
Some three hundred and fifty years ago Wang Lang founded the Praying Mantis form of Kung Fu. Wang based his martial art on a mantis he captured. He observed the mantis' offensive and defensive movements. After Wang's death his carefully thought out mantis heritage became divided when four of Wang's disciples, each claiming superior innovations, sought to be released from the founding school. The mantis master granted permission on one condition - each student name their individualized style after the markings on the back of a personally captured mantis. One had the appearance of a Yin-Yang symbol (Tai T'si), another looked like a plum blossom (Mei Hua), one showed the markings of seven stars (Tsi T'sing), and one had no markings and was called the Bare style (Kwong P'an). -Taken from "KUNG FU: History, Philosophy and Technique"

Dachengquan
Wang Xiangzhai was a native of Shenxian County, Hebei Province. As a child he was poor in health and at he age of 14 he began his lifelong study of the martial arts with Guo Yunseng, first learning Xingyiquan. After the death of Master Guo, the 20 year old Wang Xiangzhai decided to travel the country seeking competent teachers and helpful friends to help him to perfect his skills. Important among his encounters was his meeting with Taijiquan master Yang Shaohou and Bagua master Liu Fengchun. Learning from each of them proved of great value to his founding of Dachengquan many years later. As Mr. Wang rose to fame in the 1920's as an instructor of martial arts, he discovered that students paid undue attention to patterns and postures and neglected the training of the mind and spirit. Thus, to constantly remind his students of this misunderstanding, he changed Xingyiquan (form and mind boxing) to Yiquan (mind boxing). By Yi (will or mind) he meant that in practicing boxing, every movement must be guided by a certain idea. When practiced in this way, the idea of boxing exists in every movement, whether it be walking, standing, sitting or even lying. The completely new form of boxing incorporated the completeness and solidness of Xingyiquan's mechanism of force, the quintessence of qigong (breathing skills), Taijiquan's four skills of attacking, sticking, joining and following as well as its soft style of exerting force and finally Bagua's leisurely bodywork and flexible and changeable handwork and stepwork. In the mid-1940's, the name of Dachengquan or Great Achievements Shadow Boxing was adopted. Dachengquan (Yiquan) is distinguished for its effective combat skills and its value for actual combat. The strength spoken of is not that produced by blood and muscles, but the living strength characterized by its ready availability achieved by the coordinated contraction and relaxation of all muscles with the mind in command. The practice of Dachengquan also has an important effect on health. Good health is preserved because the training of the mind and the body is done simultaneously, and quiet and active skills reside within the other. This distinguishes it from some other forms of breathing exercises that stress only the body or only the mind.

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