His name is also romanized as Wong Long, Duong Lang and Vuong Lang according to the Vietnamese pronunciation.

System founder. Native of the Laoshan region of Jimo County , Shandong Province.

Many Chinese martial arts historians pinpoint Wang Lang to have lived between the late Ming (1368-1644 AD) and early Qing (1644-1911 AD) dynasties. Other sources, however, also claim that Wang Lang and mantis boxing had existed much earlier during the period of the Northern Song Dynasty (969-1126 AD). In any case, very little is known about Wang Lang except from the legend about his creation of mantis boxing as told by later successors of the style.

According to the limited information available we favor the first theory (early Qing dynasty) and possibly his identification with the historical swordman Yu Qi.

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