The first three people on the family tree of Mantis are Zhao Kuangyin, Han Tong and Zheng En. They all worked as protectors and friends of Chai Rong. Chai Rong is the hero who rose up from umbrella peddler to emperor. A fascinating and true story that is not well known today. In reading over the story I am amazed at the quality of the writing and the plot and can see how it could be taken as a part of the martial stories of martial styles such as Mantis and Longfist.
Stories of revolting against the empire would no doubt be popular during periods of Chinese history when the Chinese were ruled by outside forces.
The Yuan, Jin and Qing are three examples that together cover half a millennia.
In researching the revolutionary aspects of Chai Rong's three protectors, Zhao Kuangyin, Han Tong and Zheng En I came across a sentence by Chai Rong that serves to incite the populace to revolutionary war. part of the upcoming book on the history of Mantis, I found this particular paragraph to be some of the most powerful words spoken by Chai Rong.
Chai Rong spoke, "Marshal, since ancient times heroes must commit to the trend of the times. Today the imperial court has transformed into a state of chaos and the affairs of the nation are harmed. Great ministers of the nation can exploit this, take a hold of this great army and guard a place of strategic importance. Take advantage of this opportunity and we can send troops and start an uprising and kill our way to Bian Liang and exterminate those vile ministers given to flattery and install a new sovereign. There is no reason that we can't do this!"
But, I can't help asking myself, is it possible that phrases like this uttered not by an outlaw, such as they are in Heroes of the Marsh but by a man who actually became the ruler of China may have been perceived as dangerous literature during certain periods of Chinese history?
We already know that Heroes of the Marsh was banned during the Qing dynasty. Could literature that styles such as Longfist and Mantis descend from also have been banned?
I would like to see a list of banned books during the Qing dynasty as a source of revolutionary literature that martial artists may have used for inspiration to revolt.