---
title: Mantis Steals the Peach (螳螂偷桃) — Seven Star Mantis
---

**螳螂偷桃** (*Tángláng Tōu Táo*, "Mantis Steals the Peach") is a **49-posture** form of **Seven Star Praying Mantis**, published by **Wong Hon Fan** (黃漢勛) in **1972**; the same idea appears under the monkey as **白猿偷桃 ("White Ape Steals a Peach," 1947)**. The "stealing the peach" image is the mantis's signature **snatch-and-seize** — the hooking hand darting in to pluck and pull before the strike lands. The full move-by-move script is below, formatted to print.

## What the form trains

Read down the names and the form's character is plain: repeated **seizing hands** (採手, 刁手) set up **circling, grinding, and thrusting punches** (圈捶, 挫捶, 統捶) from the mountain-climbing and Big-Dipper stances, punctuated by **shoulder strikes** (仰膀, 滾膀), a **throat-lock** (鎖喉), and **closing-door kicks** (閉門腳). It opens low in a reversed cicada-catch and closes — like its sibling *White Ape Leaves the Cave* — on the crossing-tiger cicada catch.

## Full posture script — 49 postures

The bare posture-name list from Wong Hon Fan's manual (fair-use citation); English are the wiki's own working glosses.

| # | 中文 | Working gloss |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | 背式雙覆掌 | Back-facing stance, double covering palms |
| 2 | 倒勢捕蟬式 | Low reversed stance, catching the cicada |
| 3 | 七星右劈軋 | Big-Dipper stance, right chop-and-crush |
| 4 | 孤雁左出群 | Solitary goose leaves the flock (left) |
| 5 | 登山右圈捶 | Mountain-climbing stance, right circling punch |
| 6 | 右抅摟採手 | Right hook-pull seizing hand |
| 7 | 入環右腰斬 | Entering-ring stance, right waist-slice |
| 8 | 登山左圈捶 | Mountain-climbing stance, left circling punch |
| 9 | 登山左崩捶 | Mountain-climbing stance, left avalanche punch |
| 10 | 七星左刁手 | Big-Dipper stance, left hooking hand |
| 11 | 七星右補捶 | Big-Dipper stance, right filling punch |
| 12 | 登山右挫捶 | Mountain-climbing stance, right grinding punch |
| 13 | 登山掛統捶 | Mountain-climbing stance, hanging thrusting punch |
| 14 | 登山右劈軋 | Mountain-climbing stance, right chop-and-crush |
| 15 | 肘底右看爪 | Watching-claw beneath the elbow (right) |
| 16 | 七星右圈捶 | Big-Dipper stance, right circling punch |
| 17 | 七星左圈捶 | Big-Dipper stance, left circling punch |
| 18 | 登山左崩捶 | Mountain-climbing stance, left avalanche punch |
| 19 | 登山右崩捶 | Mountain-climbing stance, right avalanche punch |
| 20 | 登山掛統捶 | Mountain-climbing stance, hanging thrusting punch |
| 21 | 登山右劈軋 | Mountain-climbing stance, right chop-and-crush |
| 22 | 脫手右圈捶 | Releasing-hand, right circling punch |
| 23 | 登山右仰膀 | Mountain-climbing stance, right upward shoulder |
| 24 | 入環左滾膀 | Entering-ring stance, left rolling shoulder |
| 25 | 登山封統捶 | Mountain-climbing stance, sealing thrusting punch |
| 26 | 馬式右補捶 | Horse stance, right filling punch |
| 27 | 登山右崩捶 | Mountain-climbing stance, right avalanche punch |
| 28 | 右閉門腳法 | Right closing-door kick |
| 29 | 跨虎右挑掌 | Crossing-tiger stance, right lifting palm |
| 30 | 提腿雙封手 | Lifting-leg, double sealing hands |
| 31 | 馬式右補捶 | Horse stance, right filling punch |
| 32 | 登山右挫捶 | Mountain-climbing stance, right grinding punch |
| 33 | 入環窩肚捶 | Entering-ring stance, punch to the pit of the stomach |
| 34 | 登山掛統捶 | Mountain-climbing stance, hanging thrusting punch |
| 35 | 登山右劈軋 | Mountain-climbing stance, right chop-and-crush |
| 36 | 登山右挫捶 | Mountain-climbing stance, right grinding punch |
| 37 | 呑塌低捕蟬 | Gulp-and-sink, low catching the cicada |
| 38 | 入環右鎖喉 | Entering-ring stance, right throat-lock |
| 39 | 入環右滾膀 | Entering-ring stance, right rolling shoulder |
| 40 | 右劈左軋腳 | Right chop, left crushing foot |
| 41 | 登山左統捶 | Mountain-climbing stance, left thrusting punch |
| 42 | 劈軋右撩腿 | Chop-and-crush, right whipping kick |
| 43 | 撤式右反掌 | Withdrawing stance, right reversing palm |
| 44 | 中式右叫圈 | Central stance, right calling-circle |
| 45 | 登山右圈捶 | Mountain-climbing stance, right circling punch |
| 46 | 右抅摟採手 | Right hook-pull seizing hand |
| 47 | 撤式左統捶 | Withdrawing stance, left thrusting punch |
| 48 | 馬式右補捶 | Horse stance, right filling punch |
| 49 | 跨虎捕蟬式 | Crossing-tiger stance, catching the cicada (closing) |

## Video

<Callout type="warning">
  Clean, lineage-authoritative full-form video of this specific form is scarce online; the closest titled demonstration is Grandmaster **Lee Kam Wing**'s "Peach Flower Fist" tape, and his full series is the best place to study it.
</Callout>

- [Lee Kam Wing — "Peach Flower Fist" (advanced tape)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=achHmqKZyOo) — a recognized Seven Star authority (Chiu Chi Man lineage).
- [Lee Kam Wing Northern Mantis tape series — full playlist](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLldMHc3lwOe5Cj2V3kDS08Hs8WSdpKNHX)

## Open translation

Full bilingual translation (Wong Hon Fan, 1972) — original Chinese with careful English — at Paul Brennan's site: [*Mantis Steals a Peach*](https://brennantranslation.wordpress.com/2022/11/11/mantis-steals-a-peach/)[ 螳螂偷桃](https://brennantranslation.wordpress.com/2022/11/11/mantis-steals-a-peach/).

## See also

<PageRef space="notes" slug="white-ape-leaves-cave" text="White Ape Leaves the Cave (白猿出洞) — its sibling form, same lineage and closing" />

<PageRef space="notes" slug="mantis-forms" text="Mantis Forms — the script-and-video map of every form" />

<PageRef space="notes" slug="bung-bu-quan" text="Bung Bu (崩步拳) — the foundation form whose vocabulary this recombines" />

<PageRef space="notes" slug="seven-star-mantis" text="Seven Star Mantis (七星螳螂) — the branch" />

<PageRef space="notes" slug="praying-mantis" text="Praying Mantis (螳螂拳) — the style overview" />

## Sources

The posture script is the bare form-name list from **Wong Hon Fan** (黃漢勛), *螳螂偷桃* (1972), reproduced under fair-use citation; the English are the wiki's own working glosses. The full bilingual translation is **Paul Brennan's** at [brennantranslation.wordpress.com](https://brennantranslation.wordpress.com/2022/11/11/mantis-steals-a-peach/) (in copyright, cited not reproduced). The 49-posture sequence was cross-checked, opening and closing, against an independent research pass.