Notes
Mantis Steals the Peach (螳螂偷桃) — Seven Star Mantis
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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
Lee Kam Wing — "Peach Flower Fist" (advanced tape) — a recognized Seven Star authority (Chiu Chi Man lineage).
Open translation
Full bilingual translation (Wong Hon Fan, 1972) — original Chinese with careful English — at Paul Brennan's site: Mantis Steals a Peach 螳螂偷桃.
See also
White Ape Leaves the Cave (白猿出洞) — its sibling form, same lineage and closing
Mantis Forms — the script-and-video map of every form
Bung Bu (崩步拳) — the foundation form whose vocabulary this recombines
Seven Star Mantis (七星螳螂) — the branch
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 (in copyright, cited not reproduced). The 49-posture sequence was cross-checked, opening and closing, against an independent research pass.
Details
- Section:
- Notes
- Updated:
- 2026-06-05
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