---
title: Sundial Sword (子午劍) — the Seven Star Mantis straight-sword form
---

The **Sundial Sword** (**子午劍**, *Zǐwǔ Jiàn* — also rendered "Midnight-Noon" or "Meridian" Sword) is the signature **straight-sword (劍, *****jian*****)** form of [**Seven Star Praying Mantis**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/seven-star-mantis). As recorded by [**Wong Hon Fan**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/wong-hon-fan) — "as taught by [**Luo Guangyu**](https://wulin.openmindspace.org/luo-guangyu) of Penglai, Shandong" (Hong Kong, 1958) — the set runs to **46 postures**. The name *zǐ-wǔ* names the **midnight–noon, north–south axis** of the sundial gnomon: the form turns through the compass of directions, the blade tracing the meridian line.

## Character

The straight sword is the "gentleman of weapons," light and double-edged, rewarding precision over force. The Sundial Sword carries the mantis vocabulary — hooking, sticking, the sudden change of line — into edged single-sword work, alternating threading thrusts with the wrist-led cutting circles the *jian* is built for. Animal-image posture names (white ape, blue dragon, white snake, the mantis itself) mark it as a classical Shandong sword set rather than a modern competition form.

## Representative postures

A selection from the 46 (the complete posture list and movement-by-movement detail are in Wong Hon Fan's manual, translated in full by Brennan — linked below):

| 中文 | English |
| --- | --- |
| 中平佩劍式 | Standing Stably, Holding the Sword |
| 白猿問路式 | White Ape Asks the Way |
| 夜叉探海式 | Night Demon Searches the Sea |
| 青龍坐窩式 | Blue Dragon Sits in Its Lair |
| 白蛇吐信式 | White Snake Flicks Out Its Tongue |
| 螳螂捕蟬式 | Mantis Catches a Cicada |
| 游龍大擺尾 | Swimming Dragon Swings Its Tail |

## See also

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

<PageRef space="notes" slug="yan-qing-single-saber" text="Yan Qing Single Saber (燕青單刀) — the companion single-saber form" />

<PageRef space="notes" slug="mantis-canon-english-translations" text="Mantis Canon — the full index of Wong Hon Fan forms in open English" />

<PageRef space="notes" slug="wong-hon-fan" text="Wong Hon Fan (黃漢勛) — who recorded this form" />

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

## Sources

**[1]** 黃漢勛 (Wong Hon Fan), *子午劍* (Hong Kong, 1958), Seven-Star Mantis line of Luo Guangyu — full open English translation by Paul Brennan: [Sundial Sword (Ziwu Jian)](https://brennantranslation.wordpress.com/2018/08/16/sundial-sword-ziwu-jian/). The Brennan translation is in copyright; linked, not reproduced. Posture names above are from Wong's (public-domain) original.

**[2]** *Praying Mantis Master Wong Hon Fan Collection (螳螂拳宗師黃漢勛特藏)*, Chinese University of Hong Kong Library ([repository.lib.cuhk.edu.hk/en/collection/whf](https://repository.lib.cuhk.edu.hk/en/collection/whf)) — holds the original Chinese editions of Wong's weapon manuals.