---
title: The White Ape Forms (白猿) — Steals the Peach and Leaves the Cave
---

A small family of **Seven Star Praying Mantis** forms is built around the image of the **White Ape** (白猿, *bái yuán*) — the agile, thieving monkey of Chinese legend, the forms English-speaking practitioners call **"Monkey Steals the Peach"** and **"Monkey Exits the Cave."** Master **Wong Hon Fan** (黃漢勛) published each under two animals — one titled **白猿 ("White Ape")** and one **螳螂 ("Mantis")** — so the same form appears in parallel recensions. The two are siblings in vocabulary and even share an **identical closing trio** (撤式左統捶 → 馬式右補捶 → 跨虎捕蟬式).

Each form has its own page with the **complete, printable move-by-move script**:

<PageRef space="notes" slug="mantis-steals-peach" text="Mantis Steals the Peach (螳螂偷桃 / 白猿偷桃) — 49 postures, full script" />

<PageRef space="notes" slug="white-ape-leaves-cave" text="White Ape Leaves the Cave (白猿出洞 / 螳螂出洞) — 49 / 69 postures, full script" />

These are **intermediate-to-advanced** forms — they assume the foundational vocabulary drilled in **Bung Bu**. For the full open translations, see Paul Brennan's bilingual editions, linked on each form's page; for the wider catalogue and every other Mantis form, see the forms map.

## See also

<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" />

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

<PageRef space="notes" slug="mantis-canon-english-translations" text="Mantis Canon — the full index of Brennan's translated scripts" />

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