Mantis Forms — Scripts and Video Map

A navigable map of Northern Praying Mantis (螳螂拳) forms: for each one, where to find the move-by-move script and a good video. Some forms have a full dedicated page on this wiki (✅); roughly forty have open-access Brennan translations of their scripts (📖); a handful are documented but lack a clean open script or film (⚠). This page ties them together across branches so you can find any form fast.

For the underlying translation library and citation policy, see:

Mantis Canon — the full index of Brennan's ~40 translated Wong Hon Fan forms

How a Mantis curriculum is built

Most Northern Mantis curricula move through the same arc: a foundation form that installs the vocabulary (Bung Bu), a body of core empty-hand forms that recombine it, a set of signature/advanced forms, and the weapons. The main branches — Seven Star (七星), Eight Step (八步), Plum Blossom / Taiji-Plum (梅花 / 太極梅花), and Six Harmony (六合) — share much of this material under different orderings.

Seven Star (七星螳螂) — foundation

Seven Star — core empty-hand forms

Eight Step (八步螳螂)

The Taiwan line of Wei Xiaotang (衛笑堂), carried on by Su Yu-Chang (蘇昱彰) and others.

Weapons (Seven Star, Wong Hon Fan canon)

Full scripts for the Mantis weapons forms are all in the Brennan canon — saber, double sabers, staff, sword, three-section staff, halberd, and more. Rather than re-list them here, see the weapons section of the canon index:

Mantis Canon — weapons forms (燕青單刀, 六合雙刀, 螳螂六合棍, 子午劍, 五郎八卦棍, 春秋大刀, …)

Best video sources

For forms whose row above shows "—", these channels are where to look — they hold large, lineage-credible Mantis libraries:

• Lee Kam Wing (李錦榮) instructional tape series — the deepest single resource for Seven Star forms + applications: full playlist.

• CWS-CMA / 華藝精武 (Li Chun Sam 李俊森) — clean "7 Star Praying Mantis: [form]" full-form demos; e.g. 崩步拳 Bung Bu.

• hfwong-mantis.com — the 黃漢勛 family site, with rare archival films (Luo Guangyu performing Bung Bu; the 1972 two-person Zhai Yao).

• Wei Xiaotang archival footage — primary-source film for the Eight Step curriculum (linked on the form rows above).

See also

Praying Mantis (螳螂拳) — the style overview

Seven Star Mantis (七星螳螂) — the main branch above

Eight Step Mantis (八步螳螂) — the Wei Xiaotang line

Bung Bu (崩步拳) — the foundation form, full script

Mantis Steals the Peach (螳螂偷桃) — full printable script

White Ape Leaves the Cave (白猿出洞) — full printable script

Zhai Yao (摘要拳) — Picked Essentials

Li Pi (力劈拳) — Eight Step's Force Chop

Sources

Form scripts are documented in the published manuals of Wong Hon Fan (黃漢勛) (Seven Star) and Wei Xiaotang (衛笑堂) (Eight Step); the open English translations are Paul Brennan's at brennantranslation.wordpress.com (in copyright, linked not reproduced). On-wiki pages reproduce the bare posture-name lists under fair-use citation with the wiki's own glosses. Posture counts and branch attributions follow the Brennan editions and the Seven Star catalog; videos were checked to resolve at publication. The 小翻車 gap is noted honestly rather than filled with an unverified script.