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. Most Seven Star core forms and all its weapon forms now have a full dedicated script page on this wiki (✅), each also linking the open-access Brennan translation; 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

Forms & Weapons — the wiki-wide index this Mantis map sits under

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 左顯富 (Zuo Xianfu), 荀廣龍 (James Shyun), 鄭榮貴 (Zheng Ronggui) and others. The curriculum runs 七手 → 力劈 → 小翻車 → 大翻車 → 摘要 (六段) → 拍按對打. Scripts here follow the 松傳 / 左顯富 lineage 拳譜 (Wei's own books are in copyright — linked, not reproduced):

Six-Harmony (六合螳螂)

The soft, "hidden-hard" (暗剛) branch — the 張詳三 (Zhang Xiangsan) Taiwan line (魏德林 → 林世春 → 丁子成 → 張詳三). Its empty-hand art is six core sequences (六趟) plus 短捶 and 六合拳; scripts follow the lineage site 6h-mantis.org (fair-use name-lists + own glosses):

The mainland 招遠 line's 照面燈 and the 摘要九十三手 ("93 hands") have no open posture list located.

Taiji Plum-Blossom (太極梅花螳螂)

The rounded, continuous Laiyang (萊陽) trunk (梁學香 → 姜化龍 → 宋子德 → the "Three Mountains"). Its open scripts are sparser; the elbow root-form is here, the rest are noted honestly:

The 分身八肘 谱 follows the Hao-family manual (PD-by-age). The clean-script 崩步/攔截/連環/大架/小架 forms belong to Seven Star (above), not this line.

Weapons (Seven Star, Wong Hon Fan canon)

The full Seven Star (Wong Hon Fan canon) weapons set — every one now has a dedicated script page on this wiki:

For the two-person sets, treatise volumes, and the full catalogue, see the canon index:

Mantis Canon — the complete Brennan index (treatises, two-person sets, every weapon)

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.