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. As recorded by Wong Hon Fan — "as taught by 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):

See also

Seven Star Mantis (七星螳螂拳) — the branch this sword belongs to

Yan Qing Single Saber (燕青單刀) — the companion single-saber form

Mantis Canon — the full index of Wong Hon Fan forms in open English

Wong Hon Fan (黃漢勛) — who recorded this form

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). 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) — holds the original Chinese editions of Wong's weapon manuals.