Sad news for me...

[Taijimantis]

For those of you who knew I was working on a historical doccumentary on Praying Mantis Kung Fu, I was hoping to share with you my (hopefully) accurate renditions of the legends surrounding the birth of praying mantis with this post. Unfortuantely it will not be the case.

This past week while working on the history of Tai Chi Praying Mantis Kung Fu, There was an error reading my disc, and when I attempted to load my backup, the same problem occurred. Sadly now, I have lost two thirds of the project so far. One third of my efforts were on a hard copy and I will proceed from there.

There is a lot I do not yet know. I am presently still greiving the loss of dozens of pages of text, trying to figure out what it is that I am going to try and recreate, and what I am not.

The majority of the loss was in the terminology and family structure of Chinese Martial Arts, though some of it was the entertainment oriented story of Jo-Si Wong Long discovering the 12 Character Principals and the 17 styles of Northern PM. Also what was lost was the list of weapons and descriptions of TCPM.

Speaking of which, if anyone knows the primary weapons of this style I know there are gun, jian, da dao, kwan dao, Qian, tie shan, Guai,San Jie Gun, Chang Xiao Bang,Sen Biao,Gou,Jiu Jie Bian, and hu Die Shuang Dao. If there are any others Grandmaster Chao Chiu-Chi taught, please let me know. I will need to get a description going for when I can repair this project.

I am undaunted, it will be done, though this is a large setback, I am in no hurry to complete it. I would rather be accurate than speedy!
Perhaps it is a lesson in detatchment and patience? /infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif

Blessings.
Namaste.

Taiji

[Ericsepishii]

Have you tried Norton Utilities ?
I know that some who are really up
on Computer systems / software are
able to utilize this software and
recover "lost" information from
bad diskettes depending on the
situation.

It might be worth a try.

[Taijimantis]

Thank You!
That is something I will look into immidiately!

[mantis108]

Hi Taijimantis,

I had the pleasure of reading some of your work. The amount of info and effort in putting even just 1 page together is hugh. It is indeed sad to have lost pages of it. I hear you, my friend. Anything, I can help with?

Mantis108

Contraria Sunt Complementa

[WuMan]

If you have windows ME you can go back in time to the date where your infomation still worked, but any info saved/installed after this date would be lost. It like goes back in time.

[Taijimantis]

Wu, could you explain that a little bit?

[WuMan]

In the Windows Millenium Edition there is suppose to be this kind of time machine thing. Lets say i install a 3D Graphics demo and it had a 30 day trial limit. I installed it on the 25th of setptember and 30 days later the trial is over and I am tooo lazy to reinstall. I just open up the ME thing and enter the date I want to go back to. So whatever I had on sept 25 and before will be there but anything that I saved/installed between the 30 day period would be gone.

Help a bit more?

[8stepsifu]

Please let me know. There was a web site I saw with all of the recorded histories of Praying Mantis Kung Fu and I think the chinese Government has one that is far more politically based the the happy go lucky-instant enlightenment version.

8Step Sifu

[Taijimantis]

The lineage thing is still a big question. I have a direct lineage between Chiu Juk-Kai and Jo-Si Wong Long... actually I have two. One is the seven Star Praying Mantis patriarchs, which makes it a little bit more interesting.

I suppose to be fair I should do the history of Bareback and plum blossom as well... I am uncertain where 8-step fits into all of this.

The split into the four main schools of Northern Mantis is popularly thought to have taken place at the end of the Qing Dynasty, about 1911. If this were the case it would be one history for all of us until that point. I dont believe this to be the case.

This is the premis for my third chapter, and I am kind of stuck there. Th legends of the NPM origin are easy to explore up to the arrival of Sheng Hsiao Dao Ren. But even that is "iffy" because if Shaolin kept Praying Mantis Secret for 100 years, then how was Hao Ji Yeun learning at the same time? Nothing I have shows him as being a Shaolin Monk himself, and Sheng Hsiao is credited with bringing PM to the public forum. Also If Jon Funk is correct (and I am not saying he is) Sheng Hsiao had only one disciple... this complicates things quite a bit.

We all are comfortable within our personal space, but when we decide to step out and see that the world is a big place, and our way isnt necissarily the right way, then there is a lot of work involved in placing the emphasis on fact rather than fiction, as I have discovered.

The best I can hope to do is hear as many versions of the "truth" as I can, and put the pieces together in a way that makes sense... no doubt someone will tell me I am wrong in the end but I have spent six months already researching this subject! They will have to just not like it...

ANY help is appriciated.

Contact me here or at Taiji Mantis@aol.com
When all is said and done, for those of you who respond, please leave me your full name and title so that I may give credit where it is due.

Namaste.

[Taijimantis]

I was hoping to send some more writing exerpts to my brothers and sisters... (By the way if anything I said was deemed offensive or grossly innaccurate I look to my seniors for guidence and correction)
But due to the new information on the founding of Mantis (being a much earlier split and then only splitting into three, not four branches) is going to mean a lot of new research and rewriting. There are new questions as to much of what I have been told on all sides of the map!

The good news is I think I can track down a hard copy of the remaining lost portions. This means all is not lost, and perhaps I can have the working history completed by the end of next summer!

The story telling of Praying Mantis in second person does need a lot of work. I hope I do not offend anyone with my attempts at comic relief. For those who have read parts of this work, understand that these are very short versions, with much of the body of the story left out.

Thank you again brothers for all of your help in advance and for what you have contributed so far.

Peace

Namaste.

[Ericsepishii]

Good News indeed about you being able to regain your "missing / lost" information.

Just remember to make back up copies as you
progress - just in case - and the more often
you update your back up copy the better.

I'm sure that when all is said and done,
the Northern (all styles) Mantis community
will be greatly indebted to you and those
who have helped you with this project.

Keep up the great work and Thank you.