Origins of 7*

[MantisCool]

Doesnt Tong Long Bou Sihm means Mantis catching the cicada? Does it mean Bou can also be embraced? Embrace and catch are 2 different things altogether!

Over here, now or in the past I never heard of the story of putting a jade cicada in the mouth of the dead? We only put coins and bags of coins on the body to keep the body from arising!

[Tainan Mantis]

Mantis Cool,
Maybe different customs in your country.

Also a fish was put in the mouth of the deceased.

This was items I witnessed for sale at the antique market and jade market in Tainan.

Before I sent in the story I used
"A DICTIONARY OF CHINESE SYMBOLS"
By Wolfram Eberhard

As my reference.
This is a very old custom that doesn't exist now adays.
I got this book because it has helped with translating 18 Luohan Gung.
That book has reference to many old customs, sayings and even novels that date to at least the Yuan dynasty.

Tang Lang Bu Chan.
I translate it as Mantis siezes the cicada.

It is the 7th move of the 7 manuevers from Meng Su.

[mantis108]

I have a book about jades and I have seen some of those kind of jabes. It is true that jade was used in ancient time in burial customs. In the old days jabe is a very broad category. It was not exclusive to only the green ones (largely imported to China) that we think of as jade.

Tainan's wife definitely has the best interest of her huddy in mind. Lots of old Chinese don't really want to handle those stuff. But collectors are crazy about them. The red coloring is indeed blood stains. They used to cover all sevens holes (eight for women) of the deceased with jade pieces. BTW, nose counts as one hole. It is hard to know which hole that jade was covering. So becareful of what you are touching. Of course if you are comfortable with that, then by all means.

The character for catches in Mantis catches Cicada generally is the same as "apprehend" (Bao?). It sounds somewhat like Bao (embracing). A similar sounding character would be use which means "jumping on" (Pu?). In Cantonese, Bo Seem (apprehend/catch/seize) and Pok Seem (jumping on). Actually, Pu is a bit more literally pleasing because it is used to describe ladies catching butterflies (Pu die). It is supposedly a very romantic activity once upon a time where they would accidentally bump into a handsome scholar or two and they live happily ever after. (like it ever gonna happen, lol...)

Mantis108

[mantis108]

About the numerology, it can be mostly found in the I Ching ( the Classic of Changes or the book of Changes). There many excellent work analyzing it in Chinese. It is difficult to read in its original form even for most Chinese people. So many scholars had " translated" and explained the I Ching in modern Chinese language. In the west, I believe the Germans would have some very interesting work about the subject. The translations in English that I have come across IMHO are sorry to say superficial at best. They mainly focus on translating the 64 hexigrams. The numerology and other important concepts are found in the so-called 10 wings of I Ching which were compiled by Confucius. I have not come across translations about the 10 wings which is the core of the I Ching study (with Confucius perspective). There are also Taoist work on the I Ching which has a slightly different take on certian matter. But that's a long story. Anyway, do a search on the web. You might found something interesting to begin with.

On a side note, I am working on an article about the relationship between Chinese pugilistic methodology and numerology. I might include information on PM forms (mainly TJPM). this would take a while to finish though.

Mantis108