I started off this article 'Pluck the Star Exhange the Moon' with the intention of showing the relationship of the description of a unique technique of the Bengbu form, namely Pluck the Star Exhange the Moon, to a military manual that has been required reading for the exams since the early Song Dynasty called Tai Gung’s Six Secret Teachings.
I thought that it was interesting since the book Tai Gung’s Six Secret Teachings also contains the earliest mention of Praying Mantis in a military context.
One hundred and sixty Spear and Halberd Fu-Xu Light Chariots [for repelling] night invaders from the fore. Each carries three Praying Mantis Martial Knights. The Art of War refers to them as mounting ‘thunder attacks.’ They are used to penetrate solid formations, to defeat both infantry and cavalry.
(wrote about last month in Two Thousand Years of Mantis Warriors
Sad to say, that I have been so busy and the details of this article got away from me that I ended up having to cut the article a little short. I did not have the chance to show the connection between this month's article and the book Tai Gung’s Six Secret Teachings. Maybe I will save it for later.
What I ended up doing is try to show a relationship between technqiues that we of this era train and what was taught back when Sheng Xiao wrote his manual.
There is often a lot of conversation on what was Sheng Xiao Dao Ren taught and what did he teach. This because several schools of Praying Mantis list him as the student of Wang Lang. On going through his book and trying to connect what he did I came up with this month's article. Pluck the Star Exhange the Moon
My belief is that in trying to connect our techniques of the present with those of the past the names of the techniques become very important.
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Originally Posted by mooyingmantis
