Who was the first person to use 7* in relationship to PM is nothing but conjecture.
But looking at the available facts may lead us to some interesting conclusions.
First of all, the absolute first time that the term 7*fist is mentioned is in General Chi’s Chuen Jing.
A book on empty hand pugilism from the Ming(1368-1644) dynasty.
This contains one of the earliest refernces to Song Taidzu’s Longfist.
It includes 24 diagrams and explanations which can best be described as abstract.
Though, many believe this Song Taidzu fist to date to the first emperor of the Song dynasty nealy 500 yearts prior to Chi I don’t think so for reasons I won’t go into now.
What is important is that;
- there is little doubt that General Chi included this form and fighting method in part of his military training
- The sonnet of 18 families in Mantis lists “Song Taidzu’s Longfist as the first”
Or we could say most important.
As an interesting side note a lot of work has been done by the Chen family Taji people to show how their style is closley related to if not the same form as the one described by General Chi.
I have spent time trying to accumulate this evidence and what I have seen so far is FAR from conclusive, though a relationship is certain, just how close is hard to determine.
The writing style used for this Longfist manuscript is completely different from any PM manuscript I have ever seen and no relationship can be found in style, choice of grammer or technique names except for the single one called 7* fist.
Here is what General Chi said,
“The hands and feet of 7* compliment each other.
When closing the distance move the lantern up and down.
Even though others have fast hands and feet like the wind.
I can still rush in with heavy cleaving.”
There are several things that strike me as relating closley to the PM I have learned.
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In the first line, not only do the hands and feet have to work together, which is actually so obviuos I wonder why he bothered to say it, but they both have a similar bent shape which resembles the 7* constellation.
This is of course, my personal conjecture, but in our “Chuen Zi” 2 man fighting our body is in the same posture as the picture. -
Here the lantern refers to a posture of holding a stick with a lantern tied to the end.
Imagine someone moving this lantern stick up and down and we see how the hands move up and down as we square off to fight.
This happens as we are moving towards our opponnent.
This is an extremey strange type of walk in our PM where the front heel creeps forward and the hands move up and down as the body prepares to attack.
It is not in any of the vid clips I showed, because you might think I was cracked if you saw it.
And yet it seems to me to be extremely effective for approaching the enemy.
Something like this exists in the beginning of duo gang.
I have no solid connection between the 7* fist of General Chi except that his long fist form is supposedly the first of Mantis and some similariteis in description between our fighting method and his abstract and archaic descriptions.
What I would like to know is who can show a clear line of training of Genearal Chi’s form and modern mantis?
