Taiji Praying Mantis, also called Taiji Plum-Blossom Praying Mantis, is one of the famous Chinese boxing series.  According to  legend, Praying Mantis martial art was created by Grandmaster Wang Lang, a native of Shangdong province of China, at the turn of the Ming and Ching Dynasties.  Wang Lang ntegrated the essences of 17 famous martial art schools along with his self-developed fighting technique devised through observing a praying mantis catching cicadas.  This distinct martial art has established itself as one of the best-known martial arts in the world nowadays. Since its creation, Praying Mantis martial art has been passed on from one inheritor to another and a variety of schools or sects have emerged.  Besides Taiji Praying Mantis, there are other varieties such as Seven-Star Praying Mantis, Smooth-Board Praying Mantis, Plum-Blossom Praying Mantis, and Six Harmony Praying Mantis.  All these have certain unique characters while maintaining similar core concepts. In the early twentieth century, a native of Yexian County of  Shangdong province, Master Zhao Zhuxi, was the first person to teach Taiji Praying Mantis in Hong Kong.  Apart from Hong Kong, Master Zhao traveled to many places including southeast Asia.  Wherever he went, he taught.  Many overseas students came to Asia to be his disciples.  
As a result of this, most of the masters teaching Taiji Praying Mantis today are in fact Master Zhao’s disciples. Because of Master Zhao’s effort and skill, Taiji Praying Mantis is known worldwide. 
Master Zhao passed away in the early nineties.  Although his skill has been widely taught, books on this subject are rare. Only his disciple, Mr Tse Wing-ming had published books on ‘Bengbu’, ‘Lanjie’ and unusual weapon like ‘Fan’.
Although we are not the students of Master Chao, we are  martial art lovers.  During these decades, we have been studying and collecting all kinds of Chinese martial arts information in order to perpetuate the culture of Chinese Martial Arts. We hope the publication of these two volumes of books can help in demonstrating Master Zhao’s knowledge as well as being valuable documents for those wishing to study the Taiji Praying Mantis martial art.
The book may contain some errors and so we welcome any correction and opinion.
The book includes Badama, Wushouchui, Bengbu, Danzhai Meihua, Lanjie, Jiegen