Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.
Copyright © 2012 John Fusco
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fusco, John.
Little monk and the mantis: a bug, a boy, and the birth of a kung fu legend/John Fusco; with art by Patrick Lugo.
p. cm.
Summary: A young monk at the Shaolin Temple develops a new style of self-defense after spending the summer alone in the Song Mountains and observing a small praying mantis battling a much larger beetle. Based on the seventeenth-century legend of Wong Long and the founding of praying mantis kung fu.
ISBN: 978-1-4629-0886-8 (ebook)
[1. Kung fu--Fiction. 2. Monks--Fiction.] I. Lugo, Patrick, ill. II. Title.
PZ7.F966657Li 2012
[E]--dc23
2011043962
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Long ago in Old China, at the foot of Song Mountain, sat a quiet place called the Shaolin Temple. Shaolin was a monastery where monks lived in peace, tending to gardens and praying by candle and leaving no tracks where they walked. There were student monks, big brothers, uncles, and the master monks—wise old men like Master Feng.
And then there was Wong Long, the small orphan boy who was left on the steps on a long night in the Year of the Monkey.
Wong Long loved his life in Shaolin Temple. He loved lighting the incense for Master Feng; he loved feeding the birds and learning their songs as he walked the mountain trails to gather tea leaf. He even liked sweeping snow from the temple steps. But mostly he loved Kung Fu.
“Kung Fu,” said Master Feng, “is a gift from our grandfather monks, an ancient secret that we practice to keep our minds at peace and our bodies strong.”
Wong Long knew that his beloved temple had been burned down by bandits and raiders many times in the past. But the monks always forgave the enemy and rebuilt their walls. They did not want to fight, only to defend the child monks and the old ones and the pagodas where they buried the priests. For all life was sacred to a Shaolin monk. Wong Long was taught that the secret ways of Kung Fu were hidden deep in nature. Each monk chose an animal style and studied the ways of that creature so that he might move like it and understand its being and become part of nature as he practiced. This was called the
Five Animal styles of Shaolin. It was said that it took half a lifetime to master even one animal.
And so the monks would practice. Practice. Practice. And practice. And when they were done at the end of each day, Master Feng would say, “Practice some