The Five Ancestors

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The Five Ancestors is a children's series written by Jeff Stone about five, young Chinese warrior monks who are the only survivors of the destruction and raid of their home, Cangzhen Temple. Each of the warriors specializes in an animal kung fu and possesses a Cantonese animal name: Fu (Tiger), Malao (Monkey), Seh (Snake), Hok (Crane), and Long (Dragon). The warriors must seek their past and fight their former brother Ying (Eagle) and others that bring harm. Each monk will begin to uncover their own past and learn surprising facts about themselves. Betrayal, trust, friendship, and skills along the way between the monks' families, friends, and among themselves.

[edit] Plot summary

Cangzhen, meaning Hidden Truth, is a secret martial arts temple, founded by Shaolin monks, resembling Shaolin, but not as grand.

The Five Ancestors are Fu(Tiger), Malao(Monkey), Seh(Snake), Hok(Crane) and Long(Dragon), each named in Cantonese of their mastered animal Kung Fu style. All of these children and animal Kung Fu masters, who mastered their fighting styles when they were eleven. They are all orphans who must seek out their pasts, find their families and defeat their former temple "brother" Ying.

Jeff Stone lives in the Midwest with his wife, 2 kids and their pet python named Yokwan (Cantonese for Jade Bangle) and practices the martial arts daily. He has worked as a photographer, an editor, a maintenance man, a technical writer, a ballroom dance instructor, a concert promoter, and a marketing director for companies that design schools, libraries, and skateboard parks. Like the Five Ancestors, Jeff Stone was adopted as an infant. He began searching for his birth mother when he was eighteen and found her thirteen years later. Tiger is his first novel.

Ying was raised to be an Eagle fighter, though his father was killed by the Grandmaster of the temple. Both Grandmaster and Ying's father are Dragon fighters. Ying grows angry of being robbed of his true name, Saulong (meaning Vengeful Dragon) and being raised of something other than a Dragon which Ying believed he was destined to be. He joins the Emperor's army and destroys Cangzhen with his troops. He kills 101 monks in the temple, including Grandmaster, but the Five Ancestors manage to escape.

As they ran away from the temple ruins, Fu makes friends with villagers from a nearby village and teaches each child he befriends a tiger Kung Fu move, Malao helps his "brother" Hok bury Grandmaster, Seh finds his father and joins a group of bandits who he hopes can help him in his quest and Hok spies on Ying and his army. (Note: Hok is really a girl named OnYeen, which means Peaceful, even though females are not allowed into Cangzhen. She is, however, an exception, because she was asked to be in Cangzhen by her mother, Bing. By book 3, Fu and Malao all know her secret; Seh and Ying knew this fact long before the attack on Cangzhen. As Long refers to Hok as "her" in the fourth book, Crane, but never had contact with any other of the ancestors before Crane, we can assume he figured out Hok's secret without being told.) They discover in the fourth book, Crane, that Long has gone to Jinan and enlisted himself in the Jinan fight club led by a man named LaoShu. Long rose to the top and became the best fighter in the club. Long is alright and has a plan of his own.

In Ying's army, there is a man who looks like Seh and is his half-brother. This man is named Tonglong, Praying Mantis in Cantonese. He is apparently looking for the secret dragon scrolls (Each animal style has scrolls that teach the students to become masters of the style. Ying separated all the scrolls apart from the dragon scrolls and now, by book 3, Ying and Seh have one each, and AnGangseh has two. The one Seh has turns out to be a map that nobody recognizes.) for something greater than Ying's purposes, and is helping Seh's mother. The two are called Python (Mong) as the father, and AnGangseh (Cobra) as the mother. Tonglong betrays Ying in the third book, and frames him, thus causing the Emperor to be enraged and arrest Ying.

In Crane, Hok is found by Tsung (Monk, but in Mandarin) who is a leopard stylist and fights him. Tsung brings her into the temple because she loses consciousness, because of Tsung drugging her. When Hok wakes up, Shaolin is destroyed, and finds her clothes stolen. She goes out, meets Tsung again, posing as Hok, and fights him. Tsung breaks her arm, but she escapes. Later, Hok walks in a river and faints. A young Dutch man teen Charles finds her. Charles just so happens to be Hok's father's cabin boy. (Hok's father, Henrik, is the captain of a trading ship, and he too is also Dutch) He takes her to meet her mother, Bing (means Ice in Cantonese) who Hok hasn't seen in a long time, (Bing also drove out Malao's father, and Bing's brother the Monkey King, after besting his no 1 student who had formed a gang of robbers) and her little sister, GongJee (Princess in Cantonese), whom Hok has not met previously. Charles tells her that Gongjee is very smart, and can speak, in additon to Manadarian, Catonese and Dutch (Charles and Gonjee have an entire argument in Dutch during a scene in Crane). She goes to Kaifeng for the dragon boat festival. There, she reunites with Fu, Malao, and Seh.

The group was attacked by Tonglong and barely escaped, but Malao was captured. The others hid in a building. Hok was told to stay with them, but she went instead to the prison and broke Ying out in return for the knowledge of the hideout Malao was being hidden in, after fighting Tsung again, but winning with no injuries. She met Sum (Deep) and Cheen (Shallow), who cannot speak. Fu, Seh, Hok and the eel twins went to rescue Malao, but their boat was attacked. Tonglong captures Fu and AnGangseh poisons Seh. Hok tries to rescue Seh by getting him to the house of a healer named PawPaw (Grandmother). PawPaw got Sum to wake up but Seh was still unconscious. When he finally woke up PawPaw told Hok he was depressed. Then PawPaw says that Seh is blind. (This is in reference to how snakes are actually blind, but they instead see the heat in a persons body. Seh has a similar ability, sensing someones chi, or life force) Hok offers to help Seh learn to walk and defend himself and he accepts. When Seh is ready, they head towards the Jinan Fight Club, where PawPaw says Fu and Malao are being held. Seh's mother and half-brother are there too. Fu and Malao find out that Long is at the Fight Club in order to win the grand prize: a position in the Emperor's army. He explains to Fu and Malao that this is because he wants to change the Emperor's heart. At the very end, Ying saves Hok and her brother Seh from the burning fight club.

Eagle opens where Crane left off. After Hok and Seh manage to get safly into the tunnels, falling timbers from the burning fight club fall, killing LauShu (his death is later confirmed by Long and Tonglong). Ying refuses to free Fu and Malao, leaving Hok and Seh behind with their brothers. Ying finds soliders down the hall, and is forced to turn Malao and Fu for help. He frees them, on the aggreement that they will obey him. They easily take out the soliders, and Ying collects their qiangs.

The next books are (in order): Mouse (it was going to be called Praying Mantis, but the editors didn't think a 29 year old -Tonglong, the one that studies mantis martial arts- would appeal to children) and Dragon.