Standard Simplified Taijiquan 24 Form. Research by Michael P. Garofalo, M.S. This webpage includes a detailed bibliography of books, media, links, online videos, articles, and resources. It provides a list of the 24 movement names in English, Chinese, French, German and Spanish, with citations for sources of the movement names. It provides detailed descriptions of each movement with black and white line illustrations and photographs. It includes relevant quotations, notes, performance times, section breakdowns, basic Tai Chi principles, and strategies for learning the form. This hypertext document was last last updated in December of 2017.
The Peking (Bejing) Chinese National orthodox standard simplified 24 movement T'ai Chi Ch'uan form, created in 1956, is the most popular form practiced all around the world. This form uses the Yang Style of Taijiquan.
There is also a famous short Tai Chi Chuan form, created by Professor Cheng Man-ch'ing in the 1940's. It has 37 movements in the Yang Style of Taijiquan.
My 24 Form webpage provides many good suggestions for a person learning this basic Tai Chi Chuan Form of 24 movements on their own if there is no Tai Chi class in their area.
I started learning Taijiquan in 1986. I was taught the Standard 24 Movement T'ai Chi Ch'uan Form in the Yang Style of T'ai Chi Ch'uan. I learned it from Aikido Sensei Frank McGourick in Whittier, California.
In 1986, were no books or instructional videotapes on this popular form. In 2019, there are dozens of books and instructional DVDs, videotapes, UTube demonstrations by women and men, streaming content, and scores of webpages on the subject of the 24 Taijiquan Form.
Sensei McGourick also taught me the standard Long Form of the Yang Style of Tai Chi Chuan. You hit the floor a lot in Aikido, it is vigorous, and it is very challenging for anyone, and it was too hard for me. So, being a man in his 40's, and working 50 hours a week as a library administrator of 22 libraries in the busy and growing San Gabriel Valley, I practiced only Taijiquan and Qigong at the Aikido Ai Dojo in Whittier with Dr. Robert Moore and Sensei McGourick.
The most detailed book that I have seen on the subject of the 24 Form is:
The Yang Taiji 24 Step Short Form: A Step by Step Guide for All Levels
By James Drewe. London, Singing Dragon Press, 2011. 382 pages, black and white photographs, charts, detailed descriptions, training tips.
I give information on many other fine books by other good authors on the Basic 24 Tai Chi Chuan Form in my webpage. Find books by Andrew Townsend, Cheng Zhao, Foen Tjoeng Lie, Eric Chaline, Le Deyin, etc.
Many persons have told me that their favorite instructional DVD on the 24 Form is: Tai Chi - The 24 Forms By Dr. Paul Lam. I attended Dr. Lam's Tai Chi for Arthritis workshop in Monterey, California; and later workshops on Sun Tai Chi with other Bay Area teachers. I am also quite fond of using instructional DVDs by Master Jessie Tsao from San Diego.
I have played and practiced this form with many different persons and groups over three decades. The many slight variations are fun to play and observe. Taijiquan is a very pleasant and satisfying group exercise, dance, marital arts, and choreographed body-mind movements class. Taijiquan and Qigong provide an excellent fitness class for seniors to help them with aging well. I have practiced this Basic 24 Form with different groups in the Vancouver and Portland areas, and for many years around Red Bluff, CA.
At age 79, I can do quite a few repetitions of the form during any day. I warm up with Qigong and limbering up movements, if needed, before practicing the 24 Form. I make adjustments necessitated because of my former injuries, falls, surgeries, and decreasing balance skills. I like to play with the named movement sequences in ways outside of the 24 form choreography, e.g., HsingI type forward drills using Yang postures, changing directions to accommodate indoor practice near furniture, faster movements with intermittent fajing, etc. I also think about the martial applications of defense or offense, following the Teacher and group members so to achieve a coordinated beauty in the performance style desired, the courtesies and comradeship of the practice team, Taijiquan principles, etc.
I try my best to try to learn, and relearn, and unlearn.
"At this period of wushu, the Nanking Central Kuoshu Institute in 1956 tasked the choreography of a Taijiquan routine what would be more suitable for popular dissemination among the masses, in keeping with the government's egalitarian agenda. The traditional forms were just too long and time consuming to practice, and the traditional methods too arcane and demanding for mass propagation. The challenge was to reduce the one hundred-odd movements of the traditional Yang Style Taijiquan, prevalent then, to its core, by removing the many repetitive movements as well as the less essential ones. Thus, the 24-Form Taijiquan set was created. Instrumental in this simplification effort was Li Tianji (1913-1996) who had been appointed a wushu research fellow at the Institute. Under official auspices, the 24-Form Taijiquan quickly became the standard form, taught throughout China as part of physical education curriculum in schools and colleges. It is perhaps the best know Taijiquan form in the world today. As widespread as it is, the 24-Form is at best an abridged version of the traditional Yang form, a synopsis of the art."
- C. P. Ong, Taijiquan: Cultivating Inner Strength
, 2013, p. 7. Lift the head, stand strong and balanced, move gracefully.
Imagine resistance, water boxing, dealing with an opponent, pushing hands.
Be loose and relaxed, avoid over-exertion, use coiling energy.
Keep moving, flowing, shaping yourself in body-mind.
Shoulders down, gentle breathing, dignified bearing.
Stylish, artistic, beautiful, sensuous, dancing, formal.
Yin more than Yang, soft over hard, water over stone, gentle over muscular.
Follow the Teacher, coordinate, create unity, act as one.
