Taijiquan 24 Form | Tai Chi Peking Form | ☯👊24🗺
I did not find a free licensed visualization of the 24 Taijiquan Peking form that I’ve been learning for 30 years now. So I started sketching a rough version myself.
This is sorted into four parts which each return to the starting position, so you can train with them continuously in a fixed space.
These sketches are from memory and imperfect low quality, and the training PDF by the Akademie Krefeld is more precise, but this here is vertical, so you see the movement, and free licensed under cc by-sa (compatible with Wikipedia) with inkscape source file, so you can edit and work with it.
Some sketches here appear unbalanced. That’s a drawing error I made. I may fix those parts when I get to it. If a movement here seems strange, doublecheck it with the training PDF linked above.
What helped me the most in finally learning the last steps of the form was the video Two people mirror Tai Chi form 24. It shows a version of the form that works well with knees which are no longer 20 — learning that gives you a skill you can use your whole life.
The four loops
The loops each come roughly from the starting position to the first repeated stance: one of the first and the last stance are the same.
This is my own rough structuring.
These are the steps I use to remember the movements. They show different points in time than the official ones, because those help me more and capture what I needed to understand. Enough with the disclaimers. I hope these help you. Have fun!
The emphasized parts are shortened original namings of the form.
- Push paralell, push anti-paralell, then defensive backwards, counter paralell.
Push the wild horses mane, brush-knee, push-hands, repulse like a monkey, grasp the sparrow’s tail. - Turn, push paralell, push, turn
push, twist to the right, graps the sparrows tail, push, twist to the left. - turn with the whip, step sideways, pat, kick, hit ears, turn, kick, creep down and stand.
beak whip, wave hands like clouds, beak whip, pat the horse, kick right, box ears, turn, kick left, snake creeps through the grass and stand, twice. - Gaze up right, touch down, gaze up left, touch down, both sides, turn, deflect, punch, turn to starting, join hands, close.
fair lady works the shuttle, needle at the bottom of the sea, repeat both, fan through the back, parry deflect and punch, apparent closing push, crossing hands.
I’m currently walking the full form roughly twice a day. One of these is usually just before going to bed. It helps me get back from the screen into my body and the real world.
Source for editing: 2023-11-11-taijiquan-form-teil-1-vertikal.svg
This is the complete 24 form in 146 sketches.