The Original Movements of Tai Ji Quan

太 極 拳 之 势

Tai Ji Quan Zhi Shi

This section lists the primary movements of Taijiquan. The names of the movements and drawings come from Secrets for Tai Ji and Refining the Elixir of Zhang Sanfeng (張 三 豐 太 極 煉 丹 秘 訣, Zhang San Feng Tai Ji Lian Dan Mi Jue), under a section titled, “The Illustrated Movements of the Seventy-Two Ways of Tai Ji Quan” (太 極 拳 七 十 二 路 圖 势, Tai Ji Quan Qi Shi Er Lu Tu Shi).

These posture images are presented to help clarify the original naming of Taijiquan movements, as so many present-day styles of Taijiquan have eliminated certain movements or, in some cases, renamed them. Most styles have rearranged the order of the movements to suit the criteria and liking of their various founders. Hence, the reason for so many varying forms of Taijiquan with shorter and longer varieties. The above-mentioned book contains 105 illustrations, but most of these are repetitive, which is why just the basic thirty-eight movements are shown here.

Another reason for presenting this list of the primary Taijiquan movements is to demonstrate the underlying function of each of them. Meaning, every movement of Taijiquan is based on one of the Eight Operations of Warding-Off, Rolling-Back, Pressing, Pushing, Pulling, Splitting, Elbowing, and Shouldering. For example, Waving Hands in Clouds is actually an operation of Rolling-Back, Lifting Hands is a Splitting operation, Brush Knee and Twist Step is based on the operation of Pulling, and so on for every alternative name for the variety of postures. Likewise, each movement will initially incorporate other operations in order to complete its action, such as Shouldering first uses the operation of Pulling to make the opponent defective so the operation of Shouldering can be applied.

All the movements of Taijiquan function like this, and equally all the movements are guided by one or more of the Five Activities to ensure central equilibrium (root) is maintained and to avoid excess and deficiency in the movements. Knowing these correlations can help Taijiquan adherents greatly, and will bring greater clarity to their practices of Sensing Hands (推 手, Tui Shou), Greater Rolling-Back (大 , Da Lu), and Dispersing Hands (散 手, San Shou) should they endeavor to learn these exercises.