48-Form Tai Chi
四十八式太极拳
The step between the simplified 24-form and the traditional long form. It adds movements on both sides and elements from outside the Yang style.
Quick Facts
About this Form
Anyone who has the 24-form eventually meets its main limits: it is short, stays on one side, and lacks the harder elements. The 48-form was compiled precisely as the next step. It runs about nine minutes and adds three things. First symmetry — a number of movements done in the short form on one side only are practised here on both. Second, new stances and transitions, including low positions and turns absent from the 24. Third, elements from other family styles, so the form is no longer purely Yang. The order is built pedagogically: difficulty rises gradually and the demanding passages come in the second half, when the body is warm. In Chinese school and recreational practice the 24 is the first form learned and the 48 the second. For practitioners outside China it is useful because it bridges the simplified and the traditional form without changing school or style.