8-Form Tai Chi

Quick Facts

About the kata

According to Chinese sources, the 8-Movement Form (八式太极拳, Ba shi taijiquan) was compiled by experts convened for the purpose by the Chinese Wushu Association together with the Wushu Administration Centre of the State General Administration of Sport. It serves as the basic test form for the first duan (一段) in the Chinese wushu technical grade system, which is why the Jianshu portal also calls it the "first-duan fist". The eight positions go in this order: Repulse Monkey (dao juan gong), Brush Knee and Step (lou xi ao bu), Wild Horse Parts Its Mane (ye ma fen zong), Cloud Hands (yun shou), Golden Rooster Stands on One Leg (jin ji du li), Heel Kick (deng jiao), Grasp the Bird's Tail (lan que wei), and Cross Hands (shi zi shou). With the opening and closing, that makes ten parts, which is why some sources speak of ten positions. The annotation of a teaching book and video with world champion Chen Sitan states that each movement is practised separately on the spot, symmetrically to the left and to the right. Jianshu derives the movements from the large-frame Yang style and gives about two minutes at a medium tempo, though a few lines lower it gives a minute and a half. We have not been able to establish more about the form.

The kata in different styles

Creator and history

The academy tjqworld.com writes that the form was meant to make taijiquan accessible to as wide a public as possible, an easy-to-learn, scientifically grounded exercise, with experts selecting typical movements based on taijiquan's basic features. The Chinese Wikipedia places it among the so-called state forms (八式, 十六式, 二十四式, 三十二式, 四十二式, 四十八式 and 八十八式), gradually created from 1957 by the wushu research institute of the state physical culture committee, with the Yang style as basis. We have not found the year the 8-Movement Form was created in Chinese sources; the American site taichilearningcenter.com gives 1999, without naming an author.

Differences between styles

The 8-Movement Form is followed by the 16-Position Form, the test form for the second duan: per the annotation of Eight and Sixteen Positions of Taijiquan, it builds on the eight, is practised in two sections, and is shorter than the 24-Position Form. Tai Chi Notebook describes the same progression from eight through sixteen to twenty-four positions, adding that anyone who knows the twenty-four learns both shorter forms easily. Per the Jianshu portal, long forward stances (gong bu) predominate in the eight, with hand movements deriving from the four basic techniques of ward-off, roll-back, press and push (peng, lü, ji, an).

Floor pattern (embusen)

According to the Tai Chi Notebook blog, Repulse Monkey is practised entirely on the spot, both Brush Knee and Step and Wild Horse Parts Its Mane include a 180-degree turn, and Cloud Hands makes one step to the left and one to the right. Most positions are performed first to one side and then mirrored to the other; for Repulse Monkey, Brush Knee, Golden Rooster, Heel Kick and Grasp the Bird's Tail, the right side starts first, while for Wild Horse and Cloud Hands it is the left.