Chen Laojia Yilu
陳氏太極拳老架一路
The foundational form of Chen-style tai chi and the first a student learns. It alternates long slow passages with sudden fajin releases, and contains stamps and jumps.
Quick Facts
💡 Key Tip
Fajin cannot be forced by will — it comes from release, not from tension. Anyone who pushes into it with strength gets a jerk, not a discharge.
About this Form
The name is descriptive: laojia means old frame, yilu first routine. It is the form everyone in the Chen line practises, and at the same time the clearest demonstration of how Chen style differs from the others. The Yang form is equally slow from beginning to end; here the tempo changes. Long continuous passages working the spiralling coil of the body are broken by sudden releases called fajin — in a single instant the movement discharges into a strike, a stamp or a throw. The form has some 74 movements and a run takes about thirteen minutes. It contains elements the other family styles lack entirely: stamping the ground with both feet, a jump with a turn, and several low positions with the knee close to the floor. That is why it is the most physically demanding of all traditional tai chi forms, and why Yang style is usually recommended to older beginners instead. The shape of the form was settled by the Chen family in the village of Chenjiagou; in the twentieth century Chen Fake brought it to Beijing and made it known.