The Way of Balance A Guide to Tai Chi Chuan

This book focuses on the Yang style 24-form, a shortened routine created in 1956 by acommittee of master practitioners under the auspices of China’s National Physical Cultureand Sports Commission. Their goal was pragmatic: distill the traditional Yang long form(108 movements) into a sequence accessible to beginners yet deep enough for lifelongpractice. The result – sometimes called the Bejing Form or the Simplified Form – is nowthe most widely practiced Tai Chi routine on earth.
Its popularity is well earned. The 24-form contains all the essential postures of Yang-styleTai Chi – ward-off, rollback, press, push, single whip, cloud hands – arranged in a logicalprogression that takes roughly five to six minutes to perform at a moderate pace. It is shortenough to memorize within a few months, yet rich enough to reward decades ofrefinement.