Learn Tai Chi Online
With a Clear, Self-Paced Path

Stillness first, structure second

Standing practice (zhan zhuang) is the shared foundation of the internal arts: still, unglamorous, and easy to get wrong in ways you cannot see. This course begins with Wuji standing - feet parallel, arms hanging, nothing posed - and stays there for two weeks, because a frame has to hold before anything is added to it. The third week introduces the holding-the-ball posture and the difference between it and Wuji; the fourth turns the whole thing into a routine you can keep. Sessions start at three to five minutes and build to twenty, following the guidance the Health Qigong Management Centre of China gives beginners. Each week pairs one lesson with a daily practice and a single check you can run yourself.

Curriculum — 4 modules

Balance, knee safety, and the step under every form

Taiji stepping is not exercise walking. The weight is completely on one leg before the other moves, which is why it builds balance and why it is gentle on the knees when it is done correctly. Four weeks, twelve short sessions: standing and weight shift, bow and empty stance, forward and backward and sideways steps, then a continuous walk. The frame taught here is the standardised Yang high frame used by the 8-, 16- and 24-form sets.

Curriculum — 3 modules

The 1956 national standard, built from Yang style

The Simplified 24-Step Yang Style form is practiced by millions worldwide. This program goes beyond surface-level choreography to teach the internal principles behind each posture: Silk Reeling energy, Kua opening, Central Equilibrium, and the distinction between substantial and insubstantial. Each section is broken into weekly milestones with clear movement-quality checkpoints.

Curriculum — 4 modules

The method under every set

Baduanjin, the six healing sounds, the five animals, the muscle-tendon classic, standing post and the Tai Chi forms all assume the same four things. This course teaches them, without adding another form. Four weeks: the three regulations, natural abdominal breathing and its three common errors, attention and the closing routine, then how to practise alone and judge progress without chasing sensations.

Curriculum — 3 modules

Your First Complete Short Form

The Eight-Form condenses the essential grammar of Tai Chi into a sequence you can hold in memory within days. Every posture reuses vocabulary from Wuji stance — empty and full legs, waist-led arms, sink and lift — so completing this course means you have practiced, not just read, the principles. It is the ideal bridge from standing work to the 16- and 24-forms, and a full-body practice you can run in under three minutes.

Curriculum — 3 modules

The Bridge to the Long Forms

The 16-Form is our own structured bridge between the Eight-Form and the full 24. It selects the highest-value postures — brush knee, single whip, cloud hands, the kick family — so that every movement you learn earns double value later. Because the form is short, you can afford to drill it at real depth: alignment per posture, breath per transition, application glimpse per technique.

Curriculum — 3 modules

The standing set taught in clinics and health-qigong sites

Ten units in two months: the preparatory posture, the eight movements, and the closing. Each movement is broken into what to do, the mistake it attracts and the correction, plus its breath. The sequence follows the 2026 group standard, so the order can be followed as written. The set takes about twelve minutes at full length, which is why it fits a daily practice.

Curriculum — 3 modules

Tiger, Deer, Bear, Ape, Bird

Wu Qin Xi (五禽戏) imitates five animals to build five distinct movement qualities: a tiger’s forceful reach, a deer’s twisting stretch, a bear’s heavy swaying roll, an ape’s quick playful scatter, and a bird’s one-legged soaring. In traditional theory each animal is associated with a different part of the body; the bird form takes its shape from the crane, so the crane is the model rather than the name of the movement. Each animal is a two-movement section, and the set is 12 movements in total once the opening adjustment and the closing return are counted. The version taught today was organized and developed by experts convened by the national health qigong center, in the same framework as Ba Duan Jin.

Curriculum — 3 modules

Twelve movements of pulling and loading

Fourteen units across two months: a preparation, twelve movements and a closing. The set is more demanding than Ba Duan Jin. Wei Tuo opens the shoulders, Pluck the Star and the Nine Ghosts work the spine and shoulder blades, Three Plates loads the legs, and the last two movements fold forward - where the range of motion takes weeks to arrive and where the contraindications matter. Every card carries the mistake the movement attracts and the correction, plus its breath.

Curriculum — 3 modules

Six Sounds with Breath, Movement and Self-Massage

Liu Zi Jue (Six Healing Sounds) pairs a vowel-like sound and a distinct mouth shape with the exhale. The sound lengthens the breath, the movement opens the chest, ribs and waist, and the self-massage follows the same lines traditional practice has always used. It is the simplest of the health qigong sets to learn, needs no standing balance, and can be practised lying down. Traditional theory pairs each sound with an organ system; that is a historical framework rather than a medical claim, and here the six sounds are used as a practice of breath and attention.

Curriculum — 3 modules

The 14-Form Standing Set from the Mawangdui Silk Manuscript

Excavated in 1972–73 from Tomb 3 at Mawangdui (the tomb of Lady Xin Zhui, dated c. 168 BCE), the silk manuscript known as the Daoyin Tu (导引图, "Guiding-Pulling Chart") depicts 44 daoyin exercises as a therapeutic system, with named animals and indications. It is the oldest known Chinese exercise manual — roughly 2,200 years old. This course works through the 14 standing forms that survive in later lineages as the standard Mawangdui set, each with the common mistakes that instruction usually skips and the corrections handed down alongside them. Daoyin (引导术, also written 导引术) means "guiding and pulling": the limbs are led, the breath follows, and the body is drawn gently through its range.

Curriculum — 4 modules

Twelve Classic-Name Movements for Organ Health

Daoyin Yangsheng Gong (导引养生功十二法) was organized and created by the National Fitness Qigong Center of China’s General Administration of Sport, with the research carried out by Beijing Sport University. Its twelve forms were selected from the fifty-plus daoyin yangsheng sets that Professor Zhang Guangde has developed and promoted since 1974. Its twelve forms carry classical names — Old Steed Pawing at the Stall (老骥伏枥), Ji Chang Threads the Flea (纪昌贯虱), Wild Goose Landing on Level Sand (平沙落雁), White Crane on a Cloud (云端白鹤) — and behind each name sits a concrete purpose: a specific organ pair, a meridian line, and a joint that must turn. The whole set is short enough to complete in one sitting and works at a light-to-moderate intensity, built on three rules: every movement spirals (逢动必旋), intention and shape arrive together (意形结合), and breath follows movement without forcing (动息相随). It is the most complete "second set" a beginner can own — richer than Ba Duan Jin, gentler than any tai chi form.

Curriculum — 4 modules

The duanwei level-two sword set, from the salute to the close

Nineteen units across two months: the salute and carry, a starting posture, sixteen movements, and a closing. Short and symmetrical, about three to four minutes at full length, and deliberately simpler than the 32- or 42-form sword. Week one teaches nothing but the grip, the sword finger and the salute, because a blade in the hand changes everything else. A blunt practice sword and two metres of clear space are required before the first movement.

Curriculum — 4 modules

The 1957 set, and the sword form most people meet first

Thirty-five units across two months: a standing preparation, a starting posture, thirty-two movements and a closing. The first sixteen movements are the same sequence as the sixteen-form sword, so the first month doubles as revision. After that the set grows busier: three parries in a row, a reverse thrust, a wheel, a full turn with a horizontal cut, and a straight thrust to finish. Three minutes at full length, and no jumping.

Curriculum — 4 modules

A changquan weapon, fast on purpose

Thirty-five units across two months: a preparation with the sword cradled, a long starting sequence, thirty-two movements in four sections, and a closing. This is the first non-Taiji course on the site. The routine is changquan in manner - fast, forceful, with two kicks - so it is taught as what it is, not softened into Tai Chi. Learn the two wraps properly in week one: they recur fourteen times and everything after them becomes repetition.

Curriculum — 4 modules

Standing Set · 8 Forms for Mild to Moderate Primary Hypertension

This course is the complete standing set of an official fitness qigong exercise prescription for mild to moderate primary hypertension, developed by a team led by Prof. Hu Xiaofei at Beijing Sport University and commissioned by the National Fitness Qigong Center of the General Administration of Sport of China together with the Chinese Health Qigong Association. Eight forms, bookended by a preparation sequence and a closing sequence, are practised as one continuous routine at the pace of long, even abdominal breathing — about five to six breaths per minute. Members get a form-by-form breakdown: a looping reference clip for every form, the hand path and stance, where to hold the attention, and the source safety guidance. The set is complementary practice: it does not replace medication or medical follow-up, and it is not a treatment for hypertension.

Curriculum — 4 modules

Main Set · 8 Forms for Neck, Shoulder and Lower-Back Maintenance

This course is the main set from an official fitness qigong spinal-balance prescription introduced in 2022, developed by a team led by Dr. Yang Yubing at Beijing Sport University and commissioned by the National Fitness Qigong Center of the General Administration of Sport of China together with the Chinese Health Qigong Association. Eight forms work the whole spinal column in sequence — neck, mid-back, lower back and sacrum — for the neck, shoulder and lower-back discomfort that builds up through long hours of sitting. The full prescription also includes four part-specific sets; this course covers the main set, which is the sequence written for general daily practice. Members get a form-by-form breakdown with looping reference clips, the three breathing techniques this set uses and where each one applies, the four mistakes that take the practice out of alignment, and the source safety guidance. It is supportive care for everyday spinal maintenance, not a substitute for orthopaedic or rehabilitation assessment.

Curriculum — 4 modules

Eight postures built on the oldest idea in Chinese movement

Ten entries in eleven lessons: the preparatory posture, the eight postures, and the closing. Each posture is broken into what to do, the mistake it attracts and the correction, plus how the breath sits inside it. Da Wu is the one standardised set built openly on dance. The name is ancient — 罗泌《路史》 records 阴康氏 teaching people to dance in order to loosen and lead the body, and that is where the term comes from. What is taught here is the modern state-compiled routine (People’s Sports Publishing House, 2010), with research carried out at Wuhan Sports University, not a folk or family version. Two things are taught with care because they are the places people get hurt or get lost: 震体势 strikes the body and must be a light tap under its own weight, never a blow; 抻腰势 takes the head below the heart and is reduced or left out if you have high blood pressure, dizziness or a balance problem. Both are flagged at the posture, not buried in a disclaimer.

Curriculum — 5 modules