The 13 postures or poses are the foundation of Tai Chi Chuan. The postures or poses include different stances, hand forms, body positions, body alignments, etc.
These postures were derived from the 8 Trigrams (the first 8 postures – energies) and the 5 Elements (the last 5 postures – steps).
The 13 postures are:
- Ward off / Expand (掤; péng)
- Roll back / Deflect (捋; lǚ)
- Press (挤; jǐ)
- Push (按; àn)
- Pluck (採; cǎi)
- Split (挒; liè)
- Elbow strike (肘; zhǒu)
- Shoulder strike (靠; kào)
- Forward / Advance (进; jìn)
- Backward / Retreat (退; tuì)
- Left (頋; gù)
- Right (盼; pàn)
- Center (定; dìng)
