The 42-posture tai chi form, also called the Taijiquan Competition Form is a series of movements standardized in 1989 for international wushu competition. It combines movements drawn from the Chen, Yang, Wu, and Sun styles of traditional tai chi, and has also become a popular exercise for the general public.
In 1976, Men Huifeng of Beijing Sport University and Li Deyin of People's University created a form combining postures from those four major styles for the official Chinese Sports Committee of China, as part of a post-Cultural Revolution initiative to rehabilitate martial arts as a modern sport. This resulted in the standardized 48-posture tai chi form.
In 1989, Men and Li shortened the combined form for the purposes of competition timing and scoring, resulting in the final 42-posture sequence. Today this is the international wushu standard tai chi competition form, and it has also become popular as an exercise to improve and maintain health.
In 1990, the 42-posture form made its debut on the world stage, when wushu was for the first time included in the 11th Asian Games.
The postures are as follows: