Chen Tai Chi First Routine

Grandmaster Wang Xi’an said it to me many times during the years I studied with him in Chen Village. He would say it after a particularly grueling session, or when I would ask about learning additional forms, or when I expressed impatience with some aspect of my practice that was not developing as fast as I wanted.

“Laojia Yilu is your ultimate teacher. Everything you come to learn and understand about tai chi will be through your continuous efforts and study of this one form.”

I have been practicing Laojia Yilu every single day since I first learned it. I practice it every morning without exception. And every time I practice it, I find something new. After 57 years, I am still discovering things in this form that I had not seen before. That is not a marketing claim. It is my direct experience. And it is the most important thing I can tell you about the Chen tai chi first routine before explaining anything else.

For the complete context of where Laojia Yilu fits within the Chen style system as a whole, see our Complete Guide to Chen Style Tai Chi. This article focuses specifically on the first routine, what it is, what it contains, how to practice it, and why a single 75-movement form can genuinely occupy a practitioner for a lifetime.

What is Laojia Yilu?

Laojia Yilu translates as Old Frame First Routine. Laojia means old frame, referring to the traditional, original version of the form as passed down through the Chen family lineage. Yilu means first routine, distinguishing it from the second routine, Laojia Erlu, which is more martial and explosive in character.

The form has 75 postures, organized into 6 sections of roughly equal length. This structure makes it possible to learn and memorize the full sequence in stages, mastering each section before connecting it to the next. The 6-section structure is not arbitrary. Each section has its own character, its own technical emphasis, and its own set of challenges that build on what came before.

Laojia Yilu is the foundation of all Chen style tai chi practice. It is the first solo routine every student learns, and it is, in most cases, the most important form they will ever practice. In my daily practice, I focus primarily on Laojia Yilu. Not because I have not learned other forms, I have learned many, but because this one form contains everything. A lifetime is not enough to exhaust it.

The Form as Encyclopedia

The best way I know to describe Laojia Yilu is as an encyclopedia of tai chi.

An encyclopedia has volumes. The volumes have chapters. The chapters have sentences. The sentences have words. The words are made up of letters. When you begin learning Laojia Yilu, you are learning the encyclopedia as a whole, memorizing the full sequence from beginning to end. Once you have the complete sequence, you begin to study the volumes, the six sections. From the sections, you move to the chapters, individual sequences of movements within each section. From the chapters to individual postures. From postures to individual movements within each posture. From movements to the subtlest gestures within each movement.

And then you begin again. From the subtlest gesture back to the full form, now with a depth of understanding that was not present before. This process never ends. The encyclopedia keeps revealing more. What looked like a single word becomes a sentence. What looked like a sentence becomes a chapter. The form grows with you, or more precisely, your capacity to perceive what is already in it grows with practice.

This is why Grandmaster Wang Xi’an called it the ultimate teacher. Not because there is nothing to learn from a human teacher, there is everything to learn, but because the form itself continues to teach long after any teacher’s direct instruction has ended. The form is always available. It never withholds. Every time you practice, it offers exactly what you are ready to receive.

What Laojia Yilu Contains

The 75 postures of Laojia Yilu are not arbitrary sequences. Every posture is a self defense application, a health exercise, and an expression of tai chi principles simultaneously. Nothing in the form is decorative. Everything has purpose, and most postures have multiple purposes operating at the same time.

The three principles embodied in movement

Every posture in Laojia Yilu is an expression of the three core principles of Chen style tai chi: intention guiding movement, letting go of tension, and silk reeling. The form is, in essence, a curriculum for developing these three principles in the context of complete, connected movement sequences. You cannot practice the form correctly without working on all three principles simultaneously. This is what makes it so effective as a training method. The principles are not taught separately and then applied to the form. They are embedded in the form itself, and practicing the form is practicing the principles. For more on the three principles, see The 3 Principles of Chen Tai Chi.

Yin and yang balance

The form is a continuous study in the balance of yin and yang. Hard and soft, fast and slow, open and closed, expanding and contracting, full and empty. Every transition from one posture to the next is a transition between yin and yang states. Learning to feel these transitions, and to move through them with awareness rather than habit, is one of the deepest dimensions of form practice.

Postural alignment with gravity

Every posture in Laojia Yilu has specific alignment requirements that bring the body into correct relationship with gravity. When the body is aligned with gravity, tension is unnecessary because the skeleton is supporting the body’s weight. When the body is out of alignment with gravity, tension is chronic because the muscles are constantly compensating for structural imbalance. Practicing the form daily gradually corrects postural imbalances accumulated over a lifetime, often resolving chronic pain conditions in the process. For more on the standing and alignment principles, see Tai Chi: The Art of Standing.

Whole body movement

Perhaps the most fundamental teaching of Laojia Yilu is how to move the whole body as one integrated unit. In most people’s normal movement, different parts of the body move independently of each other. The arms move independently of the legs. The upper body is disconnected from the lower body. Tai chi practice, through the form, systematically trains the body to move as one piece, every part connected to every other part, every movement initiated from the center and expressed through the periphery. This whole body integration is what produces tai chi’s characteristic internal power and what makes the health benefits so comprehensive.

Self defense applications

Every posture in Laojia Yilu is a self defense technique or a combination of techniques. The applications include strikes, joint locks, throws, sweeps, and methods for neutralizing and redirecting force. Studying these applications is not optional for serious practitioners. Understanding what each posture is doing in a self defense context is essential for understanding how to practice it correctly. When you know what a movement is for, you practice it differently than when you are simply repeating a shape. The martial intent gives the movement its internal quality.

How to Practice Laojia Yilu

The approach to practicing Laojia Yilu changes at different stages of development, but certain principles apply throughout a lifetime of practice.

In the beginning: memorize first

The first priority is memorization. You must know the complete sequence well enough to practice it alone, without anyone to follow, before genuine learning can begin. Until you can practice independently, you are borrowing the form from whoever is in front of you. Once you can practice alone, you own it. And only then can you begin to go deeper into it.

This phase requires many hours of repetition. Following your teacher’s movement, practicing each section countless times, building the sequence into your body through sheer repetition. During this phase, focus on accuracy, on learning the correct shapes of the postures and the correct sequence of transitions. Do not worry yet about the deeper dimensions. Build the container first. The deeper content will come.

Developing quality: softness and smoothness

Once the form is memorized, the focus shifts to quality. Specifically: how softly and smoothly can you move? This is the question that occupies the next phase of practice, and it is a question that never fully resolves. There is always more softness available, always more smoothness possible.

Softness means the progressive release of unnecessary tension from every movement. Smoothness means eliminating the hesitations, jolts, and dead spots where movement stops before the next one begins. Working on softness and smoothness develops silk reeling, the continuous spiraling whole body movement that is the physical hallmark of Chen style tai chi. For more on silk reeling, see our dedicated article on Tai Chi Silk Reeling.

The daily practice

Laojia Yilu must be practiced daily. Not weekly. Not three times a week. Daily. This is not a preference. It is how this kind of learning actually works. The nervous system learns through consistent daily repetition. You cannot compress the benefits of daily practice into occasional intensive sessions any more than you can eat a week’s worth of food in one meal.

During each practice session, bring your full intention to every movement. Not going through the motions, not practicing on autopilot, but genuinely present with every tiny detail of every gesture. This is the quality of practice that produces development. A single practice session with full attention is worth more than ten sessions done mechanically.

Training with a partner

At a certain stage of development, it becomes essential to find a training partner to study the self defense applications of the form. Application practice challenges your level of skill in ways that solo practice cannot. When you apply a technique against a real person, whether it works or not tells you something about your practice that a mirror or a video cannot.

The spirit of application training is cooperation, not competition. The goal is mutual development, not victory. Both partners learn more from genuine cooperative exploration than from trying to defeat each other.

What Laojia Yilu Develops

The consistent daily practice of Laojia Yilu develops an extraordinary range of qualities, physical and otherwise.

Physically: strength, endurance, flexibility, balance, coordination, and the whole body integration that produces genuine internal power. The form works every muscle group and every joint in the body. Practiced correctly, it is among the most comprehensive physical training methods that exists.

Internally: the cultivation of qi circulation improves steadily with consistent practice. The opening and closing movements of the joints, the silk reeling spiral movements, and the alignment with gravity all contribute to improved circulation of both blood and vital energy throughout the body. This produces the health benefits that tai chi is known for: reduced chronic pain, improved joint health, better cardiovascular function, and stronger immune response.

Mentally: the concentration required by serious form practice develops a quality of focus and present-moment awareness that transfers to every area of life. The intention that drives movement in the form is the same intention that drives effective action in the world. Practicing it daily makes it stronger. Many practitioners report that the mental clarity and decisiveness that develop through form practice are among the most valuable benefits they receive.

In terms of character: the patience required to learn a 75-movement form, the self discipline to practice it daily regardless of mood or circumstance, the humility to be a beginner again every time the form reveals a new layer, all of these build something in a person that cannot be developed any other way. Grandmaster Wang Xi’an embodied this completely. His patience, his precision, his absolute dedication to the form, these were inseparable from his extraordinary skill. The form made him what he was. It will do the same for any practitioner who gives themselves to it fully.

A Note on Learning Multiple Forms

Students sometimes ask me about learning additional forms, weapons forms, or the second routine, Laojia Erlu, before they have thoroughly developed Laojia Yilu. My answer is always the same as Grandmaster Wang Xi’an’s answer was to me: focus on Laojia Yilu first.

This is not because the other forms are not valuable. They are. But breadth without depth produces nothing of lasting value. A practitioner who knows five forms superficially will never develop the skill of a practitioner who knows one form deeply. Laojia Yilu contains everything. Give it everything you have. The other forms will wait.

Frequently Asked Questions About Laojia Yilu

How long does it take to learn the Laojia Yilu form?

Most students can memorize the complete 75-movement sequence within six months to a year of consistent practice with a qualified teacher. Learning the form and genuinely knowing the form are different things. Memorizing the sequence is the beginning. Understanding it deeply takes years of daily practice. And as Grandmaster Wang Xi’an told me, everything you come to understand about tai chi will come through your continuous study of this one form, over a lifetime.

Can I learn Laojia Yilu from video?

Video instruction can introduce you to the sequence and help you maintain and review what you have learned from a teacher. But the internal qualities that make Laojia Yilu work, the silk reeling, the genuine letting go, the quality of intention, cannot be transmitted through video. A teacher who can observe your practice and give you direct feedback is essential, at least in the early stages. The form can be memorized from video. It cannot be learned from video.

Why 75 postures and 6 sections?

The 75 postures of Laojia Yilu represent the complete curriculum of Chen style tai chi as established by the Chen family lineage. Every technique, every principle, every health application is represented within those 75 postures. The 6-section structure reflects both the natural arc of the form’s development and the practical reality of learning such a complex sequence in manageable stages.

Is Laojia Yilu suitable for beginners with no martial arts background?

Yes, absolutely. Laojia Yilu is the starting point for all Chen style practice regardless of background. The form was designed to teach everything from the beginning, and it does so in a sequence that builds logically from simpler movements to more complex ones. What matters is not your background but your commitment to daily practice and your willingness to learn from a qualified teacher.