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The Tai Chi Chuan Yang Style "13 Postures" gathers the main movements of the traditional or classic school, involving: Form 108 and Simplified (also known as "Short Form"), as well as Sword Form "Tai Chi Chien", Sabre Form "Tai Chi Tao", and with stick "Tai Chi Kun".

This traditional Yang Style constitutes one of the branches or families of Tai Chi Chuan.
The families are five in total: Chen, Yang, Wu, Yang Wu and Sun, each one with very different charateristics.

However, even within the Yan Style we find two schools: traditional -to which we refer here-, and modern, known as "Wu Shu". The Wu Shu has shorten the traditional forms
(24, 42 and 48 movements), overlooking therefore some of the fundamental forces of Tai Chi Chuan, such as the use of the elbow (CHOU) and the pressure with the shoulder (KAO).

That is why, nowadays, modern Tai Chi Chuan or Wu Shu only counts with four Forces: PAN, LI, TSI, AN, while in the Traditional one we still have all six Forces.

The little Form introduced here as "13 Postures" involves not only the six Forces already mentioned, but other Forces such as TSAI, LU, CHI, YEET SHE SHOU.

The form of the 13 Forces is an excellent introductions to understanding immediately the
fundamental sense of the Six Classic Forces, and on the other hand, it is especially good to start with Sytle 88 of Yang family, officialy known in the Chinese sportive area as "Yun Don 88 Yang Tai Chi Chuan".
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