Oh, I see. Hmm, I don't think I can help a whole lot. All I know is that there are a variety of styles out there and each has its own set of forms. I'm not completely sure how many or which ones have been standardized into the National Style. The 24 and 48 posture forms I mentioned were part of that government standardization if I'm not mistaken. There's also a book called _New-Style Tai Chi Ch'Uan : The Offical Chinese System_ that has an 82 posture form. From what I gather on a quick skim of the sample pages of the book at Amazon.com, this is supposed to be an expansion of the 48 posture form. It doesn't say that specifically, but it mentions the 24 form, a second revision, and that this new one builds from the second one. That second one should be the 48 form if I'm not mistaken. BTW, I don't have this book because it's the only place I've heard of this third standardized form; I'm uncertain on whether or not to trust it as a true source unlike books I have by the China Sports board (or something). I thought the 88 step form was a Yang style one and not specifically a national thing, but I don't really know. It's hard to keep track of all the styles, forms, and number of postures in each.
I know almost nothing about weapon forms apart from the fact that they exist. I can't really help there.
I thought that the competition styles had elements that were harder or more complex than the national styles. Since as I understood it, this national stuff was done with a health purpose in mind, there's no need to get too elaborate or athletic with it. For competitions though, the athletic stuff is good to have, so it has it and the national ones don't. That's just my guess though, like I said, I'm no expert or anything, I'm just writing based on what I've read and learned so far. As far as competition forms go, I think there's a 42 posture form that combines all the main tai chi styles, taking some moves from all of them. I have the book _Competition Routines for Four Styles Taijiquan_ and it gives a 40 posture Yang form, a 56 posture Chen form, a 45 posture Wu form, and a 73 posture Sun form. Another book that I don't currently have is called _International Wushu Competition Routines_ says it has forms for long fist boxing, southern style boxing, combination taijiquan (I'm guessing that's that 42 posture form), broadsword, spear, straight sword, and staff. Not having it I can't tell you how many postures are in each of those forms, but apparently they're standardized for competitions, too. I may get it at some point, but I'm not in any rush.
I'm not sure how much more this helps, but if others can help out in this thread, I hope they do. If such a list of forms can be made, I'd be interested in having a copy, too.
