Mahjong or mah-jongg (
English pronunciation: ) is a
tile-based game
A tile-based game is a game that uses tiles as one of the fundamental elements of play. Traditional tile-based games use small tiles as playing pieces for gambling or entertainment games. Some board games use tiles to create their board, givin ...
that was developed in the 19th century in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
and has spread throughout the world since the early 20th century. It is commonly played by four players (with some three-player variations found in parts of China,
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
,
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
and
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
). The game and its regional variants are widely played throughout
East
East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...
and Southeast Asia and have also become popular in
Western countries
The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania. . The game has also been adapted into a widespread online entertainment. Similar to the Western card game
rummy
Rummy is a group of matching-card games notable for similar gameplay based on matching cards of the same rank or sequence and same suit. The basic goal in any form of rummy is to build '' melds'' which can be either sets (three or four of a k ...
, Mahjong is a
game of skill
A game of skill or game of wits is a game where the outcome is determined mainly by mental or physical skill, rather than chance.
Alternatively, a game of chance is one where its outcome is strongly influenced by some randomizing device, such a ...
, strategy, and luck. To distinguish it from
mahjong solitaire
Mahjong solitaire (also known as Shanghai solitaire, electronic or computerized mahjong, solitaire mahjong or simply mahjong) is a single-player matching game that uses a set of mahjong tiles rather than cards. It is more commonly played on a ...
, it is sometimes referred to as mahjong rummy.
The game is played with a set of 144
tiles
Tiles are usually thin, square or rectangular coverings manufactured from hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, walls, edges, or o ...
based on
Chinese characters
Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji' ...
and
symbols
A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different conc ...
, although many regional variations may omit some tiles or add unique ones. In most variations, each player begins by receiving 13 tiles. In turn, players draw and discard tiles until they complete a legal hand using the 14th drawn tile to form four
melds (or sets) and a pair (eye). A player can also win with a small class of special hands. While many variations of mahjong exist, most variations have some basic rules in common including how a piece is drawn and discarded, how a piece is robbed from another player, the use of suits (numbered tiles) and honors (winds and dragons), the basic kinds of melds allowed, how to deal the tiles and the order of play. Beyond these basic common rules, numerous regional variations exist which may have notably different criteria for legal melds and winning hands, radically different scoring systems and even elaborate extra rules. A group of players may introduce their own
house rule
House rules are unofficial modifications to official game rules adopted by individual groups of players. House rules may include the removal or alteration of existing rules, or the addition of new rules. Such modifications are common in board g ...
s which can notably change the feel of play.
Etymology
In Chinese, the game was originally called ()meaning
sparrowwhich is still used in some languages in southern China. It is said that the clacking of tiles during shuffling resembles the chattering of sparrows. It has also been suggested that the name came from an evolution of an earlier card game called
Madiao
''Madiao'' (), also ''ma diao'', ''ma tiu'' or ''ma tiao'', is a late imperial Chinese trick-taking gambling card game, also known as the game of ''paper tiger''. The deck used was recorded by Lu Rong in the 15th century and the rules later by Pan ...
from which mahjong tiles were adapted. Most
Mandarin-speaking Chinese now call the game (''májiàng''). Its name is similar in other languages, except in
Thai
Thai or THAI may refer to:
* Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia
** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand
** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand
*** Thai script
*** Thai (Unicode block ...
, where it is called (''phai nok krachok''), a
calque
In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language wh ...
meaning "sparrow cards".
Old Hong Kong mahjong rules
![Mahjong tiles on angle](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/Mahjong_tiles_on_angle.jpg)
There are many highly varied versions of mahjong both in rules and tiles used. "Old Hong Kong mahjong" uses the same basic features and rules as the majority of the different variations of the game. This form of mahjong uses all of the tiles of the most commonly available sets, includes no exotic complex rules, and has a relatively small set of scoring sets/hands with a simple scoring system. For these reasons Hong Kong mahjong is a suitable variation for the introduction of game rules and play and is the focus of this article.
Game equipment
Old Hong Kong mahjong is played with a standard set of 144 mahjong tiles (though cards may be used). Sets often include counters (to keep score), dice (to decide how to deal), and a marker to show who the dealer is and which round is being played. Some sets include racks to hold the tiles, especially if they are larger or smaller than standard tiles or have an odd shape. Mahjong sets originating from the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
,
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
or Southeast Asia will likely have extra tiles or specialized markings.
The tiles are split into three categories: suited, honors, and bonus tiles.
Suited tiles
Suited tiles are divided into three suits and each are numbered from 1 to 9. The suits are bamboos, dots, and characters. There are four identical copies of each suited tile totaling 108 tiles.
The bamboo suit is also known as "sticks", "strings" or "bams" suit; the first tile usually has a bird (traditionally, a peacock or sparrow) instead of a single bamboo. The dots suit is also known as the "wheels", "circles", "coins", "stones", "marbles" or "balls" suit. The characters suit is also known as the "myriads", "cracks" or "numbers" suit since the top characters are numbers in the Chinese orthography, and the bottom characters (in
traditional Chinese characters
Traditional Chinese characters are one type of standard Chinese character sets of the contemporary written Chinese. The traditional characters had taken shapes since the clerical change and mostly remained in the same structure they took at ...
) are the Chinese orthography of "ten thousand".
Honors tiles
There are two different sets of honors tiles: winds and dragons. The winds are east, south, west, and north, beginning with east. The dragons are red, green, and white. The white dragon has a blue or black frame on the face of the piece or in some sets is entirely blank. These tiles have no numerical sequence like the suited tiles (for example the bamboo pieces number 1 to 9). Like the suited tiles, there are four identical copies of each honors tile, for a total of 28 honors tiles.
Bonus tiles
There are two sets of bonus tiles: flowers and seasons. The flower and season tiles play a unique role in the mechanics of the game. When drawn, the bonus tile is not added into a player's hand but are instead set aside and kept near the player's other tiles for scoring purposes should they win the hand, and an extra tile is drawn in replacement of the bonus tile.
In addition, unlike the suited and honours tiles, there is only a single tile of each bonus tile, so there are a total of four flower and four season tiles in the set. The tiles have a different artistic rendering of a specific type of flower or season.
It is not necessary to know the names or the Chinese characters of each bonus tile, only the number, as this is associated with a specific direction, and the player receives bonus points when the bonus tile matches the seat direction. There is no relation between the bonus tile "bamboo" flower and the bamboo suit of suited tiles (e.g. 4 bamboo). In traditional Chinese culture, the
Four Gentlemen
In Chinese art, the Four Gentlemen or Four Noble Ones (), literally meaning "Four Junzi", is a collective term referring to four plants: the plum blossom, the orchid, the bamboo, and the chrysanthemum. The term compares the four plants to Confuc ...
are the plum (winter), orchid (spring), bamboo (summer), and chrysanthemum (autumn) which are regarded as the representative plants of those seasons, but people regard it as plum blossom (spring), orchid (summer), chrysanthemum (autumn) and bamboo (winter) now.
Choosing table positions and first dealer
![Chinese dice](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Chinese_dice.jpg)
The dealer is chosen by various means. For example, each player throws dice with the highest count taking the dealer position, second-highest taking south etc. Or one player may place one tile of each wind face down and shuffle them. Each player randomly select one of these tiles and these tiles dictate their wind position. Each player sits down at their respective position (called the wind position) at the table in positions of an inverted compass: East is dealer, the right of the dealer is South, across is West, and the left is North. The order of play is traditionally counter-clockwise.
Hands, rounds, and matches
![Tion-Mahjong](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/Tion-Mahjong.JPG)
A match consists of four rounds, each representing a "prevailing wind", starting with East. Once the first round is completed, a second round begins with South as the prevailing wind, and so on. Wind position is significant in that it affects the scoring of the game. A mahjong set with winds in play will usually include a separate prevailing wind marker (typically a die marked with the wind characters in a holder).
In each round at least four hands are played, with each player taking the position of dealer. In the first hand of each round, Player 1 (winner of the dice toss) is East and therefore dealer. In the second hand, Player 2 takes the East position, shifting the seat winds amongst the players counterclockwise (though players do not physically move their chairs). This continues until all four players have been East (dealer). A marker is used to mark which player is East and often the round number. (In sets with racks, a rack may be marked differently to denote the dealer.)
Whenever a player in the East position (dealer) wins a hand, or if there is no winner (a draw or "goulash hand"), an extra hand is played with the same seating positions and prevailing wind as in the previous hand. This means that a match may potentially have no limit to the number of hands played (though some players will set a limit of three consecutive hands allowed with the same seat positions and prevailing wind).
Example of games:
Dealing tiles
Shuffling tiles
All tiles are placed face down on the table and are shuffled. By convention all players should participate in shuffling using both hands moving the pieces around the table rigorously and loudly for a lengthy period. Tiles may get flipped up during this process and players should flip them facing down as soon as possible to avoid identifying the location of the revealed tiles.
Stacking tiles
![Mahjong table](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/Mahjong_table.svg)
Each player then stacks a row of 18 tiles, two tiles high in front of them (for a total of 36 tiles). Players then push each side of their stack together to form a square wall.
Regular players usually place their stacks in a slightly diagonal position (about 20 to 30 degrees anti-clockwise); the right end of their stack is pushed slightly further in to the centre of the table to meet almost the middle of the stack of the player on the right. This creates a smaller square wall the length of about half of each stack, with walls extended away from each corner of the square. The diagonally positioned stacks and a smaller square creates a bigger space for players' tiles and also makes an ergonomic position for drawing tiles from the stack.
Drawing tiles
The dealer throws three dice in the square wall and sums up the total. Counting anti-clockwise so that the dealer is 1 (or 5, 9, 13, 17), so that south (player to the right) is 2 (or 6, 10, 14, 18), etc., a player's quarter of the wall is chosen. Some house rules may use only two dice but have double throws to increase randomness. In the case of double throws, the player of the chosen wall makes the second throw.
Using the same total on the dice (or the total of the two throws), the player whose wall is chosen then counts the stacks of tiles from right to left. (For double throws, the count may extend to the left side player's stack.) This determines the location where the 'deck' of tiles is cut. Starting from the left of the stacks counted, the dealer draws four tiles for himself, and players in anti-clockwise order draw blocks of four tiles until all players have 12 tiles, so that the stacks decrease clockwise. Each player then draws one last tile to make a 13-tile hand. The tile to be drawn is always the topmost tile left of the cut.
Dealing does not have to be strictly this way and may be done quite differently based on house rules. Tiles may flip over when being dealt and players should agree in advance on how to deal with the problem. Solutions include having the dealer penalised points, shuffling the turned over piece back into the wall somehow, allowing the player to whom the tiles were dealt to take the piece or not (meaning the dealer must take it as his/her 14th piece), or other house rules.
Each player now sets aside any flowers or seasons they may have drawn and takes turns to draw replacement tiles from the wall in the anti-clockwise direction from the dealer. If a player gets any flowers or seasons tiles in the replacement draw, the players must wait for the next turn to draw replacement tiles.
Game play starts
The dealer draws a piece from the wall in clockwise direction, adding it to their hand. Typically, this draw is performed during the initial deal to speed up play. If this does not complete a legal hand, the dealer then discards a piece (throwing it into the middle of the wall with no particular order in mind).
Rules
![Lanzhou-019](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Lanzhou-019.JPG)
Each player in turn, in counterclockwise direction, draws a tile from the wall; as long as the tile drawn is not one of the bonus tiles, the player proceeds to discard a tile (either the tile just drawn, or a tile in the hand) to maintain a hand of 13. The discarded tile is thrown into the centre and, if desired, the player announces out loud what the piece is. The other players have an opportunity to seize the discarded tile; if no one takes it, the turn continues to the next player. Play continues this way until one player has a legal winning hand and calls out the win (each region does this call differently--no Asian version uses the word "mahjong" to signal a win) while revealing their hand.
There are four different ways that regular order of play can be interrupted:
#A bonus tile (flower or season) is drawn
#A meld (pong, kong, or chow) is made from a discard
#Going mahjong (declaring a winning hand)
#Robbing a kong
During play, each player's hand should always be 13 tiles (meaning in each turn a tile must be picked up and another discarded). The count of 13 tiles do not include any bonus tiles (flowers and seasons), which are set to the side, nor does it include the fourth added piece of a kong. If a player is seen to have fewer or more than 13 tiles in their hand outside of their turn they are penalised.
Legal hand
A winning hand consists of 14 tiles. Since players always have 13 tiles in their hand during play, they must win by either drawing a piece from the wall that completes a 14-tile hand ("winning from the wall") or claiming a discard from another player which completes a 14-tile hand ("winning by discard"). The winning hand is made of four ''melds'' (a specific pattern of three pieces) and the ''eyes'' (a pair of identical pieces). The exceptions to this rule are the special hands listed below.
Most players play with a table minimum, meaning a winning hand must score a minimum number of points (which can be seen in the scoring section). In Hong Kong mahjong the most common point set is three, but can be higher or lower depending on house rules.
Melds
Melds are groups of tiles within the player's hand, consisting of either a pong (three identical tiles), a kong (four identical tiles), a chow (three suited tiles all of the same suit, in numerical sequence), or eyes (two identical tiles needed in a winning hand). Melds may be formed by drawing a tile from the wall, or by seizing another player's discard. There are rules governing which player has priority for a discard, and whether the meld should be exposed (displayed to all players) or remain concealed, depending on the manner in which the meld is formed.
Interruption of play
The regular anti-clockwise order of turns may be interrupted for four events:
= 1. Flower or season
=
Whenever a player draws a flower or season, it is announced and then placed to the side (it is not considered a part of the 13-tile hand, but in the event that player wins, they may earn bonus points for them) and the last tile of the wall is drawn as a replacement tile so that the player has the 14 pieces needed before their discard. This may happen successively in a player's turn.
= 2. Melding another player's discard
=
When a player discards a tile, other players may steal the tile to complete a meld. Stealing tiles has both advantages (quickly forming a winning hand and scoring extra points) and disadvantages (being forced to reveal part of one's hand to other players and not being able to change the meld once declared).
When a meld (pong, kong, or chow) is declared through a discard, the player must state the type of meld to be declared and expose the meld by placing the three (or four) tiles face up. The player must then discard a tile, and play continues to the right. If the player who melds a discard is not directly after the discarder (in order of play), one or two players will essentially miss their turn as play continues anti-clockwise from the player who declared the meld.
If multiple players call for a discarded tile, priority for the discard depends on the declared action of the player stealing the discard.
# Highest priority goes to the player who needs the discarded tile to win the hand. A player may take the tile to win the hand from any other player.
# Next priority goes to the player who declares a pong or kong using the discard. A player who calls for a pong or kong may take the discard from any other player. Only one player can be in this position because there are only four of any tile in a mahjong set.
# Last priority goes to the player who declares a chow using the discard. Players may only call for a chow from the discard of the player immediately prior to them unless the tile is the final one required to win the hand.
= 3. Winning a hand
=
The act of winning a hand interrupts play to assess the validity of the hand won. Upon confirmation, the player is awarded the hand's value per the specific game's rule.
From a discard
If at any point in the game a player can use another player's discard to complete a legal hand (and with the agreed minimum points), they declare a win and reveal their winning hand. This ends the hand, and scoring commences. If more than one player can use a discard to win the hand, multiple ways can handle the situation based on agreed table rules: The players might count the points they would win with the discard and the winner is the one with the higher score, the winner might simply be the player closest to the discarder in order of turn, or multiple players may be granted the win simultaneously.
From the wall
Alternatively, a player may also win by drawing a tile that completes a legal hand. This is called "winning from the wall". In Hong Kong mahjong, winning from the wall doubles the number of base points each loser must pay.
False Win
Technically, the declaration for winning a hand may be done at any time. However, the player must have a complete and legal hand. Otherwise, the player is penalized. The penalty depends on table rules. The player may forfeit points to the other players. Another potential penalty is the player who called out the false win must play the rest of the hand with their tiles face up on the table so other players can see them (open hand). Some methods apply the penalty at the end of the entire game. Again, the table rules dictate the enforcement of the penalty.
= 4. Robbing a kong
=
A rarely occurring and high-scoring feature of Hong Kong mahjong is a move called robbing the kong. If a player declares a kong by adding a fourth piece to a melded pong but another player can use that piece to complete a hand, the completing player takes priority to win the hand and may steal that piece from the player who intended to declare the kong.
Examples of winning hands
Below are two examples of winning hands. A winning hand must consist of four melds (pongs, kongs, or chows) and a pair (eyes) and must also score the agreed table minimum.
Most players include table variations in their games, of which some non-standard are included. The hands of ''seven different pairs'' and ''13 orphans'' are examples which do not have four melds and the eyes. They are described in more detail below.
Repeated hands
If the dealer wins the hand, they will remain the dealer and an extra hand is played in addition to the minimum 16 hands in a match.
An extra hand is also played if there is no winner by the time all the tiles in the wall have been drawn. When there is no winner it is known as a "goulash hand". Depending on table rules, the winner of the next game may take an agreed number of points from each player, carrying over the points from the non-winning hand to the winning one. If there are two or three goulash hands in a row then the winner would collect a considerable number of points from each player on top of their scoring hand. Because extra hands may be played every time a dealer wins or if there is a goulash hand, a match of 16 hands can easily become a match of 20 or even much more.
As table rules add a large amount of flexibility for players, they can choose to disregard the rule of extra hands and pass on the dealership regardless of who wins or if it results in a goulash hand. This puts a maximum estimated limit on the game duration and provides some amount of predictability.
Rhythm of play
Players may agree on table rules if the pace of the game is brisk or leisurely. For brisk games players may agree that a couple seconds after a discard are allowed for a "window of opportunity" before the next player picks up from the wall. Usually it is agreed once the next player has waited the duration of the "window of opportunity" and draws a tile from the wall, the previous discard is lost and cannot be claimed.
Scoring
Old Hong Kong scoring is relatively simple. There is only one winner (or if there is a draw the hand is replayed). The winner must have a legal hand that meets the minimum ''faan'' points agreed to in advance (not including any bonus points). Only the winner scores, the other players pay the winner various sums. After each hand ends, the winner counts all of his or her ''faan'' points.
* ''Faan'' points depend on:
** The composition of the entire hand
** How the hand was won
** Bonus tiles
** Special patterns
** A few other special criteria.
* In order to win, a player needs to have at least the minimum ''faan'' value agreed in advance (often 3). Bonus tiles and a few other elements are not included in the minimum ''faan'' value a player needs to form a legal winning hand. For example, in a three ''faan'' minimum game, if a player has two ''faan'' points and one bonus point, the player has not met the proper requirements to win and will need to gain another ''faan'' point before calling a win. Though the bonus points cannot be included in the minimum points needed to win, they are included in the overall score after a player wins.
* The other players do not score their hand. Once the winner has added his or her points (''faan'' points plus bonus points) they must be converted into base points (the chart is below). These base points represent how much the opponents pay to the winner
* Players then pay the winner (in money or when not gambling with "chips or points") based on three factors:
** The base points (''faan'' points and bonus points converted into a payment unit)
** If the player won from the wall (doubles the points)
** If the player was the dealer (doubles the points).
Concealed vs. revealed meld and hand
A concealed meld is one that contains no tiles stolen from another player's discard. A concealed hand is one made up of only concealed melds. Many variations distinguish between a concealed hand (winning from the wall) and a semi concealed hand (the last tile is a stolen discard). In most mahjong variations having a concealed hand can be valuable in scoring. Hong Kong mahjong does not award concealed melds/hands as generously as others. Concealed hands only the case with a few limit hands or half-limit hands (thirteen orphans, heavenly gates, four concealed pongs) as well as a complete hand (seven pairs) and over several melds (three concealed pongs).
''Faan'' value
= Basic ''faan'' value
=
A winning hand must include an agreed minimum amount of ''faan'' value (often 3). Some examples of scoring include:
= Bonus ''faan''
=
A player only scores a bonus ''faan'' for flowers or seasons if it is their own flower or season (East=1, South=2, West=3 and North=4) or if the player has all four flowers or all four seasons (scoring 5 ''faan'' in total).
Payment
The losers pay the winning player points based on several criteria and depending on whether the game is for fun or for money. How points are reckoned is agreed by players beforehand. For example, they can keep a tally, exchange chips, or pay one another with money. The ''faan'' value of a hand is converted into base points which are then used to calculate the points the losers pay the winner. The table is progressive, doubling the number of base points when reaching a certain ''faan'' point target. The following is the Old Hong Kong simplified table; for other tables, see
Hong Kong mahjong scoring rules.
This table is based on play where 3 ''faan'' is the minimum needed in order to win with a legal hand. If a player has 3 ''faan'', then their hand is worth one base point. A winning hand with 9 ''faan'' is worth four base points. Losing players must give the winning player the value of these base points. The following special cases result in doubled base points:
* If the winner wins from the wall, their base points are doubled.
* If the hand was won by discard, the discarder doubles the amount they owe the winner.
* If the winner is east, all losers double the base points.
* If the east player is a losing player, they pay double the points to the winner.
If two of these criteria apply to any player, they must double and then redouble the points owed to the winner.
= Examples
=
Hong Kong mahjong is essentially a payment system of doubling and redoubling, where winning from the wall adds great value to the final payment and where the dealer is highly rewarded or penalised if they win or lose.
= Limit hands
=
In Hong Kong mahjong there are a series of "limit hands". These are exceptional hands, difficult to obtain and are very valuable in point scoring. As many table rules put a limit on the number of points a winner's hand can score, full limit hands score that maximum. Table rules dictate if these rare and special hands are allowed, which ones, and the limit for scoring. A common scoring limit is 64 points, which is the highest base points doubled twice. A winner receives the scoring limit from each player without any doubling.
Some limit hands by necessity must be completely concealed (not discards used) or semi-concealed (the only discard used is the one needed to win). This includes the 13 orphans, 4 concealed pongs, heavenly hand and earthly hand. It is usually expected that the heavenly gates hand be concealed or semi-concealed. As for the dragon limit hands and the great winds, table rules dictate whether the hand must be concealed or not. Some table rules claim that a semi-concealed hand (winning from a discard) scores a half-limit.
Some groups also play with the "great flowers" rule. If a player picks up all four flowers and all four seasons during their hand, they instantly win the hand and receive the maximum points from all of the players. This is exceptionally rare.
In all the hands that require pongs, each pong can be replaced by the corresponding kong.
Other examples of high-scoring hands
Variations
Variations may have far more complicated scoring systems, add or remove tiles, and include far more scoring elements and limit hands.
In many places, players often observe one version and are either unaware of other variations or claim that different versions are incorrect. In mainland China alone, there are over thirty variants.
Many variations today differ only by scoring:
Chinese variants
* Changsha mahjong is widely played in
Hunan
Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to ...
Province. Like Wuhan mahjong, players need to obtain special Jong consisting of only tiles of two, five or eight. Changsha mahjong forbids using winds and some special tiles, those tiles are first drawn out from the table when playing. Winners each round get a special drawing session for bonuses, usually doubling the score.
* Chinese classical mahjong is the oldest surviving variety of mahjong and was the version introduced to America in the 1920s under various names. It has a small, loyal following in the West, although few play it in Asia. All players score and it is possible to score higher than the winner.
*
Competition mahjong is an international standard founded by All-China Sports Federation in July 1998 that some mahjong societies have adopted for competition play and in some cases for all play. It includes a large variety of different scoring rules in a way that emphasizes strategy and calculation ability.
* Fujian mahjong, thirteen tile hands. Certain tiles can be wild. No dragons. Winds are treated as bonuses.
* Harbin mahjong, popular in northeastern China, using only 108 suit and 4 red dragon tiles. The player's hand must meet a set of few conditions (e.g. at least one chow / pong, at least one terminal or red dragon, etc.) and be declared "ready" in order to win, with points earned by discard or self-draw and a bonus tile revealed when the player wins.
*
Hong Kong mahjong or Cantonese mahjong is a more common form of mahjong, differing in minor scoring details from the Chinese Classical variety. It does not allow multiple players to win from a single discard.
* Shenyang mahjong using 13 hands in a game, and Shenyang mahjong has a very fast speed on playing. Also in Shenyang mahjong, the player must have bamboos, characters, circles and number 1 or 9 in their hand. In addition, the players have to pong before they chow, so there is no chance to win even if some players win at the first time they have their hands in hand.
* is a growing variety, particularly in southern China, disallowing chi melds, and using only the suited tiles. Play continues until a loser is decided or a draw. It can be played very quickly.
* , or ''Lisi'' (): the players must win with the first four blocks drawn which are placed separately in front of the others. These four blocks cannot be touched until the player has a ready hand.
* is the variety prevalent in Taiwan and involves hands of sixteen tiles (as opposed to the thirteen-tile hands in other versions), features bonuses for dealers and recurring dealerships, and allows multiple players to win from a single discard.
* using normally seven jokers, with special scoring such as ''joker-free'', ''joker-waiting-pair'', ''catch-5'', ''dragon'', ''joker-suited-dragon''.
* Wuhan mahjong is growing rapidly and become popular in southern China. It is different from other parts of China such that it has a tile that can be used as everything called Laizi, and the player has to have a set of special two tiles, namely two, five, eight, as prerequisite for winning. Another variation has become the new trend. Special tiles need to be discarded.
* Xiangyang mahjong is played with three players, and without winds, seasons, flowers and one suit of dots, bamboo and characters. It places special emphasis on the 5 tile giving extra points for any hand made using a 5 tile.
Other variants
*
American mahjong
American mahjong, also spelled mah jongg, is a variant of the Chinese game mahjong. American mahjong utilizes racks to hold each player's tiles, jokers, and "Hands and Rules" score cards. It has several distinct gameplay mechanics such as "The Ch ...
is a form of mahjong standardized by the National Mah Jongg League and the American Mah-Jongg Association. It uses joker tiles, the Charleston, plus melds of five or more tiles, treats bonus tiles as honors, and eschews the chow and the notion of a standard hand. Legal hands are changed annually. Purists claim that this makes American mahjong a separate game. In addition, the NMJL and AMJA variations, which have minor scoring differences, are commonly referred to as ''mahjongg'' or ''mah-jongg'' (with 2 Gs, often hyphenated).
* Filipino mahjong, sixteen tile hands. Certain tiles can be wild. Honors are treated as bonuses.
* Japanese classical mahjong is still used in tournaments. It is closer to the Chinese classical scoring system but only the winner scores.
*
Japanese Mahjong is a standardized form of mahjong in Japan and South Korea, and is also found prevalently in video games. In addition to scoring changes, the rules of ''
rīchi'' (ready hand) and ''
dora'' (bonus tiles) are unique highlights of this variant. In addition, tile discards are specifically arranged in front of each player by discard order, to take discarded tiles into account during play. Some rules replace some number 5 tiles with red tiles so that they can eventually get more value.
* Korean mahjong is unique in many ways and is an excellent version for three players. One suit is omitted completely (usually the bamboo set or 2–8 of bamboo) as well as the seasons. The scoring is simpler and the play is faster. No melded chows are allowed and concealed hands are common. Riichi (much like its Japanese cousin) is an integral part of the game as well.
* Pussers bones is a fast-moving variant developed by sailors in the
Royal Australian Navy
The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the principal naval force of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (CN) Vice Admiral Mark Hammond AM, RAN. CN is also jointly responsible to the Minister of ...
. It uses an alternative vocabulary, such as ''Eddie'', ''Sammy'', ''Wally'', and ''Normie'', instead of ''East'', ''South'', ''West'', and ''North'' respectively.
*
Singaporean mahjong are two similar variants with much in common with Hong Kong mahjong. Unique elements of Singaporean mahjong are the use of four animal bonus tiles (cat, mouse, cockerel, and centipede) as well as certain alternatives in the scoring rules, which allow payouts midway through the game if certain conditions (such as a ''kong'') are met. Melds may also be presented in a form different from most other variations.
* South African mahjong is a variant of Cantonese mahjong. It is very similar in terms of game play and follows most of the rules and regulations of Cantonese mahjong. However, there are some minor differences in scoring, e.g. the limit on the maximum points a hand can be rewarded is three or four ''faan'' depending on the ''house'' rules. A chicken hand (gai wu) is normally considered a value hand. Depending on the house rules flowers may also be used to boost scoring.
* Thai mahjong has eight specialized jokers with eight extra flowers and eight animals for a total of 168 tiles.
* Vietnamese mahjong has the same eight specialized jokers but with only eight different extra flowers for a total of 160 tiles. A modern variant triplicates or quadruplicates the jokers for a total of 176 or 184 tiles.
* Western classical mahjong is a descendant of the version of mahjong introduced by Babcock to America in the 1920s. Today, this term largely refers to the "Wright-Patterson" rules, used in the U.S. military, and other similar American-made variants that are closer to the Babcock rules.
*
Three player mahjong
Three-player mahjong is a variation of mahjong for three players rather than the more common four-player variations. It is not a mere adaption of four-player mahjong to suit only three players but has its own rules and idiosyncrasies that plac ...
(or 3-''ka'') is a simplified three-person mahjong that involves hands of 13 tiles (with a total of 84 tiles on the table) and may use jokers depending on the variation. Any rule set can be adapted for three players; however, this is far more common and accepted in Japan, Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines. It usually eliminates one suit entirely, or tiles 2–8 in one suit leaving only the terminals. It needs fewer people to start a game and the turnaround time of a game is short—hence, it is considered a fast game. In some versions there is a jackpot for winning in which whoever accumulates a point of 10 is considered to hit the jackpot or whoever scores three hidden hands first. The Malaysian and Korean versions drop one wind and may include a seat dragon.
Equipment
Tables
![Open the mah-jong table (3599421021)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Open_the_mah-jong_table_%283599421021%29.jpg)
Mahjong playing surfaces are typically square and small enough to be within arm's length of all equipment. The edges are raised to prevent tiles from sliding off and the surface is covered in felt to limit wear on the tiles. Automatic dealing tables, often used for high stakes playing and tournaments, are able to shuffle tiles, build walls, and randomize dice. It is an elaborate device built into a table which uses two alternating sets of tiles. It prepares one wall while the players play one hand. After the hand is finished the tiles are dropped into the table and a new wall raises upwards.
Tiles
The following chart shows the most generic set of tiles
There are variations that feature specific use of tiles. Some three-player versions remove the North wind and one Chinese provincial version has no honors. Korean mahjong removes the bamboo suit or at least its numbers 2–8 so that terminals can be used. Japanese mahjong rarely uses flowers or seasons. The seasons are removed in Korean mahjong, while many Southeast Asian sets have more flower series.
Wild cards and jokers
Some mahjong variants accept wildcard tiles. The wildcard tiles are decided at the beginning of the game by choosing one random tile. The wild card could be the immediately following tile on the wall, after distributing tiles to all players, or it could also be separately decided by a dice throw. Wildcard tiles cannot be discarded and can only replace tiles in chows. Wildcard tiles cannot replace tiles in pongs and kongs. For example, if a character 4 is chosen, then character 4 and the next sequential tile, character 5, can be used as wild cards in this round. (When the wildcard indicator is chosen and exposed, only 3 tiles remain of the same denomination, so the next tile in the suit will also be used as a wildcard, adding to 7 wildcard tiles for 4 players.) Also, if a tile numbered 9 is the indicator, the suits circle back to 1, after 9. Thus, the number 9 and 1 are wild cards.
Also, if the chosen tile is not in the suited tiles, the wild cards are decided in rules:
![Joker-vietnammj](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Joker-vietnammj.JPG)
The bonus tiles are not available for wild cards.
A feature of several variations of mahjong, most notably in American mahjong, is the notion of some number of Joker tiles. They may be used as a wild card: a substitute for any tile in a hand, or, in some variations, only tiles in melds. Another variation is that the Joker tile may ''not'' be used for melding. Depending on the variation, a player may replace a Joker tile that is part of an exposed meld belonging to any player with the tile it represents.
Rules governing discarding Joker tiles also exist; some variations permit the Joker tile to take on the identity of any tile, and others only permit the Joker tile to take on the identity of the previously discarded tile (or the absence of a tile, if it is the first discard).
Joker tiles may or may not affect scoring, depending on the variation. Some special hands may require the use of Joker tiles (for example, to represent a "fifth tile" of a certain suited or honor tile).
In American mahjong, it is illegal to pass Jokers during the Charleston.
= Flowers
=
Japanese rule sets discourage the use of flowers and seasons. Korean rules and three-player mahjong in the Korean/Japanese tradition use only flowers. In Singapore and Malaysia an extra set of bonus tiles of four animals are used. The rule set includes a unique function in that players who get two specific animals get a one-time immediate payout from all players. In Taiwanese mahjong, getting all eight flowers and seasons constitutes an automatic win of the hand and specific payout from all players.
Four of the flower tiles represent the
four noble plants of
Confucian
Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a Religious Confucianism, religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, ...
reckoning:
* 🀢
plum
A plum is a fruit of some species in ''Prunus'' subg. ''Prunus'.'' Dried plums are called prunes.
History
Plums may have been one of the first fruits domesticated by humans. Three of the most abundantly cultivated species are not found i ...
,
* 🀣
orchid
Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant.
Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...
,
* 🀥
chrysanthemum
Chrysanthemums (), sometimes called mums or chrysanths, are flowering plants of the genus ''Chrysanthemum'' in the family Asteraceae. They are native to East Asia and northeastern Europe. Most species originate from East Asia and the center ...
,
* and 🀤
bamboo
Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, bu ...
.
![MJh8-](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/MJh8-.svg)
The other 4 flower tiles (or season tiles) represent seasons:
* 🀦
spring
Spring(s) may refer to:
Common uses
* Spring (season), a season of the year
* Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy
* Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water
* Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a ...
,
* 🀧
summer
Summer is the hottest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, the earliest sunrise and latest sunset occurs, daylight hours are longest and dark hours are shortest, wit ...
,
* 🀨
autumn
Autumn, also known as fall in American English and Canadian English, is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September ( Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Sou ...
,
* and 🀩
winter
Winter is the coldest season of the year in polar and temperate climates. It occurs after autumn and before spring. The tilt of Earth's axis causes seasons; winter occurs when a hemisphere is oriented away from the Sun. Different cultures ...
.
![MJh4-](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/MJh4-.svg)
These animal tiles are used in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and local variations. They represent the
cat
The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...
,
mouse
A mouse ( : mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...
,
rooster
The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...
and
centipede
Centipedes (from New Latin , "hundred", and Latin , " foot") are predatory arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda (Ancient Greek , ''kheilos'', lip, and New Latin suffix , "foot", describing the forcipules) of the subphylum Myriapoda, an ...
. Like flower tiles, they also function as bonus tiles. However, as they have no corresponding seat position, any player who draws one of these gets a bonus point.
= Walls
=
All tiles are placed face down and shuffled. Each player then stacks a row of tiles two tiles high in front of them, the length of the row depending on the number of tiles in use:
* 136 tiles: 17 stacks for each player
** Suits of circles, bamboos, and characters + winds + dragons
* 144 tiles: 18 stacks for each player
* 148 tiles: 19 stacks for dealer and player opposite, 18 for rest
* 152 tiles: 19 stacks for each player
Dice, markers, and counting pieces
![Mahjong fiches](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Mahjong_fiches.jpg)
Depending on the variation, two or three
dice
Dice (singular die or dice) are small, throwable objects with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. They are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, role-playing g ...
are usually used to decide what part of the wall to start dealing from. They are six-sided dice, traditionally but not necessarily Chinese dice with red one and four pips.
The dealer marker is a round or square object that the dealer places to the side to remind players who the dealer is. The wind marker may be used which indicates the current prevailing wind. In some cases the dealer marker and the wind marker are represented by one large marker, usually a small wheel where one can swivel the outer circle to indicate the prevailing wind (which the dealer holds onto), a cube with the four winds placed onto four of the sides which can be placed in a hollow square (the dealer holds onto it), or a cylinder locked into frame which can be rolled to expose the wind on the top. Japanese mahjong, especially in a gambling environment, may optionally use four yakitori markers to indicate which players have not won a hand yet and has to pay a penalty.
There are a variety of counting pieces used in different countries. They range from Chinese or Japanese counting sticks (thin sticks with various dots on them to represent various points),
jeton
Jetons or jettons are tokens or coin-like medals produced across Europe from the 13th through the 18th centuries. They were produced as counters for use in calculation on a counting board, a lined board similar to an abacus. They also found use ...
s,
play money
Play money is noticeably fake bills or coins intended to be used as toy currency, especially for classroom instruction or as a marker in board games such as Monopoly, rather than currency in a legitimate exchange market. Play money coins and bi ...
, paper and pencil, or various apps on touchscreen devices used to calculate and keep scores.
Rules
Japanese and Korean mahjong have some special rules. A player cannot win by a discard if that player had already discarded that piece, where players' discards are kept in neat rows in front of them. Players may declare ready, meaning that they need one tile to win, cannot change their hand and win extra points if they win. Some rules may replace some of the number 5 tiles with red tiles, as they can earn more points. Korean mahjong does not allow melded (stolen) chows.
Taiwanese mahjong adds three tiles to a hand requiring a 5th set to be formed, making a clean hand or all-pong hand very difficult to procure.
American mahjong has distinctive game mechanics and the article on
American mahjong
American mahjong, also spelled mah jongg, is a variant of the Chinese game mahjong. American mahjong utilizes racks to hold each player's tiles, jokers, and "Hands and Rules" score cards. It has several distinct gameplay mechanics such as "The Ch ...
details these. Some differences include many special patterns, a different scoring system and the use of jokers and five-of-a-kind.
Charleston
In the American variations it is required that, before each hand begins, a Charleston be enacted. In the first exchange, three tiles are passed to the player on one's right; in the next exchange, the tiles are passed to the player opposite, followed by three tiles passed to the left. If all players are in agreement, a second Charleston is performed; however, any player may decide to stop passing after the first Charleston is complete. The Charleston is followed by an optional pass to the player across of one, two, or three tiles. The Charleston, a distinctive feature of American mahjong, may have been borrowed from card games such as
Hearts.
Hands
Many variations have specific hands, some of which are common while some are optional depending on regions and players. One example is the Pure Green hand made of chows or pongs using 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 of bamboo and green dragon.
Ready hands
When a hand is one tile short of winning (for example:
![MJd2-](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/MJd2-.svg)
, waiting for:
![MJs1-](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/MJs1-.svg)
,
![MJs4-](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/MJs4-.svg)
, or
![MJd2-](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/MJd2-.svg)
, as
![MJs1-](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/MJs1-.svg)
can be the eyes), the hand is said to be a ready hand, or more figuratively, "on the pot". The player holding a ready hand is said to be ''waiting'' for certain tiles. It is common to be waiting for two or three tiles, and some variations award points for a hand that is waiting for one tile. In 13-tile mahjong, the largest number of tiles for which a player can wait is 13 (the ''
thirteen wonders'', or ''13 orphans'', a nonstandard special hand). Ready hands must be declared in some variations of mahjong, while other variations prohibit the same.
Some variations of mahjong, most notably Japanese and Korean ones, allow a player to declare . A declaration of ''rīchi'' is a promise that any tile drawn by the player is immediately discarded unless it constitutes a win. Standard requirements for ''rīchi'' are that the hand be ''closed'' or have no melds declared (other than a concealed kong) and that players already have points for declaration of ''rīchi''. A player who declares ''rīchi'' and wins usually receives a point bonus for their hand directly, and a player who won with ''rīchi'' also has the advantage to open the inner dora which leads to higher possibilities to match such a card, thus has more chance to grant additional bonus. However, a player who declares ''rīchi'' and loses is usually penalised in some fashion. Declaring a nonexistent ''rīchi'' is also penalised in some way.
In some variations, a situation in which all four players declare a ''rīchi'' is an automatic drawn game, as it reduces the game down to pure luck, i.e., who gets their needed tile first.
Draws
If only the dead wall remains (or if no dead wall exists and the wall is depleted) and no one has won, the hand is drawn or "
goulash
Goulash ( hu, gulyás) is a soup or stew of meat and vegetables seasoned with paprika and other spices. Originating in Hungary, goulash is a common meal predominantly eaten in Central Europe but also in other parts of Europe. It is one of the ...
ed". A new hand begins, and depending on the variant, the Game Wind may change. For example, in most playing circles in Singapore, if there is at least one kong when the hand is a draw, the following player of the dealer becomes the next dealer; otherwise, the dealer remains dealer.
Japanese mahjong has a special rule called sanchahō, which is, if three players claim the same discard in order to win, the hand is drawn. One reason for this is that there are cases in which bars of 1,000 points for declaring ''rīchi'' cannot be divided by three. The rule is treated the same as "abortive draws".
Abortive draws
In Japanese mahjong, rules allow abortive draws to be declared while tiles are still available. They can be declared under the following conditions:
* On a player's first turn when no meld has been declared yet, if a player has nine different terminal (also known as major) or honor tiles, the player may declare the hand to be drawn (for example,
![MJd3-](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/MJd3-.svg)
, but could also go for the nonstandard ''
thirteen wonders'' hand as well).
* Four winds' barrier: On the first turn without any meld declarations, if all 4 players discard the same Wind tile, the hand is drawn.
* Yonin rīchi: If all four players declare ''rīchi'', the hand is drawn.
* Four kongs' abort: The hand is drawn when the fourth kong is declared, unless all four kongs were declared by a single player. Still, the hand is drawn when another player declares a fifth kong.
Scoring
Scoring in mahjong involves points, with a monetary value for points agreed upon by players. Although in many variations scoreless hands are possible, many require that hands be of some point value in order to win the hand.
While the basic rules are more or less the same throughout mahjong, the greatest divergence between variations lies in the scoring systems. Like the rules, there is a generalized system of scoring, based on the method of winning and the winning hand, from which Chinese and Japanese base their roots. American mahjong generally has greatly divergent scoring rules, as well as greatly divergent general rules.
Because of the large differences between the various systems of scoring (especially for Chinese variants), groups of players will often agree on particular scoring rules before a game.
Points
Points (terminology of which differs from variation to variation) are obtained by matching the winning hand with different criteria scoring different values. The points obtained may be modified into scores for each player using some (typically
exponential
Exponential may refer to any of several mathematical topics related to exponentiation, including:
*Exponential function, also:
**Matrix exponential, the matrix analogue to the above
* Exponential decay, decrease at a rate proportional to value
*Exp ...
) functions. Some criteria may be also in terms of both points and score.
In many variations the dealer receives no scoring bonus and does not maintain their turn by winning or a dead hand.
In classical mahjong all players score points. Points are given for sets and hand composition and winning bonuses, doubled and redoubled for basic patterns. Sometimes a loser may score more points than a winner. Japanese mahjong has a complex scoring system with several stages of scoring, rules and exceptions, evening out scores and bonus points at the end of a match. Korean mahjong has a simple scoring system where only winner scores without any form of doubling.
Some variations give points for concealed hands, in which case no melds are made except by winning on a discard.
In Old Hong Kong mahjong:
* Only the winner scores points.
* Winning hands are scored by totaling the point value of each element in the hand. Points are distinct from the actual payment received from each player.
* The winner receives points (also known as faan among some players) for:
** Individual melds,
** The composition of the entire hand,
** How the hand was won,
** Bonus tiles,
** Special patterns,
** A few other special criteria.
* In order to win, a player needs to have at least the minimum points agreed in advance (often 3).
* Bonus points are separate from the minimum points a player needs to win.
* If a player goes mahjong with a legal and minimum hand, their hand is scored by adding their points and bonus points together.
* The payment received from each player depends on three factors:
** The point value of the hand,
** If the player won from a discard or from the wall, and
** If the player was the dealer or not.
Comparison
Mahjong solitaire
A single player game employs the tiles of mahjong, usually played on computers or devices. Gameplay is entirely unrelated to mahjong or its variations and is a recent invention. A two-player version was published by
Nintendo
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles.
Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...
. The game involves stacking tiles face up in various elaborate patterns and removing uncovered matching tiles at the end of rows.
Competition
![wk-mahjong2002](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/Wk-mahjong2002.jpg)
In 1998, in the interest of dissociating illegal gambling from Mahjong, the
China State Sports Commission
The General Administration of Sport () is the government agency responsible for sports in mainland China. It is subordinate to the State Council of the People's Republic of China. It also administers the All-China Sports Federation and Chinese Oly ...
published a new set of rules, now generally referred to as Chinese Official rules or International Tournament rules (see
Guobiao Majiang
Mahjong Competition Rules (MCR), also known as Competition Mahjong and Guóbiāo Májiàng (simplified Chinese characters, simplified Chinese: 国标麻将, ''National Standard Mahjong''), is an international standard of rules and scoring criteria ...
). The principles of the new, wholesome Mahjong are no gambling, no drinking, and no smoking. In international tournaments, players are often grouped in teams to emphasize that Mahjong from now on is considered a sport.
The new rules are highly pattern-based. The rulebook contains 81 combinations, based on patterns and scoring elements popular in classic and modern regional Chinese variants; some table practices of Japan have also been adopted. Points for flower tiles (each flower is worth one point) may not be added until the player has scored eight points. The winner of a game receives the score from the player who discards the winning tile, plus eight basic points from each player; in the case of ''zimo'' (self-drawn win), they receive the value of this round plus eight points from all players.
The new rules were first used in an international tournament in
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
, where, in 2002, the
first global tournament in mahjong was organized by the Mahjong Museum, the Japan Mahjong Organizing Committee, and the city council of Ningbo, China. One hundred players participated, mainly from Japan and China, but also from Europe and the United States. Mai Hatsune, from Japan, became the first world champion. The following year saw the first annual China Mahjong Championship, held in Hainan; the next two annual tournaments were held in Hong Kong and Beijing. Most players were Chinese; players from other nations attended as well.
In 2005, the first
Open European Mahjong Championship
The Open European Mahjong Championship (OEMC) is the oldest European competition of Mahjong organized by European Mahjong Association (EMA) under Mahjong Competition Rules (MCR). Both men and women are eligible to contest this title, and the cha ...
was held in the Netherlands, with 108 players. The competition was won by Masato Chiba from Japan. The second European championship in
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
(2007) was attended by 136 players and won by Danish player Martin Wedel Jacobsen. The first Online European Mahjong Championship was held on the Mahjong Time server in 2007, with 64 players, and the winner was Juliani Leo, from the U.S., and the Best European Player was Gerda van Oorschot, from the Netherlands. The Third Open European Mahjong Championship 2009 at Baden/
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
, Austria, was won by Japanese player Koji Idota, while runner-up Bo Lang from Switzerland became European Champion. There were 152 participants.
In 2006, the
World Mahjong Organization
The World Mahjong Organization (Chinese: "世界麻将组织") is the international governing body of mahjong in its variation called MCR. Its headquarters is located in Beijing, China. As of 2015, its president is Jiang Xueqi.
History
Before ...
(WMO) was founded in
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
, China, with the cooperation of, amongst others, the Japan Mahjong Organizing Committee (JMOC) and the European Mahjong Association (EMA). This organization held its first
World Mahjong Championship The World Mahjong Championship is played to determine the World Champion in the table game Mahjong held by World Mahjong Organization (WMO). Both men and women are eligible to contest this title, and the championship holds both of Individual event ...
in November 2007 in the Chinese town of
Chengdu
Chengdu (, ; Simplified Chinese characters, simplified Chinese: 成都; pinyin: ''Chéngdū''; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively Romanization of Chi ...
, attended by 144 participants from all over the world. It was won by Li Li, a Chinese student at
Tsinghua University
Tsinghua University (; abbreviation, abbr. THU) is a National university, national Public university, public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Minis ...
. The next World Championship took place in
Utrecht
Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...
, the Netherlands, 27 to 29 August 2010.
Other major international tournaments include the
Mahjong International League
The Mahjong International League (Chinese: "国际麻将联盟") is the international governing body of mahjong. Its registered office is located in Lausanne, Switzerland. As of 2016, its president is Frank Ng from Hong Kong.
History
Establis ...
's
World Mahjong Sports Games The World Mahjong Sports Games (WMSG / Chinese:世界麻将运动会) is played to determine the World Champion in the table game Mahjong held by Mahjong International League (MIL). Both men and women are eligible to contest this title, and the cha ...
and the privately sponsored
World Series Of Mahjong The World Series Of Mahjong (Chinese:世界麻将大赛) is a privately sponsored Mahjong tournament. Both men and women are eligible to contest this title, and the top finishers receive prize money with the champion also receiving a necklace. The t ...
.
American mahjong
American mahjong, also spelled mah jongg, is a variant of the Chinese game mahjong. American mahjong utilizes racks to hold each player's tiles, jokers, and "Hands and Rules" score cards. It has several distinct gameplay mechanics such as "The Ch ...
tournaments are held in virtually every state—the largest is in Las Vegas, Nevada, twice a year, and in Atlantic City, New Jersey, by Mah Jongg Madness (MJM), and an annual cruise is hosted by the National Mah Jongg League and MJM. MJM tournaments host between 150 and 500 participants at these larger events; there are several smaller-scale, but equally successful, tournaments held annually by other hosts. Prize pools are based on the number participating. Rules are based on the National Mah Jongg League standard rules.
History
![沭陽紙牌](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/%E6%B2%AD%E9%99%BD%E7%B4%99%E7%89%8C.png)
Mahjong is based on draw-and-discard
card game
A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific.
Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card ...
s that were popular in 18th and 19th century China, some of which are still popular today.
They were played with a
stripped deck
A stripped deck or short deck (US), short pack or shortened pack (UK), is a set of playing cards reduced in size from a full pack or deck by the removal of a certain card or cards. The removed cards are usually pip cards, but can also be court ca ...
of
money-suited cards. Each deck is divided into three suits of
Cash
In economics, cash is money in the physical form of currency, such as banknotes and coins.
In bookkeeping and financial accounting, cash is current assets comprising currency or currency equivalents that can be accessed immediately or near-imm ...
or coins,
Strings
String or strings may refer to:
*String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...
of cash, and
Myriad
A myriad (from Ancient Greek grc, μυριάς, translit=myrias, label=none) is technically the number 10,000 (ten thousand); in that sense, the term is used in English almost exclusively for literal translations from Greek, Latin or Sinospher ...
s of strings. There are nine ranks in each suit. In addition, there are three
wild cards
''Wild Cards'' is a series of science fiction superhero shared universe anthologies, mosaic novels, and solo novels. They are written by a collection of more than forty authors (referred to as the "Wild Cards Trust") and are edited by George R. ...
: Red flower, White flower, and Old thousand. Depending on the game, there are multiple copies of each card.
Games scholar
David Parlett
David Parlett (born 18 May 1939 in London) is a games scholar, historian, and translator from South London, who has studied both card games and board games. He is the president of the British Skat Association.
His published works include many pop ...
has written that the Western card games
Conquian
Conquian, Coon Can or Colonel (the two-handed version) is a rummy-style card game. David Parlett describes it as an ancestor to all modern rummy games, and a kind of proto- gin rummy. Before the appearance of gin rummy, it was described as "an exc ...
and
Rummy
Rummy is a group of matching-card games notable for similar gameplay based on matching cards of the same rank or sequence and same suit. The basic goal in any form of rummy is to build '' melds'' which can be either sets (three or four of a k ...
share a common origin with Mahjong. All these games involve players drawing and discarding tiles or cards to make
melds.
Khanhoo
Khanhoo or kanhu is a non-partnership Chinese card game of the draw-and-discard structure. It was first recorded during the late Ming dynasty as a multi-trick taking game, a type of game that may be as old as '' T'ienkiu'' ("Heaven and Nines"), ...
is an early example of such a game. The most likely ancestor to Mahjong was ''pènghú'' which was played with 120 or 150 cards.
[ During the late 19th century, ''pènghú'' was used interchangeably with ''máquè'' in both card and tile form.
It is not known when the conversion from cards to tiles took place precisely but it most likely occurred in the middle of the 19th century. The earliest surviving tile sets date to around 1870 and were acquired in ]Fuzhou
Fuzhou (; , Fuzhounese: Hokchew, ''Hók-ciŭ''), alternately romanized as Foochow, is the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian province, China. Along with the many counties of Ningde, those of Fuzhou are considered to constitute t ...
, Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...
, and Ningbo
Ningbo (; Ningbonese: ''gnin² poq⁷'' , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly romanized as Ningpo, is a major sub-provincial city in northeast Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. It comprises 6 urban districts, 2 sate ...
. These sets differ from modern ones in several ways. In the Glover sets,[In 1875, George B. Glover, a commissioner in the Imperial Chinese Maritime Customs Service during the late nineteenth century, donated a set Mahjong tiles to ]American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...
and the other set to the Long Island Historical Society
The Center for Brooklyn History (CBH, formerly known as the Brooklyn Historical Society) is a museum, library, and educational center founded in 1863 that preserves and encourages the study of Brooklyn's 400-year history. The center's Romanesque R ...
. They are the two oldest set Mahjong tiles found in the world. there were no "flower" and ''fā'' ("green dragon") tiles. In their place were "king" tiles for heaven, earth, man, and harmony and also for each of the 4 "winds" which may have acted as bonus tiles. In the contemporaneous Himly set, there were no ''zhōng'' ("red dragon") tiles either. Instead there were the wild cards known as Cash Flower, String Flower, and Myriad Flower plus an additional tile, the king of everything. These early jokers are still found in the Vietnamese and Thai sets.[Sloper, Tom]
Is my set complete?
at sloperama.com. Retrieved 16 May 2016. They may have been removed as the tiles share the same titles as the leaders of the Taiping Rebellion
The Taiping Rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a massive rebellion and civil war that was waged in China between the Manchu-led Qing dynasty and the Han, Hakka-led Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It lasted fr ...
(1850–1864). For example, Hong Xiuquan
Hong Xiuquan (1 January 1814 – 1 June 1864), born Hong Huoxiu and with the courtesy name Renkun, was a Chinese revolutionary who was the leader of the Taiping Rebellion against the Qing dynasty. He established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdo ...
was the self-styled "Heavenly King of Great Peace" and his top subordinates were called east king, south king, west king, and north king.
The ban on gambling after the founding of the People's Republic in 1949 led to a decline in playing. The game itself was banned during the Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...
(1966–1976). Today, it is a favorite pastime in China and other Chinese-speaking communities.
Mahjong in the West
The first Western records about mahjong seem to correspond to the papers of British Consul General F.E.B. Harvey, around the time when he served as consul in Ningbo, during the 1860s. He mentions in his papers making the acquaintance of an English-fluent, rank-three official under the Daoguang Emperor, Chen Yumen, who taught him the game. In the same writings he details the rules he was taught by Chen. In 1895, British sinologist William Henry Wilkinson
Sir William Henry Wilkinson (traditional Chinese: 務謹順, simplified Chinese: 务谨顺; May 10, 1858The Foreign Office list and diplomatic and consular year book for 1917, Foreign Office, Great Britain. - 1930) was a British Sinologist who se ...
wrote a paper which mentioned a set of cards known in central China by the name of ''ma chioh'', literally, hemp sparrow, which he maintained was the origin of the term Mahjong. He did not explain the dialect of the originator or region specific etymology of this information. By 1910, there were written accounts in many languages, including French and Japanese.
The game was imported to the United States in the 1920s. The first Mahjong sets sold in the U.S. were sold by Abercrombie & Fitch
Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F) is an American lifestyle retailer that focuses on casual wear. Its headquarters are in New Albany, Ohio. The company operates three other offshoot brands: Abercrombie Kids, Hollister Co., and Gilly Hicks. As of Februar ...
starting in 1920. It became a success in Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, and the co-owner of the company, Ezra Fitch
Ezra Hasbrouck Fitch (September 27, 1865 – June 16, 1930) was the co-founder of the modern lifestyle brand Abercrombie & Fitch and is attributed with the introduction of Mahjong to the United States.
A wealthy New York City manager, Fitch beg ...
, sent emissaries to Chinese villages to buy every Mahjong set they could find. Abercrombie & Fitch sold a total of 12,000 Mahjong sets. Mahjong became a central part of cultural bonding for Chinese Americans
Chinese Americans are Americans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans along with their ancestors trace lineage from ...
in the 1920s and '30s in Chinatown, Manhattan
Manhattan's Chinatown () is a Neighborhoods in Manhattan, neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City, bordering the Lower East Side to its east, Little Italy, Manhattan, Little Italy to its north, Civic Center, Manhattan, Civic Center to its ...
and was part of community building for suburban American Jewish women in the 1940s and 50s.
Also in 1920, Joseph Park Babcock
Joseph Park Babcock (1893 – 1949), American popularizer of Mahjong, was born in Lafayette, Indiana. After graduating from Purdue University with a degree in Civil Engineering, he worked for the Standard Oil Company. In 1912 he was sent to So ...
published his book ''Rules of Mah-Jongg'', also known as the "red book". This was the earliest version of Mahjong known in America. Babcock had learned Mahjong while living in China. His rules simplified the game to make it easier for Americans to take up, and his version was common through the Mahjong fad of the 1920s. Later, when the 1920s fad died out, many of Babcock's simplifications were abandoned.
The game has taken on a number of trademarked names, such as "Pung Chow" and the "Game of Thousand Intelligences". Mahjong nights in America often involved dressing and decorating rooms in Chinese style. Several hit songs were recorded during the Mahjong fad, most notably "Since Ma Is Playing Mah Jong" by Eddie Cantor
Eddie Cantor (born Isidore Itzkowitz; January 31, 1892 – October 10, 1964) was an American comedian, actor, dancer, singer, songwriter, film producer, screenwriter and author. Familiar to Broadway, radio, movie, and early television audiences, ...
.
Many variants of Mahjong developed during this period. By the 1930s, many revisions of the rules developed that were substantially different from Babcock's classical version (including some that were considered fundamentals in other variants, such as the notion of a standard hand). Standardization came with the formation of the National Mah Jongg League (NMJL) in 1937, along with the first American Mahjong rulebook, ''Maajh: The American Version of the Ancient Chinese Game'', written by NMJL's first president and co-founder, Viola L. Cecil. In 1999, a second organization was formed, the American Mah Jongg Association.
In the United Kingdom, British author Alan D. Millington revived the Chinese classical game of the 1920s with his book ''The Complete Book of Mah-jongg'' (1977). This handbook includes a formal rules set for the game.
Mahjong serves as a minor plot point in the 2016 American science fiction film
Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial lifeforms, spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, interstellar ...
''Arrival
Arrival(s) or The Arrival(s) may refer to:
Film
* ''The Arrival'' (1991 film), an American science fiction horror film
* ''The Arrival'' (1996 film), an American-Mexican science fiction horror film
* ''Arrival'' (film), a 2016 American science ...
'' where General Shang uses the game to interact with the aliens.
Current development
There are many governing bodies which often host exhibition games and tournaments for modern and traditional Mahjong gaming.
Mahjong, as of 2010, is the most popular table game in Japan. As of 2008, there were approximately 7.6 million Mahjong players in Japan and an estimated 8,900 Mahjong parlors did ¥300 billion (converting to US$2.8 billion according to exchange rates for 30 April 2020) in sales. There are several manga
Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...
and anime
is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
(e.g. ''Saki'' and ''Akagi'') devoted to dramatic and comic situations involving Mahjong. Since the 1980s, hundreds of different Mahjong arcade machines in Japanese video arcade
An amusement arcade (often referred to as a video arcade, amusements or simply arcade) is a venue where people play arcade games, including arcade video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers (such as c ...
s have been created, including strip
Strip or Stripping may refer to:
Places
* Aouzou Strip, a strip of land following the northern border of Chad that had been claimed and occupied by Libya
* Caprivi Strip, narrow strip of land extending from the Okavango Region of Namibia to ...
versions. Newer units can connect with other arcade machines across the Internet.
Mahjong culture is still deeply ingrained in the Chinese community. Sam Hui
Samuel Hui Koon-kit (born 6 September 1948), usually known as Sam Hui, is a Hong Kong musician, singer, songwriter and actor. He is credited with popularising Cantopop both via the infusion of Western-style music and his usage of vernacular Cantone ...
wrote Cantopop songs using Mahjong as their themes, and Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
movies have often included scenes of Mahjong games. Many gambling movies have been filmed in Hong Kong, and a recent subgenre is the Mahjong movie.
Although the popularity of the game in China is still broad, since 1949, mahjong was frowned upon by the government because it is seen as a means of gambling
Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three el ...
addiction, an issue that the government always sought to tackle.
Prolonged playing of Mahjong may trigger epileptic seizures
An epileptic seizure, informally known as a seizure, is a period of symptoms due to abnormally excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain. Outward effects vary from uncontrolled shaking movements involving much of the body with los ...
according to a 2007 study. To date there are 23 reported cases of Mahjong-induced seizures in the English medical literature. Some doctors speculate that this may be due to stress and complex manual movement correlated with intense brain function similar to playing chess or card games such as poker.
Studies by doctors have also shown in Hong Kong that the game is beneficial for individuals suffering from dementia or cognitive memory difficulties, leading to the development of Mahjong therapy.
Researchers have also used artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...
techniques to develop Mahjong-playing agents using neural network
A neural network is a network or circuit of biological neurons, or, in a modern sense, an artificial neural network, composed of artificial neurons or nodes. Thus, a neural network is either a biological neural network, made up of biological ...
s and reinforcement learning
Reinforcement learning (RL) is an area of machine learning concerned with how intelligent agents ought to take actions in an environment in order to maximize the notion of cumulative reward. Reinforcement learning is one of three basic machine ...
. They have shown that a self-learning machine can be trained to compete with some of the best Richi Mahjong players.
Mahjong was also adapted into several puzzle video game
Puzzle video games make up a broad genre of video games that emphasize puzzle solving. The types of puzzles can test problem-solving skills, including logic, pattern recognition, sequence solving, spatial recognition, and word completion.
H ...
s such as ''Mahjong Trails
MegaZebra is a game development company located in Munich, Germany.
The company develops free-to-play games for social networks like Facebook and mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets. As of July 2018, the company employs 55 people.
H ...
'', listed as one of the top-grossing games on Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
.
Superstitions
Even though both skill and chance play a fundamental role in the game, there is no shortage of superstitions in which players believe where they sit, how they hold their pieces or objects they have on their person will somehow affect the outcome. For example, players will try to find seats with the best feng shui or wear their lucky clothing or trinkets. Some believe that specific pieces (one dot, for example) bode bad luck if received in their opening hand.
More elaborate superstitions in mahjong range from those found in the game poker, such as not counting one's wins and losses, to the comical, such as changing one's undergarments after a loss. As with all superstitions in gaming, none of them have been properly demonstrated as effective, though, for some, the rituals have become an integral part of the game experience and its aesthetics.
Glossary
*Heavenly Hand (天糊)
*Great Winds (大四喜)
*Great Dragons (大三元)
*All Kongs (十八羅漢)
*All Honor Tiles (字一色)
*Thirteen Orphans (十三幺)
*Nine Gates Hand (九蓮宝燈)
*Self Triplets (四暗刻)
*All in Triplets (對對糊)
*Mixed one suit (混一色)
*All one suit (清一色)
*Common Hand (平糊)
*Small Dragons (小三元)
*Small Winds (小四喜)
Unicode
Mahjong tiles were added to the Unicode
Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology Technical standard, standard for the consistent character encoding, encoding, representation, and handling of Character (computing), text expre ...
Standard in April, 2008 with the release of version 5.1.
The Unicode block for Mahjong tiles is U+1F000–U+1F02F:
See also
* Mahjong tiles
Mahjong tiles () are tiles of Chinese origin that are used to play mahjong as well as mahjong solitaire and other games. Although they are most commonly tiles, they may refer to playing cards with similar contents as well.
Development
The ...
* Mahjong video game
A Mahjong video game is a video game that is based on one of the many ways to play mahjong. The majority of mahjong video games are developed and released in Japan and use the rules for Japanese Mahjong, although several have also been made for A ...
* Singaporean Mahjong scoring rules
Scoring in Mahjong, a game for four players that originated in China, involves the players obtaining points for their hand of tiles, then paying each other based on the differences in their score and who obtained mahjong (won the hand). The point ...
* Khanhoo
Khanhoo or kanhu is a non-partnership Chinese card game of the draw-and-discard structure. It was first recorded during the late Ming dynasty as a multi-trick taking game, a type of game that may be as old as '' T'ienkiu'' ("Heaven and Nines"), ...
* Madiao
''Madiao'' (), also ''ma diao'', ''ma tiu'' or ''ma tiao'', is a late imperial Chinese trick-taking gambling card game, also known as the game of ''paper tiger''. The deck used was recorded by Lu Rong in the 15th century and the rules later by Pan ...
* Chinese playing cards
Playing cards () were most likely invented in China during the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279). They were certainly in existence by the Mongol Yuan dynasty (1271-1368).Lo, Andrew. (2000)The Game of Leaves: An Inquiry into the Origin of Chinese ...
* Mah-Jongg (lemur) Mah-Jongg or Jongy was a ring-tailed lemur owned by Virginia and Stephen Courtauld, wealthy English philanthropists from Courtaulds, a family of industrialists.
Jongy was purchased at Harrods, one of London's most upmarket department stores, in 192 ...
, a pet owned by the Courtaulds
References
Notes
Further reading
* Lo, Amy. ''The Book of Mahjong: An Illustrated Guide''. Tuttle Publishing: 2001.
*Zhou, H. X. & Wang, Y. L. (2002). The Origin and Development of Mahjong. Journal Of Ningbo University(Liberal Arts Edition)
*Rep, J. (2007). The great mahjong book: History, lore and play. North Clarendon, VT: Tuttle Pub..
* Oxfeld, Ellen, ''Blood, Sweat, and Mahjong: Family and Enterprise in an Overseas Chinese Community''. Cornell University Press: 1993. .
* Pritchard, David B., ''Teach Yourself mahjong''. McGraw-Hill/Contemporary: 2001. .
* Sloper, Tom., ''Mah-Jongg: Game of the Orient.'' Self-published: n.d.
* Wright Patterson Mah Jongg Group
''Mah Jongg; Wright-Patterson Rules''
Wright Patterson Mah Jongg Group: 1963.
Historical research
* Culin, Stewart, ‘The Game of Ma-Jong, its Origin and Significance’. In: ''Brooklyn Museum Quarterly,'' Brooklyn, NY, Vol. XI, 1924, p. 153–168. Also found at
* Depaulis, Thierry, ‘Embarrassing Tiles: Mahjong and the Taipings’. In: ''The Playing-Card
''The Playing-Card'' is a quarterly publication, publishing scholarly articles covering all aspects of playing cards and of the games played with them, produced by the International Playing-Card Society. ''The Playing-Cards articles are mostly in E ...
'', Vol. 35, No. 3, 2007, pp. 148 – 153.
* Ebashi, Takashi, ‘Proto Mahjong. Mahjong Tiles in the 19th Century’. In: ''Mahjong Museum Report'', Vol. 5, No.2, Issue 9, April 2005, pp. 14 – 17 (in Japanese).
* Lo, Andrew, ‘China’s Passion for Pai: Playing Cards, Dominoes, and Mahjong’. In: ''Asian Games: The Art of Contest'', Colin Mackenzie and Irving Finkel, eds. Asia Society. 2004. pp. 217–231.
*Greene, M. (2016). The Game People Played: Mahjong in Modern Chinese Society and Culture. Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review, 5(1), 1–27. doi:10.1353/ach.2016.0001
* Stanwick, Michael, ‘Mahjong(g) Before Mahjong(g): Part 1’. In: ''The Playing-Card'', Vol. 32, No. 4, 2004, pp. 153–162.
* Stanwick, Michael, ‘Mahjong(g) Before Mahjong(g): Part 2’. In: ''The Playing-Card'', Vol. 32, No. 5, 2004, pp. 206–215.
* Stanwick, Michael, ‘Mahjong(g), Before and After Mahjong(g): Part 1’. In: ''The Playing-Card'', Vol. 34, No. 4, 2006, pp. 259–268.
* Stanwick, Michael, ‘Mahjong(g), Before and After Mahjong(g): Part 2’. In: ''The Playing-Card'', Vol. 35, No. 1, 2006, pp. 27–39.
* Stanwick, Michael and Xu, Hongbing, 'Flowers and Kings: A Hypothesis of their Function in Early Ma Que'. In: ''The Playing-Card'', Vol. 37, No. 1, 2008, pp. 29–40.
* Stanwick, Michael and Xu, Hongbing, 'From Cards to Tiles: The Origin of Mahjong(g)'s Earliest Suit Names'. In: ''The Playing-Card'', Vol. 41, No. 1, 2012, pp. 52–67.
* Wilkinson, William H.,(1890): Published in 1901 as pp 184–194 of ''Catalogue of the Collection of Playing Cards Bequeathed to the Trustees of the British Museum'', F. M. O’Donoghue.
* Wilkinson, William H.,(1893): Published in Culin, ''Games of the Orient'', Tuttle, 1958. First published under the title ''Korean Games, with Notes on the Corresponding Games of China and Japan'', University of Pennsylvania, 1895.
* Wilkinson, William H., ‘Chinese Origin of Playing Cards’, in '' The American Anthropologist'', Volume VIII, 1895, pp. 61–78. Can also be found at
Chinese classic
*
*
*
Chinese official
* ''Competition mahjong Official International Rulebook''. Takeshobo: 2002. .
* ''Handbook for the Competitions of the Chinese MaJiang. '' Organizing Committee of Chinese MaJiang: 2005.
* Hatsune, Mai and Takunori Kajimoto, translation by Ryan Morris
World-Class Mahjong with World Champion Mai Hatsune
': 2005.
* Pritchard, David B., ''The New mahjong''. Right Way: 2004. .
External links
*
*
{{Gambling
Mahjong,
Chinese games
Gambling games
Traditional board games
Articles containing video clips
1920s fads and trends