Mahjong

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MahjongMahjong, sometimes spelled Mah Jongg, is a game that originated in China, commonly played by four players (with some three-player variations found in Korea and Japan). The four player table version should not be confused with the popular Western single player (tile matching) computer game (Mahjong solitaire), which is a recent invention and completely different from the table game. Similar to the Western card game rummy, mahjong is a game of skill, strategy and calculation and involves a certain degree of chance. In Asia, mahjong is also popularly played as a gambling game (though it may just as easily be played recreationally).

The game is played with a set of 136 tiles based on Chinese characters and symbols, although some regional variations use a different number of tiles. In most variations, each player begins by receiving thirteen tiles. In turn players draw and discard tiles until they complete a legal hand using the fourteenth drawn tile to form four groups (melds) and a pair (head). There are fairly standard rules about how a piece is drawn, stolen from another player (melded), the use of basic (numbered tiles) and honours (winds and dragons), the kinds of melds, and the order of dealing and play. However there are many regional variations in the rules; in addition, the scoring system, the minimum hand necessary to win varies significantly based on the local rules being used.

Name

The game was called 麻雀 (pinyin: má què), meaning sparrow in Chinese, which is still the name most commonly used in some southern Chinese dialects such as Cantonese and Min Nan, as well as in Japanese. However, most Mandarin-speaking Chinese now call the game má jiàng (麻將). In Northern Wu Chinese (Shanghainese and its relatives), it is pronounced as 麻將 [mu tsiaŋ], but in actuality, 麻將 is the diminutive form of 麻雀, written as 麻雀兒 [mu tsiaʔ ŋ], due to an erhua event. It is through the Wu Chinese pronunciation of 麻雀兒 that the diminutive form of 麻雀 in Northern Wu dialect became known as 麻將 in both Mandarin and Wu.

Special meaning and history of tiles

The suits of the tiles are money-based. In ancient China, the copper coins had a square hole in the center; people passed a rope through the holes to tie coins into strings. These strings are usually in groups of 100 coins, called diào (弔, or variant 吊), or 1000 coins, called guàn (貫). Mahjong's connection to the ancient Chinese currency system is consistent with its alleged derivation from the game named mǎ diào (馬弔).

In the mahjong suits, the coppers represent the coins, the ropes are actually strings of 100 coins, and the character myriad represents 10,000 coins or 100 strings. When a hand receives the maximum allowed winning of a round, it is called mǎn guàn (滿貫, literally, "full string of coins".)

  • Dragon tiles: Red Dragon, Green Dragon, and White Dragon. The term dragon tile is a Western convention introduced by Joseph Park Babcock in his 1920 book introducing mahjong to America. Originally, these tiles are said to have something to do with the Chinese Imperial Examination. The red tile ("中"榜, zhōngbǎng) means passing the examination to clear the way to officialdom. The green tile ("發"財, fācái, literally "get rich") means wealth. The white tile (白板,báibǎn, literally "clean slate") means freedom from corruption. It usually has a blue border to distinguish from replacement tiles and prevent alterations. In the original Chinese mahjong, these pieces are called jiàn (箭), which represents archery, and the red "中" represents a hit on the target. In ancient Chinese archery, one would put a red "中" to signify that the target was hit. White "白" represents failure, and green "發" means that one will release the draw.
  • Stones (alternatively wheels or circles): one through nine (). Named as each tile consists of a number of circles. Each circle is said to represent can (筒, tóng) coins with a square hole in the middle.

  • Bamboos: one through nine (). Named as each tile consists of a number of bamboo sticks. Each stick is said to represent a string (索, suǒ) that holds a hundred coins. Note that 1 Bamboo is an exception: it has a bird sitting on a bamboo, to prevent alteration.

  • Characters (alternatively numbers): one through nine (). Named as each tile represents ten thousand (萬, wàn) coins, or one hundred strings of one hundred coins.

Mahjong online

Mahjong can be played online through websites or downloading programs in various languages for fun or for money.

Unicode

Mahjong tiles were added to the Unicode Standard in April, 2008 with the release of version 5.1.

The Unicode block for mahjong tiles is U+1F000–U+1F02F. Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points.

Mahjong Tiles[1]
Unicode.org chart (PDF)
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
U+1F00x
U+1F01x
U+1F02x        
Notes
1.^ As of Unicode version 6.0
 

Further reading

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; Gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca
  • Depaulis, Thierry, ‘Embarrassing Tiles: Mahjong and the Taipings’. In: The Playing-Card, 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. ISBN 0-87848-099-4
  • 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.
  • 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. Also found at; Gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca
Chinese classical
  • Babcock, Joseph Park, Babcock's Rules for Mah-jongg. Mah-jongg Sales Company of America: 1923.
  • Babcock, Smith, Hartman, Work, and Foster, The American Code Of Laws For Mah-Jongg. Standardization Committee: 1924.
  • Millington, A.D., Complete Book of Mah Jong. Weidenfeld & Nicolson: 1993. ISBN 0-297-81340-4.
Chinese official
  • Competition mahjong Official International Rulebook. Takeshobo: 2002. ISBN 4-8124-0944-6.
  • 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. ISBN 0-7160-2164-1.
Others
  • Lo, Amy. The Book of Mahjong: An Illustrated Guide. Tuttle Publishing: 2001. ISBN 0-8048-3302-8.
  • Oxfeld, Ellen, Blood, Sweat, and Mahjong: Family and Enterprise in an Overseas Chinese Community. Cornell University Press: 1993. ISBN 0-8014-9908-9.
  • Pritchard, David B., Teach Yourself mahjong. McGraw-Hill/Contemporary: 2001. ISBN 0-658-02147-8.
  • 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.

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