Mahjong
Mahjong (麻將 pinyin: ma2 jiang1 lit. hemp general or 麻雀 Cantonese: ma4 jeuk3, literal meaning: "sparrow") (occasionally written as Mah Jong, Mahjongg or Majong; Mah-Jongg was trademarked by Joseph Park Babcock in 1920) is a Chinese gambling game for 4 players. The game pieces (tiles) and scoring rules used in the game are slightly different depending on regional variations. The game play in general are very similar in all versions, as players compete to build sets including the highest point value.
The closest Western analogue is probably the card game gin rummy. Both games involve selecting or discarding units (tiles in one case, cards in the other) to score points by forming groups or runs of similar units.
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2 Playing Mahjong 3 Tile Construction 4 Trivia 5 External links |
Origins and History
Mahjong is thought to have evolved from existing Chinese card and domino games sometime around 1850. There is still a healthy debate about to whom the creation of the game should be attributed. One theory is that Chinese army officers serving during the Tai Ping Rebellion created the game to pass the time. Another theory is that a noble living in the Shanghai area created the game between 1870 and 1875.
By 1895, an American anthropologist named Stewart Cullin wrote a paper in which Mahjong was mentioned. This is the first known written account of Mahjong in any language other than Chinese. By 1910, there were written accounts in many languages including French and Japanese.
The game was a sensation in America when it was imported from China in the 1920s. Part of Mahjong nights in America were to decorate rooms in Chinese style and dress like Chinese (see Bill Bryson's Made in America, Chapter 16).
Today, the popularity and demographic of players of Mahjong differs greatly from country to country. In America, most players are women. In Japan, there is a much greater emphasis on gambling, and the gender of the players is much less divided. In Japan most of the electronic arcade versions feature stripping women.
Playing Mahjong
A Mahjong "set" is usually composed of 144 tiles. They can be categorized by suit as follows:
^^^Note^^^ Names differ by language.
- circles or coins or dots (銅; pinyin: tong2 lit. copper) (nine values, with four tiles of each number)
- bamboos or bams (索 pinyin: suo3 lit. rope) (nine values, with four tiles of each number)
- characters or craks (萬 pinyin: wan4 lit. myriad) (nine values, with four tiles of each number)
- honors - comprising
- four winds (East 東, South 南, West 西 and North 北) (four tiles for each wind)
- the four seasons (Spring 春, Summer 夏, Autumn 秋 and Winter 冬) Unique tiles that function as a set
- the four flowers (plum 梅, Orchid 蘭, chrysanthemum 菊, bamboo 竹) Unique tiles that function as a set
- the three Dragons (red 中, green 發 and
white 白) (four of each dragon)
In most regional variants, each of the four players is dealt 13 tiles (16 in a few variants). A turn consists of a player drawing a tile from the "wall", or draw pile and placing it in his hand. He then discards a tile to the table, which signals the end of his or her turn. In the American version of the game, tiles are passed around the table before the main game starts.
When a player discards a tile, any other player may "call" or "bid" for it in order to complete a run or a set in his or her own hand. The disadvantage of doing this is that the player must expose the completed run or set to the other players, giving them an idea of what type of hand he or she is creating. This also creates an element of strategy, as in many versions, discarding a tile that allows another player to win the game causes the discarding player to lose points (or pay the winner more in a game for money).
A player wins the game by creating a "Mahjong", the definition of which varies from region to region. Some versions use an open-ended scoring system that allows one to win with any combination of pairs (2 tiles of the same type), pungs (3 tile sets), kongs (4 tile sets), and rarely quints (5 tile sets). In these scoring systems, certain whole hands or having certain tiles in the hand can give bonus points. On the other end of the spectrum are variants like the American version. In the American version, players use a card that define a small set of hands that are the only valid winning hands. The National Mah Jongg League, the major governing body of organized play in the United States, issues new cards each year to keep the hands fresh.
Tile Construction
Mahjong tiles have been constructed from various materials throughout the years. Traditionally, mahjongg tiles were constructed from ivory or bone, often backed with bamboo. Bone, and to a lesser extent, ivory tiles are still available but most modern sets are constructed from various plastics such as bakelite, celluloid, and more recently nylon. Regardless of the material used to construct the tiles, the symbols on them are almost always engraved or pressed into the material. It is said that some expert players can determine the face value of their tiles without actually looking at them by feeling these engravings with their fingers.Trivia
Little known to most players, the suits of the tiles are money-based. The coppers represent the coins; the ropes are actually strings of 100 coins; and the character myriad represents 10 thousand coins or 100 strings.
Mahjong tiles are also used for a computerised solitaire matching game called Shanghai solitaire, or occasionally computerised Mahjong. While this game could be played with real tiles, the electronic setup makes it quick and simple to play.