
In addition, there are three wild cards: Red flower, White flower, and Old thousand. Each deck is divided into three suits of Cash or coins, Strings of cash, and Myriads of strings. They were played with a stripped deck of money-suited cards. Mahjong is based on draw-and-discard card games that were popular in 18th and 19th century China and some are still popular today. It is through the Wu Chinese pronunciation of 麻雀兒 that the diminutive form of 麻雀 in Northern Wu became known as 麻將 in both Mandarin and Wu. In Northern Wu Chinese (Shanghainese and its relatives), it is pronounced as 麻將, but in actuality, 麻將 is the diminutive form of 麻雀, written as 麻雀兒, due to an erhua event. However, most Mandarin-speaking Chinese now call the game májiàng (麻將). In Chinese, the game was originally called 麻雀 (pinyin: máquè) - meaning sparrow - which is still the name most commonly used in some southern Chinese varietes such as Cantonese and Min Nan, as well as in Japanese. However, there are many regional variations in the rules in addition, the scoring system and the minimum hand necessary to win varies significantly based on the local rules being used. There are fairly standard rules about how a piece is drawn, how a piece is stolen from another player and thus melded, the use of simples (numbered tiles) and honors (winds and dragons), the kinds of melds, and the order of dealing and play. In turn players draw and discard tiles until they complete a legal hand using the 14th drawn tile to form four groups (melds) and a pair (head). In most variations, each player begins by receiving 13 tiles. The game is played with a set of 144 tiles based on Chinese characters and symbols, although some regional variations use a different number of tiles. Similar to the Western card game rummy, mahjong is a game of skill, strategy, and calculation and involves a degree of chance.ĭependent on variation and/or house/tournament rules The game and its regional variants are widely played throughout Eastern and South Eastern Asia and have a small following in Western countries. It is commonly played by four players (with some three-player variations found in South Korea and Japan).
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Mahjong, also spelled majiang, mah jongg, and numerous other variants, is a game that originated in China. A game of mahjong being played in Hangzhou, China
