Mahjong tiles
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Mahjong tiles (Chinese: 麻將牌 or 麻雀牌; pinyin: májiàngpái; Cantonese Jyutping: maa4zoek3paai2; Japanese: 麻雀牌; rōmaji: mājampai) 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 earliest surviving mahjong sets date to the 1870s when the game was largely confined to Zhejiang, Shanghai, and Jiangsu.[1] They already exhibited various traits found in modern sets. The core of the set is the 108 suited tiles which were inherited from Chinese money-suited playing cards. The Wind honor tiles and the Four Seasons tiles were also found in the earliest sets. The honor tiles known as Arrows (Dragons in English) developed to their current form by 1890 concurrent with a new style of play called Zhōngfā (中發).[2] Flower tiles, once known as Outer Flowers (Chinese: 外花; pinyin: wàihuā; Jyutping: ngoi6faa1), were not universally accepted until the 1920s. In contrast, many early sets contained wild cards with specific powers known as Inner Flowers (Chinese: 裏花; pinyin: lǐhuā; Jyutping: loei5faa1) which disappeared from most of China but are still found in Vietnam and Thailand.[3][4]
Contents[]
| Numbers | ||||||||||
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| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | ||
| Suits | Dots | 
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| Bamboo | 
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| Characters | 
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| Honors | Winds | Dragons | ||||||||
| East | South | West | North | Red | Green | White | ||||
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| Bonus | Seasons | Flowers | ||||||||
| Spring | Summer | Autumn | Winter | Plum | Orchid | Chrysan- themum |
Bamboo | |||
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A set of Mahjong tiles will usually differ from place to place. It usually has at least 136 tiles (four copies of each of the Suit and Honor Tiles), most commonly 144, although sets originating from the United States or Southeast Asia will usually feature more tiles in the form of flowers or Jokers. Some sets also contain blank tiles which owners can use to replace damaged or missing tiles.
Mahjong tiles can be organized into several categories:
Suited tiles[]
Suited tiles (Chinese: 序數牌; pinyin: xùshùpái; "ordinal number tiles"; also Chinese: 數字牌; pinyin: shùzìpái; Cantonese Jyutping: sou3zi6paai2; "number tiles"; also Japanese: 数牌; rōmaji: shūpai/suupai; "number tiles") have a suit and a rank. There are three money-based suits with ranks ranging from one to nine. There are four tiles of each rank and suit combination, thus there are 36 tiles in a suit, and 108 suited tiles in total. To refer to a suited tile, the rank is named, followed by the suit. The ones and nines of each suit (Chinese: 幺九; pinyin: yāo jiǔ; Cantonese Jyutping: jiu1gau2; Japanese: ヤオ九; rōmaji: yaochū) are collectively referred to as the terminal tiles. Suited tiles may be used to form melds.
Circles[]
The circle (dot, coin, wheel, stone) suit (Chinese: 筒子; pinyin: tǒngzi; Cantonese Jyutping: tung4zi2; "barrel"; also Chinese: 餅; pinyin: bǐng; Japanese: 餅子; rōmaji: pinzu; "flatbread") is represented by a series of circles.
The 1 Circle is generally a large circle of multiple colors, while the rest of the circle tiles consist of smaller circles, each circle being of one color. The 2 Circle consists of a green and a blue circle, the 3 consisting of one green, one red, and one blue circle arranged diagonally (the order the circles appear in, as well as the orientation, differs between sets). The 4 Circle has two blue circles and two green circles, arranged in a rectangle with circles of like color in opposite corners. The 5 Circle is similar to the 4 Circle, with another circle (its color depending on the set) in the middle. The 6 Circle consists of two green circles at the top and four red circles in the bottom (with a space between the green and red circles). The 7 Circle is similar to the 6 Circle, but has 3 green circles arranged diagonally from top-left to bottom-right. The 8 Circle has eight blue circles arranged in a 2x4 rectangle. The 9 Circle has three each of green, red, and blue circles, with each color occupying a row. There is some space between each row, and the middle row is always of the red circles (the blue and green, of course, depends on the orientation of the tile).
Because of the large size of the circle in the 1 Circle, it is commonly nicknamed da bing (大餅 pinyin dàbǐng, literally: "big pancake").
From the monetary origin of this suit, the circles represent the copper coins known in English as "cash". (1銅=one copper coin).
Bamboo[]
The bamboo (stick, string, bam) suit (Chinese and Japanese: 索子; pinyin: suǒzi; Cantonese Jyutping: sok3zi2; rōmaji: sōzu; "woven thread"; also Chinese: 條/条; pinyin: tiáo; "flatbread"), with the exception of the 1 Bamboo, which is commonly represented by a bird (like 
, 
or 
), is represented by outlines of sticks.
or
The 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8 Bamboo are represented entirely out of green sticks only or blue and green sticks, while the middle stick in the 5 Bamboo, the top stick of the 7 Bamboo, and the sticks along the center column of the 9 Bamboo are red. Some sets may also have the sticks along the bottom row or center column of the 7 Bamboo in blue. The 8 Bamboo has its sticks forming an M-shape and its mirror image.
From the monetary origin of this suit, the sticks are actually rope strings (索) that tie 100 Chinese copper coins together by the square holes in the middle. (1索=100銅) The repeated bumps in the sticks depict the individual coins in the strings, but they were mistaken by Joseph Park Babcock as the knots on the bamboo plants, hence the English name of the suit. The 1 Bamboo, as it commonly depicts a bird, is often referred as the sparrow (麻雀 - má què); in Japan it is most commonly a peacock. In early sets, there was no bird but a single bent string of cash capped with a red knot (
).[1][5]
Characters[]
The character (myriad, number, crack) suit (Chinese: 萬子/万子; pinyin: wànzi; Cantonese Jyutping: maan6zi2; Japanese: 萬子; rōmaji: wanzu/manzu; "myriad") is represented by Chinese characters.
The rank of the tile is represented at the top, in blue, with Chinese numerals, while the character below (萬 wàn, meaning myriad) is in red. Older sets used the cursive character 万 when tiles were still hand-carved. Fujianese sets use 品 (pǐn, rank). Most sets use the character 伍 (
) for five instead of 五 (
).
From the monetary origin of this suit, the myriads (10,000) are actually 100 strings of coins described in the bamboo suit section above. One myriad equals ten thousand coins or 100 strings of 100 coins. (1萬=100索×100銅)
Red tiles[]
Red tiles (Japanese: 赤牌; rōmaji: akapai) are unique to the Japanese set. They appear as a red version of tiles from each suit and are not quadruplicated. They first appeared in the 1970s with the Red 5 Circle which were followed with red 5 tiles for the other suits.[6] Red 3s and 7s later appeared and were followed by red 1s and 9s although they are much less commonly found in sets than red 5s.[7] There is also a rare red white dragon (白ポッチ, shiro pocchi) which can act as a wild card if tsumo conditions are met.
These tiles are entirely optional. When inserted into play, one copy of its regular non-red counterpart is removed. They increase the score when melded. Japanese sets typically do not include the Four Gentlemen flower tiles to make room for the red tiles as flower tiles are rarely used in Japanese Mahjong anyway. Some mahjong parlours will have their own house tiles which may be red tiles for even ranks, even higher-scoring green tiles or gold tiles (Japanese: 金牌; rōmaji: kinpai), or colored wind tiles.
Honor tiles[]
Honor tiles (字牌, pinyin: zìpái, 'word tiles'; or 番子, jyutping: faan1zi2, 'exponentials') have neither rank nor suit but like suited tiles they are also formed into melds. They are divided into two categories: four Wind tiles (風牌/风牌, pinyin: fēngpái, jyutping: fung1paai2, Japanese romaji: fompai or kazehai) and three Dragon tiles (三元牌, pinyin: sānyuánpái, jyutping: saam1jyun4paai2, Japanese romaji: sangempai), each of which is quadruplicated. Thus, there are 16 wind tiles and 12 Dragon tiles for 28 honor tiles.
Winds[]
The four types of Wind tiles are: East (Chinese: 東/东; pinyin: dōng; Cantonese Jyutping: dung1; Japanese: 東; rōmaji: ton), South (Chinese and Japanese: 南; pinyin: nán; Cantonese Jyutping: naam4; rōmaji: nan), West (Chinese and Japanese: 西; pinyin: xī; Cantonese Jyutping: sai1; rōmaji: shā), and North (Chinese and Japanese: 北; pinyin: běi; Cantonese Jyutping: bak1; rōmaji: pei/pē). Their Chinese characters are usually in blue, like 東, 南, 西 and 北.
Each type of Wind tiles corresponds to a point along the compass, written in blue traditional Chinese characters (even for sets where the Character tiles are written in simplified Chinese). Bonus points are scored if melds match the seat wind or prevailing wind or both. They are also known as the Four Joyous Tiles (Chinese: 四喜牌; pinyin: sìxǐpái; Cantonese Jyutping: sei3hei2paai1).
Dragons[]
The three types of Dragon tiles are:
or
or
- Red (Chinese: 紅中/红中; pinyin: hóngzhōng; Cantonese Jyutping: hung4zung1; also Chinese and Japanese: 中; pinyin: zhōng; Cantonese Jyutping: zung1; rōmaji: chun) - a tile with a red traditional Chinese character (中) meaning center or middle. Sets for English speakers may also have a black letter C in a corner of the tile, denoting the first letter of the Wade-Giles romanization of 中 (chung). One of the earliest sets did not include these tiles.[1] Some tiles have the traditional Chinese character "龍" (
) or a red dragon icon. - Green (Chinese: 發財/发财; pinyin: fācái; Cantonese Jyutping: faat3coi4; also Chinese: 青發/青发; pinyin: qīngfā; also Chinese: 發/发; pinyin: fā; Cantonese Jyutping: faat3; Japanese: 發/
