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 earliest surviving mahjong sets date to the 1870s when the game was largely confined to Zhejiang, Shanghai, and Jiangsu. 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 developed to their current form by 1890 concurrent with a new style of play called Zhōngfā. Flower tiles, once known as Outer Flowers, were not universally accepted until the 1920s. In contrast, many early sets contained wild cards with specific powers known as Inner Flowers which disappeared from most of China but are still found in Vietnam.Contents
Full set
A set of Mahjong tiles will usually differ from place to place. It usually has at least 136 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 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 are collectively referred to as the terminal tiles. Suited tiles may be used to form melds.Circles
The circle suit is represented by a series of circles.Image:MJt1-.svg|50px|1 CircleImage:MJt2-.svg|50px|2 CircleImage:MJt3-.svg|50px|3 CircleImage:MJt4-.svg|50px|4 CircleImage:MJt5-.svg|50px|5 CircleImage:MJt6-.svg|50px|6 CircleImage:MJt7-.svg|50px|7 CircleImage:MJt8-.svg|50px|8 CircleImage:MJt9-.svg|50px|9 Circle
Image:Eiraku-Tsuho.jpg|150px|right|thumb|The circles represent copper coins like this.
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 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 in the middle. The 6 Circle consists of two green circles at the top and four red circles in the bottom. 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.
Because of the large size of the circle in the 1 Circle, it is commonly nicknamed da bing.
From the monetary origin of this suit, the circles represent the copper coins known in English as "cash"..
Bamboo
The bamboo suit, with the exception of the 1 Bamboo, which is commonly represented by a bird, is represented by outlines of sticks.Image:MJs1-.svg|50px|1 BambooImage:MJs2-.svg|50px|2 BambooImage:MJs3-.svg|50px|3 BambooImage:MJs4-.svg|50px|4 BambooImage:MJs5-.svg|50px|5 BambooImage:MJs6-.svg|50px|6 BambooImage:MJs7-.svg|50px|7 BambooImage:MJs8-.svg|50px|8 BambooImage:MJs9-.svg|50px|9 Bamboo or
Image:MJs1bird-.svg|50px|1 BambooImage:MJs2b-.svg|50px|2 BambooImage:MJs3b-.svg|50px|3 BambooImage:MJs4b-.svg|50px|4 BambooImage:MJs5b-.svg|50px|5 BambooImage:MJs6b-.svg|50px|6 BambooImage:MJs7b-.svg|50px|7 BambooImage:MJs8b-.svg|50px|8 BambooImage:MJs9b-.svg|50px|9 Bamboo
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 that tie 100 Chinese copper coins together by the square holes in the middle. 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 ; 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.
Characters
The character suit is represented by Chinese characters.Image:MJw1-.svg|50px|1 CharacterImage:MJw2-.svg|50px|2 CharacterImage:MJw3-.svg|50px|3 CharacterImage:MJw4-.svg|50px|4 CharacterImage:MJw5-.svg|50px|5 CharacterImage:MJw6-.svg|50px|6 CharacterImage:MJw7-.svg|50px|7 CharacterImage:MJw8-.svg|50px|8 CharacterImage:MJw9-.svg|50px|9 Character
The rank of the tile is represented at the top, in blue, with Chinese numerals, while the character below is in red. Older sets used the cursive character 万 when tiles were still hand-carved. Fujianese sets use 品. Most sets use the character 伍 for five instead of 五.
From the monetary origin of this suit, the myriads 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.
Red tiles
Red tiles 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. 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. There is also a rare red white dragon which can act as a wild card if tsumo conditions are met.Image:MJt1r-.svg|50px|Red 1 CircleImage:MJs1rbird-.svg|50px|Red 1 BambooImage:MJw1r-.svg|50px|Red 1 CharacterImage:MJt3r-.svg|50px|Red 3 CircleImage:MJs3r-.svg|50px|Red 3 BambooImage:MJw3r-.svg|50px|Red 3 CharacterImage:MJt5r-.svg|50px|Red 5 CircleImage:MJs5r-.svg|50px|Red 5 BambooImage:MJw5r-.svg|50px|Red 5 CharacterImage:MJt7r-.svg|50px|Red 7 CircleImage:MJs7r-.svg|50px|Red 7 BambooImage:MJw7r-.svg|50px|Red 7 CharacterImage:MJt9r-.svg|50px|Red 9 CircleImage:MJs9r-.svg|50px|Red 9 BambooImage:MJw9r-.svg|50px|Red 9 CharacterImage:MJd3r-.svg|50px|Red White Dragon
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, or colored wind tiles.
Honor tiles
Honor tiles have neither rank nor suit but like suited tiles they are also formed into melds. They are divided into two categories: four Wind tiles and three Dragon tiles, 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,
- South,
- West, and
- North.
Image:MJf1-.svg|50px|East WindImage:MJf2-.svg|50px|South WindImage:MJf3-.svg|50px|West WindImage:MJf4-.svg|50px|North Wind
Each type of Wind tiles corresponds to a point along the compass, written in blue traditional Chinese characters. Bonus points are scored if melds match the seat wind or prevailing wind or both. They are also known as the Four Joyous Tiles.
Dragons
The three types of Dragon tiles are:Image:MJd3-.svg|50px|White DragonImage:MJd2-.svg|50px|Green DragonImage:MJd1-.svg|50px|Red Dragon or
Image:MJd3e-.svg|50px|White DragonImage:MJd2v1-.svg|50px|Green DragonImage:MJd1-.svg|50px|Red Dragon or
Image:MJd3b-.svg|50px|White DragonImage:MJd2v3-.svg|50px|Green DragonImage:MJd1v2-.svg|50px|Red Dragon
- White - a tile which can be without any markings like Image:MJd3e-.svg|25px|White Dragon, although most modern sets employ tiles with a blue border to distinguish them from replacement tiles. Anglophone sets may also have a black letter P in the center of the tile, denoting the first letter of the Wade-Giles romanization of 白. Japanese tiles of this kind have no mark on them, and are occasionally dubbed tofu in some Japanese mahjong clubs. As noted above, there is a Japanese red tile version.
- Green - a tile with a green traditional Chinese character, even for sets where the Character tiles are written in simplified Chinese. Often the variant character U+24F35 ? is used. It is a contraction of 發財/发财. Some sets, notably American, use a green dragon in place of the character or may also have a black letter F in a corner of the tile, denoting the first letter from its transliteration. This tile was absent in the earliest sets. Some tiles have the traditional Chinese character "鳳" or a green dragon icon.
- Red - a tile with a red traditional Chinese character 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. One of the earliest sets did not include these tiles. Some tiles have the traditional Chinese character "龍" or a red dragon icon.
They are like wind tiles except melding them will always score bonus points regardless of the prevailing or seat wind. These tiles were invented after the wind tiles beginning with the whites which were developed from replacement tiles, followed by the reds circa 1870, and finally the greens which entered the set by 1890.
Chinese characters occur in the design of the Characters, the Winds and the Dragons. Regular script is usually used in the areas of Hong Kong, Taiwan, Canton, China and Southeast Asia, while Semi-cursive script is usually used in Japan.
Flower tiles
Flower tiles are not used in melds. When drawn, they are set aside and the player gets to draw again but from the dead wall. These tiles usually depict stylized representations of flowers in many colors. Nevertheless, other non-floral themes also exist, which vary from set to set. In American Mahjong, they are treated as honor tiles but from the 1930s to 1960 they were considered jokers. Some Japanese players treat them as higher scoring honors that cannot be used to form 'eyes'. Generally, however, they are not used in Japanese mahjong.Quartets
The average set, if it contains flower tiles, will have two quartets of flower tiles, differentiating the color and/or style of the labels. Each quartet contains four unique tiles, which are numbered from 1 to 4 or otherwise distinctly labelled. Each number matches a seat. Winners can double their score if the number on their flowers matches their seat number. There are also bonuses from collecting an entire quartet and in some variations, immediately winning from collecting all the flowers. As they reward points for pure luck, many games do not include them or are considered optional.The four tiles in the Four Seasons quartet are:
Image:MJh1-.svg|50px|SpringImage:MJh2-.svg|50px|SummerImage:MJh3-.svg|50px|AutumnImage:MJh4-.svg|50px|Winter or Image:MJh1j-.svg|50px|SpringImage:MJh2j-.svg|50px|SummerImage:MJh3j-.svg|50px|AutumnImage:MJh4j-.svg|50px|Winter or Image:MJh1v1-.svg|50px|SpringImage:MJh2v1-.svg|50px|SummerImage:MJh3v1-.svg|50px|AutumnImage:MJh4v1-.svg|50px|Winter
The representative patterns of the four seasons tiles are not fixed. The more common ones are "spring" with various spring flowers, such as peonies, or multiple blooming flowers; "summer" with lotus; "autumn" with autumn fruits; and "winter" with daffodils.
The four tiles in the Four Gentlemen quartet are:
Image:MJh5-.svg|50px|PlumImage:MJh6-.svg|50px|OrchidImage:MJh7-.svg|50px|ChrysanthemumImage:MJh8-.svg|50px|Bamboo or Image:MJh5j-.svg|50px|PlumImage:MJh6j-.svg|50px|OrchidImage:MJh7j-.svg|50px|ChrysanthemumImage:MJh8j-.svg|50px|Bamboo or Image:MJh5v1-.svg|50px|PlumImage:MJh6v1-.svg|50px|OrchidImage:MJh7v1-.svg|50px|ChrysanthemumImage:MJh8v1-.svg|50px|Bamboo
Vietnamese and Malaysian mahjong sets contain two more quartets of flower tiles in addition to the Four Seasons and Four Gentlemen. These are the usual subjects:
- Four Noble Professions :
- Fisherman : a fishing pole behind a fishing basket
- Woodcutter : a tied up bundle of wood
- Farmer : a rake behind a hat
- Scholar : a book or scroll
The earliest known Chinese sets contained twelve flowers but no Four Gentlemen tiles and the Four Seasons were unadorned. Sets with large numbers of flowers were once popular in Northern China to play the game of "Flower Mahjong". They typically had 20 or more flowers with some described as having up to 44.
American sets are based on an earlier Chinese set, before the Four Gentlemen became standardized. The "Three Stars" and "Nobility" are typically used in its place, with the usual tiles being:
- Fortune : a boat at the mercy of the sea
- Prosperity : a nicely dressed man next to a multi-story building with what appears to be oil fields
- Longevity : the Old Man of the South Pole holding a Peach of Immortality
- Nobility : what appears to be a tree
Animal tiles
File:Animal tiles.jpg|thumb|Various animal tiles, Jiang Ziya, fish, crane, pig, second pig, turtle, turtle egg, bowl, chopsticks, tea pot, tea cups, bird, Caishen or Liu Haichan, sycee, spider, spider web, Jin Chan, Liu Haichan's pot of gold, cupid, arrow through heart, flower, rabbit, cabbage
- Cat & Mouse
- Rooster & Centipede
- Caishen & Sycee
- Jiang Ziya & Fish
- Liu Haichan & Jin Chan
- Dragon & Flaming pearl
- Hou Yi & Three-legged crow with an arrow through it. Some modern sets as seen in the image above use cupid & heart to be more kid-friendly.
or
Joker tiles
Joker tiles can be used to replace any suited or honor tile in putting together a hand subject to local restrictions. Four jokers are sometimes used in certain variants of Southeast Asian and Chinese mahjong, including Shanghainese mahjong. American mahjong uses eight jokers.General-purpose
All-purpose jokers may have these inscriptions: 百搭, 聽用, 飛, or simply "Joker" in American sets.or or or
Suit-restricted
Vietnamese mahjong is related to extinct Chinese variants which used specialized jokers such as "King Mahjong". Vietnamese mahjong sets commonly contain eight unique jokers:- Blue/green jokers :
- *Circle joker
- *Bamboo joker
- *Character joker
- *Universal joker : In King Mahjong it is a [|Suit] and Honor joker, in Vietnamese mahjong it can also be used like the flower joker. Hong Kongers may use the 皇 character but this is not found in Vietnam because a flower quartet also uses it.
- Red jokers :
- *Suit joker
- *Dragon joker
- *Wind joker
- *Flower joker : Like an animal tile but scores two doubles; it replaced the King Mahjong joker that functioned as a second Suit and Honor joker.
- **Honor joker : A newer Vietnamese tile, it is an alternative to the dragon or wind joker. In Hong Kong, it is an alternative to the flower joker.
Rank-restricted
In Hong Kong, Vietnamese style sets may also contain rank-restricted jokers, either as alternatives to the flower joker, or in addition to the usual eight:- Terminal joker : Replaces one or nine of any suit
- 147 joker : Replaces one, four, or seven of any suit
- 258 joker : Replaces two, five, or eight of any suit
- 369 joker : Replaces three, six, or nine of any suit
The Chinese characters from the latter three comes from Xiangqi pieces. These sets may have suit, dragon, wind, and rank-restricted jokers adorned with multiple characters representing the tiles they can replace, instead of a single Chinese character.
Comparison
| Variation | Hong Kong | Sichuan | Japanese | Japanese 3 Player | Korean 3 Player | Singapore | Malaysian 4 Player | Malaysian 3 Player | Vietnam | American |
| Dots | 9 types × 4 tiles | 9 types × 4 tiles | 9 types × 4 tiles | 9 types × 4 tiles | 9 types × 4 tiles | 9 types × 4 tiles | 9 types × 4 tiles | 9 types × 4 tiles | 9 types × 4 tiles | 9 types × 4 tiles |
| Bamboo | 9 types × 4 tiles | 9 types × 4 tiles | 9 types × 4 tiles | 9 types × 4 tiles | 2 types × 4 tiles | 9 types × 4 tiles | 9 types × 4 tiles | 9 types × 4 tiles | 9 types × 4 tiles | |
| Characters | 9 types × 4 tiles | 9 types × 4 tiles | 9 types × 4 tiles | 2 types × 4 tiles | 9 types × 4 tiles | 9 types × 4 tiles | 9 types × 4 tiles | 9 types × 4 tiles | 9 types × 4 tiles | |
| Winds | 4 types × 4 tiles | 4 types × 4 tiles | 4 types × 4 tiles | 3 types × 4 tiles | 4 types × 4 tiles | 4 types × 4 tiles | 4 types × 4 tiles | 4 types × 4 tiles | 4 types × 4 tiles | |
| Dragons | 3 types × 4 tiles | 3 types × 4 tiles | 3 types × 4 tiles | 3 types × 4 tiles | 3 types × 4 tiles | 3 types × 4 tiles | 3 types × 4 tiles | 3 types × 4 tiles | 3 types × 4 tiles | |
| Four Flowers | 4 types × 1 tile | 4 types × 1 tile | 4 types × 1 tile | 4 types × 1 tile | 4 types × 1 tile | 4 types × 1 tile | 4 types × 1 tile | |||
| Four Seasons | 4 types × 1 tile | 4 types × 1 tile | 4 types × 1 tile | 4 types × 1 tile | 4 types × 1 tile | 4 types × 1 tile | ||||
| Four Arts | 4 types × 1 tile | |||||||||
| Four Professions | 4 types × 1 tile | |||||||||
| Four Emperors | 4 types × 1 tile | |||||||||
| Four Empresses | 4 types × 1 tile | |||||||||
| Normal Animal tiles | 4 types × 1 tile | 4 types × 1 tile | 4 types × 1 tile | |||||||
| Faces tiles | 2 types × 2 tiles | 2 types × 2 tiles | 2 types × 2 tiles | |||||||
| Joker tiles | 1 type × 4 tiles | 1 type × 4 tiles | 1 type × 4 tiles | 1 type × 8 tiles | 1 type × 8 tiles | |||||
| Total | 144 | 108 | 136 | 108 | 108 | 156 | 164 | 84 | 160 | 152 |
Regional design
Designs of mahjong tiles are different between regions. Here are some examples.Construction
Traditionally, Mahjong tiles were made of bone, often backed with bamboo. Bone tiles are still available but most modern sets are constructed from various plastics such as bakelite, celluloid, nylon and PET. There are a small number of sets that have been made with ivory or jade, but these are exceedingly rare: most sets sold as ivory are in fact made from bone. Regardless of the material used to construct the tiles, the symbols on them are almost always engraved or pressed into the material. Some expert players can determine the face value of their tiles without actually looking at them by feeling these engravings with their fingers.There are generally two size categories available, the larger mainland-China size and the smaller Taiwanese/Japanese/American size. However, within the former category, 4 sizes have been roughly standardized:
- Size 8:
- Size 7.5:
- Size 7:
- Size 6:
The sizes within the second category have lengths that vary roughly between. However, the Japanese tiles set themselves apart within this class by virtue of their thickness, which allows them to stand upright—despite their diminutive overall size. This enables Japanese mahjong players also to dispense with the use of racks.
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+1F02B:
The Red Dragon tile also exists as in a non-emoji form as ?︎.