Mahjong

Mahjong
Chinese name
Long characters	麻將
Abbreviation	麻将
Pinyin	májiàng
Jyutping	maa 4 zoeng 3
Cantonese name
Long characters	麻雀
Abbreviation	麻雀
Pinyin	máquè
Jyutping	maa 4 zoek 3
Japanese name
Kanji	麻雀
Hiragana	ま あ じ ゃ ん
Katakana	マ ー ジ ャ ン
Hepburn	mājan
Korean name
Hangeul	마작
Hanja	麻雀
Rev. Romanization	majak
McCune-Reischauer	machak
Vietnamese name
Quốc Ngữ	mạt chược

Mah-Jongg ( listen ^{? / I} ), also Mahjongg or Mahjong ( Chinese 麻將  /  麻将 , Pinyin májiàng , Jyutping maa ⁴ listen to zoeng ^{3 ? / I} ; Cantonese 麻雀 , máquè , Jyutping maa ⁴ zoek ³  - listen to " passerine birds" ^{? / i} ; hist. 麻雀 牌 , máquèpái , Jyutping maa ⁴ zoek ³ paai ^{4 * 2}  - "Sparrow Game") is an old Chinese game for four people.  

history

Mahjong is played everywhere in China

Bamboo one

Joseph Park Babcock (1893–1949), an American traveler in the Republic of China , wrote a set of rules in the 1920s based on different variants he had become acquainted with and brought the game to the USA . Babcock gave it the name MAH-JONGG (in this spelling) - which he had registered as a trademark . In order not to violate trademark protection, this spelling was varied in many ways. This name, which is common in the West, describes a sparrow that is depicted on the Bambus-Eins game stone - in German-language literature this species of sparrow is usually identified as a hemp sparrow .

Babcock describes Mah-Jongg in the foreword to his Red Book as a separate development, based on the ancient Chinese game, which for its part - at least its origin - is centuries old ("The Chinese game itself was a gradual development of centuries of play in China" ) . Elsewhere he mentions the city of Ningpo or the province of Fukien as the place of origin . Babcock may be wrong about actual age; It was certainly beneficial for marketing to pass Mah-Jongg as a very old game (see H. F. Müller's game of bell and hammer ).

It has been claimed that the game existed 4,000 years ago during the Shang Dynasty , or that mah-jongg was forbidden to the common people for a long time and was reserved for the upper class only. In fact, mah-jongg did not emerge until the second half of the 19th century. The oldest surviving games date from around 1870, the oldest written references from 1890. The game of mah-jongg spread rapidly in China and Japan . After Babcock made the game known in the USA, Mah-Jongg gained worldwide popularity - comparable to Canasta in the 1950s.

Factories were set up specifically to meet the demand for mahjong games, especially since it was rumored that imported games were infected with viruses. In Germany the game was introduced by F. Ad. Richter & Cie, construction kit factory , Rudolstadt (utility model protection No. 722354 of November 6, 1919). Another Mah-Jongg manufacturer in Germany became the Hamburg Nordicus-Golconda Werke . There were mahjong magazines and mahjong tournaments were held in many American cities. The National Mah Jongg League was founded in New York in 1937 and tried to establish uniform rules.

But just a few years later, mah-jongg disappeared like a fashion and as quickly as it had come. The game is extremely popular in China and Japan, outside of those two countries there is only a small circle of interested parties.

In terms of the rules, Mah-Jongg can be understood as a variant of the Rummy card game , of which there is also a variant with pieces. Then Mah-Jongg is played with "Chinese" playing cards instead of French . However, there is no evidence that the game of rummy evolved from mahjong or vice versa. The descent from a (hypothetical) common ancestor has not been proven.

The game pieces

Mahjong games are available in a wide variety of designs. In the better games, the game pieces are made of two parts, the pictures on the front are engraved and colored in a small block of bone - formerly ivory - with graves, the backs are made of bamboo and these two parts are usually not simply glued but galvanized . The stones of cheaper games are made of printed wood or plastic. There are also mahjong card games .

A Mahjong game consists of 136 or 144 pieces called bricks :

• 108 bricks of the three basic colors ( colored bricks ):
  • Bamboo (索 子suǒzi )
    
  • Number (萬 子wànzi )
    
  • Circle or coin (筒子tǒngzi )
    

There are tiles with the numbers one to nine in each of the three colors, and there are four of each tile. The stones with the numbers one and nine are called edge tiles .

The color symbol circle represents a coin. Chinese coins had a hole in the middle so that they could be lined up on ribbons. Larger amounts were handed over in the form of appropriately tied coins. The color symbol bamboo originally represented such a coin stick. On the "bamboo one" the sparrow is depicted, after which the game got its name.

On the bricks of the color number , in addition to the designation one to nine, the Chinese numeral for 10,000 ( myriad ) is printed.

• 28 tiles of the trump suit ( trump tiles or colorless tiles) :
  • Four winds (east wind 東dōng , south wind 南nán , west wind 西xī , north wind 北běi )
    
  • Three dragons (red: 紅 中hóng zhōng (C), green: 青 發qīng fā (F) and white: 白板bái bǎn (B)) or
    

There are four of these stones. The stones for white kites either have a blue frame or are entirely unpainted (a white kite on a white stone is invisible). The letters C, F and B, which in some versions are affixed in a corner of the kite brick , go back to the Wade-Giles transcription of the characters 中ch , 發fa and 白bai . The designation trump suit for the wind and kite tiles is misleading as there are no tricks in mah-jongg .

• 8 bricks of the main color
  • Four flowers (plum 梅méi , orchid 蘭lán , chrysanthemum 菊jú , bamboo 竹zhú ) or or
    
  • Four seasons (spring 春chūn , summer 夏xià , autumn 秋qiū , winter 冬dōng ) or or
    

The bricks of the main color are only present once. They are also called lucky bricks or hazard bricks and are often very artfully designed. The use of these bricks in the game is optional, so they may be missing in some versions of the game.

• American Mah-Jongg games also contain eight Joker tiles, for a total of 152 tiles. In addition, there are often four other unpainted stones in reserve.

• The game also includes two to four dice . Chinese dice are white, the one and four are red, the other numbers are represented by black eyes. Many games contain additional game material, such as number sticks or tokens . There are bars like those used in dominoes so that the game pieces do not fall over. Some games are accompanied by four square stones, which are printed with the Chinese characters of the four cardinal points.

The rules of the game

General

Mah-Jongg is played in innumerable variations from Chinese Traditional to Jewish American . The following instructions describe the Hua Bao Rules , which, apart from a few differences, correspond to the rules of Joseph P. Babcock and represent the common core of the various variants. This is the common style of play in Europe.

The standard version is played with 136 pieces, the eight tiles of the main color are not used.

Game preparation

The seating arrangement

Before the start of a game, the four players stand on the four sides of a square table. The oldest player shuffles the four place pieces face down and stacks them on top of each other. Then he throws two dice and counts the total counterclockwise, starting with himself. The player determined in this way takes the topmost place piece, the next the second, etc.

The playing surface of the table is interpreted as a sky map. The player who receives the east wind place piece becomes the game leader in the first game and remains in his place, west wind sits opposite, south wind to the right (!) Of east wind and north wind to the left.

The wall

The " Great Wall of China " as it is called in the west.

The bricks are shuffled face down on the table. Then each of the four players builds one side of the wall by taking 34 tiles face down and arranging them to form a wall 17 tiles long and two tiles high. If you play with flower and season tiles, each player takes 36 tiles and the width of the wall is 18 stacks (see flower and season tiles ). The four pieces of wall are pushed together so that they touch at the corners and form a square. Outside of Asian countries, this is sometimes called the Great Wall of China .

Ostwind now rolls the two dice and counts the players counter-clockwise, starting with himself, as before. The player determined in this way also throws both dice and adds the total of both throws. Ostwind counts from the right end of the wall in front of him, starting clockwise, from the total according to the brick pile. Maybe he continues the count with bricks from the wall of his left neighbor. He takes out the pile determined in this way (wall breakthrough) and places it on the pile to the right of the gap that has formed.

The bricks taken out are called loose bricks and mark the dead end of the wall, the end to the left of the gap is the living end of the wall. The stones are drawn regularly from the living end of the wall. From the dead end, however, only replacement bricks ( see below ) are taken, starting with the two loose bricks. Each player takes two stacks of two bricks from the living end of the wall three times in a counterclockwise direction , with Ostwind being the first to use it. Finally, each player takes another, thirteenth, and Ostwind also a fourteenth tile.

The goal of the game

A complete game picture

Each of the four players tries to improve their original hand by pulling and throwing stones and to form a complete picture of the game from the most valuable pieces possible . Stones are pulled from the wall or picked up after another player has thrown it. If a player has formed a complete game picture consisting of four figures and finally a pair, he may call out "Mah-Jongg" and end the game. The four figures can be triplets, quadruplets or sequences.

The figures

Couples

A pair consists of two identical stones, e.g. B. two bamboo five or two green dragons etc.

In order to be able to call Mah-Jongg, a complete game picture is required, this must contain exactly one pair, the final pair ( 將 , jiàng , sometimes 眼 , yǎn ). To complete a pair, a stone that has been placed may only be called up if Mah-Jongg is called at the same time.

Triplets (pong)

A pong ( 碰 , pèng ) consists of three identical stones. If a pong is made exclusively from bricks from the original hand or bricks drawn from the wall, it is a hidden pong that does not have to be reported. If it is revealed anyway, it should be marked as actually covered by turning one of the stones.

If a player owns a pair and the third stone is placed by any other player, the player may call this stone with the shout "Pong". He lays his pair and the called tile face up on the table in front of him and has an open pong .

Quadruplets (Kong)

A Kong ( 槓 , gàng / 杠 , gàng ) consists of four identical stones.

If a kong is made entirely of stones from the original hand and bricks drawn from the wall, the player should report a concealed kong. If he does not do this, he cannot pull a replacement brick out of the wall, which is necessary for Kongs to achieve a complete game image. If the game ends before the player reports the four of a kind, the concealed kong is counted as a concealed pong.

A hidden Kong does not have to be reported immediately, but can also be put out later when it is the player's turn again.

When reporting, the four stones are laid out openly and as a sign that it is a covered (also: "half-covered", or "hand-reported") Kong, the two outer stones are placed with the back side up.

If a player holds three identical stones in his hand - i.e. a face down pong - he may, when a player discards the fourth stone, claim this brick with the call "Kong" and thus receive an open Kong .

If a player has already reported an open pong and the missing fourth stone is put down by another player, this tile cannot be called up to complete the kong.

If a player has already reported a pong and pulls the missing fourth stone from the wall, he may place it on the pong and thus has an open kong. In this situation the Kong could be robbed. The stone pulled from the wall can be claimed by another player if he can call out "Mah-Jongg" with it.

As soon as a player reports an open or face down Kong, he must pull a replacement tile from the dead end of the wall.

In the seventies and eighties, the term Kan was often used instead of Kong in German-speaking countries . Kan is also consistently mentioned in Ursula Eschenbach's extensive and widespread instruction book published in 1982. The term Kan comes from the Japanese version (Riichi Mahjong).

Follow (Chow)

A chow ( 吃 , chī , sometimes 上 , shàng ) is a sequence of exactly three consecutive stones of one basic color; Sequences made up of more than three stones are not permitted.

A chow made of stones of the trump suit is not possible.

A discarded stone can be called up by a player with “Chow” if the player is sitting directly to the right of the player who has discarded the stone in question. The calling player then reveals the resulting sequence.

Another player can only call a discarded stone for a sequence if he calls mah-jongg at the same time.

Sequences that are formed from stones from the original hand or from stones drawn can remain hidden until the end of the game.

Game flow

Mahjong is played counter-clockwise. After Ostwind has taken his 14 bricks, he begins the game by placing a stone face up in the middle of the table after a possible message, naming its name.

If no player calls the discarded stone, the right neighbor pulls a stone from the living end of the wall, reports one or more pieces if he wants, and finally places a stone.

If a stone is put down, it is dead , it remains open in the middle of the table and the next player can play a chow, and that and all other players can play a pong or a kong. After that, the stone is no longer available for the game or can no longer be picked up.

If a stone is called up by a player, the player takes the discarded stone and has to place the relevant piece face up. Then he throws a stone and play continues with that player. In this way, players can also be ignored: For example, if the south wind puts down a stone that is called by the north wind, the west wind is skipped over.

If a tile is called by several players, the following ranking applies: If a player needs the stone for a Mah-Jongg call, it has priority over a Kong or Pong call, and these in turn have priority over a Chow.

In this way the game continues until

• a player shouts mahjong or
• the wall has been dismantled except for 14 bricks - i.e. seven stacks.

In the latter case, the game is not scored, the pieces are shuffled again and the game is repeated with unchanged roles.

The evaluation of the game pictures (Hua Bao Rules)

The evaluation of the game images consists of the following parts.

Point values ​​of the game pieces

Couples

• A pair of dragons is worth two points.
• If a player owns a pair of the field wind (i.e. his own wind, e.g. the south wind player has two south wind bricks), he receives two points for it.
• Other pairs count as zero points.

Triplets (pongs)

• An open three of a kind of stones with the numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8 counts for two points.
• An open three of a kind of stones with the numbers 1 or 9, winches or kites is worth four points.

Hidden combinations count double.

• A hand-held three of a kind of stones numbered 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8 is worth four points.
• A hand-held triplet of stones with the numbers 1 or 9, winches or kites is worth eight points.

Quadruplets (kongs)

A kong counts four times as much as the corresponding pong.

• An open quad of stones with the numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8 is worth eight points.
• An open quad of stones with the numbers 1 or 9, winches or kites counts 16 points.
• A hidden (half-hidden) quadruple of stones with the numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8 is worth 16 points.
• A hidden (half-hidden) quadruple of stones with the numbers 1 or 9, winches or kites counts 32 points.

Follow (Chows)

• Episodes count as zero points.

Reward points for the Mahjong reputation

The Mahjong caller receives an additional bonus of 10 (often 20) points.

Deprivation of the Kong

If a player pulls the appropriate fourth stone from the wall for an open pong (e.g. three bamboo 5- bricks) and wants to add the pong to the open kong, another player can claim this fourth stone for himself if he so that "Mah-Jongg" can be called. For this robbery of the Kong , he receives an additional bonus of 10 points.

Doubling

After evaluating the individual figures, a player may possibly double the point value one or more times. The doubles are calculated one after the other, doubling twice, for example, quadruples the original value of the game picture.

The following conditions each allow a doubling:

• The player has three of a kind or four of a kind on his own wind.
• The player has three of a kind or four of a kind dragons.

For the Mahjong caller the following also applies:

• If the game picture consists exclusively of bricks of one basic color, apart from wind and kite bricks, then he has won an impure play of colors and may double his point value once.
• If the game of the Mah-Jongg caller consists exclusively of bricks of one basic color and does not contain either wind or kite bricks, then he has won a pure play of colors and can double his point value three times, i.e. eightfold.

limit

As a result of the multiple doublings, the scores of the game images can reach very high values, so that a limit is usually agreed. This is usually 300 or 500 points. If the calculated point value exceeds the agreed limit, the game image is only counted with this maximum value.

If the game of the Mah-Jongg caller consists exclusively of bricks of the trump color, i.e. only wind and dragon bricks, this hand is evaluated with the maximum number of points.

If Ostwind can call Mah-Jongg immediately after picking up his bricks, he has the blessing of heaven and is credited with the maximum number of points. If another player can call up the first stone laid down by the east wind and thus explain Mah-Jongg, this is the blessing of the earth and the player is credited with half the limit.

Remarks

In many rule books there are additional bonus points or doubles for special features of the game of the Mah-Jongg caller. Such variations should definitely be clarified before starting the game.

The billing

If all players have determined the value of their game pictures, the billing takes place.

• When Ostwind calls Mah-Jongg, he states the value of his game picture and receives double this number of points from the three other players .
• If another player calls Mah-Jongg, he states the value of his game picture and receives double this number of points from the east wind, and the single value from the other players .
• After settling with the Mahjong caller, the three remaining players settle their scores; the player with the highest number of points receives the respective difference from the other two players, the player with the second highest receives the difference from the third. The east wind receives or pays double the amount.

Flower and season brick

If Mah-Jongg is played with 144 stones, including the stones of the main color (the flower and season tiles), then each side of the wall consists of 18 stacks of bricks. As soon as a player picks up his stones at the beginning of a game, he lays his flower and season tiles openly in front of him and draws a replacement tile from the dead end of the wall; The same procedure is used when a player buys such a stone from the wall.

The bricks of the main color are assigned to the four winds: No. 1 is for the east wind, No. 2 for the south wind, No. 3 for the west wind and No. 4 for the north wind. When evaluating the game images, flower and season tiles count:

• Points values:
  • Each stone of the main color is worth four points.
• Doubling
  • If a player owns a piece of the main color that corresponds to his wind (e.g. the player of the south wind has a piece with the number 2), he can double the value of his game picture once.
  • If a player owns both tiles belonging to his wind, he may double the value of his game picture twice.
  • If a player owns a bouquet of flowers , meaning all four bricks or all four seasons, he may double the value of his picture twice (corresponding to the doubling for a brick of his own wind and the doubling for a Kong).
  • If a player owns all eight tiles of the main color, he may double the value of his game picture a total of four times.

Rounds and games

If East Wind can call Mah-Jongg, he will remain East Wind in the next game and the other positions will remain unchanged. If another player calls out mah-jongg, the previous south wind takes over the role of east wind, and the positions change one place counter-clockwise.

A round ends as soon as the player who was in the position of the north wind in the first game loses a game as an east wind - the east wind of the first game would turn into an east wind. A round consists of at least four games.

If not only a single round is played, but a game is agreed, this consists of four rounds. In the first round, the east wind round , is the east prevailing wind ( round wind ); in the second lap ( south wind lap ) there is a southerly wind, the third lap is the west wind lap and the fourth the north wind lap .

The prevailing wind is important when calculating the game image:

• Point values
  • A prevailing wind pair is worth two points.
  • A pair of your own wind counts four points if this wind prevails: B. the west wind player in the west wind round two west wind bricks, so he may count this pair as both a field wind and a round wind and evaluate it with four points.
• Doubling
  • With a pong or kong of the prevailing wind, the value of the game image is doubled once.
  • With a pong or kong of your own wind, if this wind prevails, the value of the game picture is doubled twice.

A small can ( Mingg ) is used to count the individual games and rounds . The player of the east wind places this on the table in front of him, the place stone of the prevailing wind is placed on top of the Mingg.

Before another game, the seats are drawn anew, usually not more than two games are played.

variants

In the traditional Chinese game, certain game images are rated with the maximum points ( limit ). In the following, some of the most common images are listed by name, some of which Babcock already mentioned in his Red Book of 1920 and which are to be regarded as classically Chinese.

• The nine-lantern game
• The four friends
• The three great scholars
• The four kong game
• The corner stone game
• The heavenly twins
• The earthly twins
• The ladder to heaven
• The Green Hand (Imperial Jade)
• The twisting snake

The poetic names of these game pictures certainly contributed to the popularity of the game in the 1920s, but when countless new special hands were invented, especially in the USA and the set of rules became more and more complicated, this multitude of special rules like the sudden disappearance of Mah-Jongg Game. The modern Mahjong, as officially the 255th sport was recognized in 1998 by the State Sports Commission of China as, is an evolution of the classic play, similar to the Bridge game from the older Whist emerged.

The official rules of this modern style of play are used in international tournaments such as world and European championships. The ranking of the European Mahjong Association only takes into account results that are achieved on the basis of these rules of the game.

Mahjong as a computer game

GNOME version of Mahjong Solitaire

The Finnish manufacturer Lagarto offers a paid Windows version of the traditional Mah-Jongg called Four Winds . One player can compete against three players simulated by the software. Several real players can also compete against each other or against the software via a network. It can be played according to different rules. The KDE project includes a free version of Mah-Jongg called Kajongg .

In various parts of the Yakuza game series, such as Yakuza 0 , the classic form of Mah-Jongg is available as a mini-game .

For iPhone and iPad there is the Apple App Store under the name Mahjong! A traditional version of POK software that simulates up to 3 players.

Many others called Mahjong Computer Games use Although digitized forms of the game pieces, but are most games for only one person and are similar to the rules of Patience ( Mahjong Solitaire ). From the mid-1980s, Mah-Jongg Solitaire first became popular as a computer game under the name Shanghai , after the improved graphical possibilities of the new Amiga computer made it possible to display this game in an appealing way for the first time.

In the most popular computer game variant, all 144 stones are on the table at the beginning of the game, sometimes in several layers. Traditionally, the pieces are set up in the shape of a dragon or a turtle, the computer game variants often offer many different starting figures. A single player must remove all 144 stones from the table in pairs. A pair may only be removed if both stones are not partially or completely covered by any other stone and are exposed on at least one long side. While the stones of the main colors only appear once and cannot form pairs, the flower tiles and the season tiles can be combined with each other as desired, for example plum with orchid or winter with spring. In some variants, the flower and season tiles are doubled and, for example, the wind tiles are only included twice to compensate. Sometimes the season tiles appear twice and no flower tiles.

Mahjong in art

In Japan, based on the game, the genre Mah-Jongg developed in animes and mangas ( Saki , Tobaku Mokushiroku Kaiji , Akagi , The Legend of Koizumi ).

In Danger and Desire , based on the short story of the same name by Eileen Chang , Ang Lee tells the story of a tragic love affair between a resistance fighter and the intelligence chief of the collaboration government of Wang Jingwei . Noteworthy here are the numerous artfully staged mah-jongg scenes in which the resistance fighter, played by Tang Wei , meets the wives of members of the government.

literature

• Joseph Park Babcock: Babcock's Rules for Mah-Jongg. The Fascinating Chinese Game. Shanghai 1923, known as The Red Book .
• Max Blücher: Mah-Jongg . In: Reclams Universum 41 (1925.1), pp. 240-241.
• Ursula Eschenbach: Mah-Jongg. The Chinese game of chance, combination and parlor game. Falken-Verlag, Niedernhausen / Ts 1992.
• Uwe Martens: Handbook of Mah-Jongg. The Chinese Mah-Jongg game - classic rules, international competition rules. January 2005, ISBN 3-8334-2410-9 (hardcover), ISBN 3-8334-2401-X (paperback).
• Albert H. Morehead, Richard L. Frey, Geoffrey Mott-Smith: The New Complete Hoyle Revised. New York 1991.
• Standard Rules for the Chinese Domino Game of Mah Jong ("Hua Bao Rules"), China undated
• Rüdiger Thiele, Konrad Haase: Devil games. ISBN 3-332-00116-7 .

See also

• Mahjong school
• Mahjong (genre)

Web links

Commons : Mahjong  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Wikibooks: Mahjong  - learning and teaching materials

• Mahjongg reference
• Description and presentation of special Mah-Jongg games
• Tom Sloper's Mah-Jong Page
• Wiki of the Japanese Mah-Jongg variant (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Term "Majiang (麻將 / 麻将)", Chinese: [1] on zdic.net, accessed on April 1, 2018 - online
2. ↑ Term "Majiang (麻將 / 麻将)", Chinese / German: [2] on leo.org, accessed on April 1, 2018 - online
3. ↑ Term "Maque / Maquepai (麻雀 / 麻雀 牌)", Chinese: [3] on zdic.net, accessed on April 1, 2018 - online
4. ↑ Term "Maquepai (麻雀 牌)", Chinese: [4] on zdic.net, accessed on April 1, 2018 - online
5. ↑ The National Mah Jongg League, Inc ( Memento from October 6, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
6. ↑ Ursula Eschenbach: Mah-Jongg 1982/1987/1995, Falken-Verlag, ISBN 3-8068-2030-9
7. ↑ Official rules
8. ↑ European Mahjong Association - Ranking ( Memento of November 10, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on July 10, 2019 (English)
9. ^ European Mahjong Association
10. ^ Four Winds Mah Jong. Retrieved October 22, 2017 .