Introduction
Whether its called Mah Jong, Ma Jong, Mah Jongg, Ma Diao, Ma Cheuk, Mah Cheuck, Baak Ling, or Pung Chow, the history of this game is as fascinating as the game itself.
A lot has been written about the origin of Mah Jong. Both the Chinese, and the rest of the world decided to generously embellish the truth for immoral and commercial purposes. The upshot has been a number of false assertions for the game's history.
Myths?
One theory suggests that the game had been played on Noah's Ark during the 40 days and nights of rain. This theory would suggest that the game would date back to around 2350 BC.
Where would the history of a Chinese game be without a suggestion that Confucius the great Chinese philosopher had developed the game (500 BC). The appearance of the game in various Chinese provinces coincides with Confucius' travels at the time he was teaching his new doctrines. The three "Dragon" tiles also coincide with the three Cardinal virtues taught by Confucius, Benevolence, Sincerity, and Filial Piety. Confucius was also rumoured to be fond of birds, which would explain the name Mah Jong (Hemp Bird).
Terms used in the play of the game "Chow" and "Kong" also add support to this theory. Confucius was of the Kong family his full name being Kong-Fu-Tze, he married a girl named Che and adopted the term "Chee" meaning 'to connect' which occidentals corrupted into "Chow".
Conception & Development
Tile games of some form have been found from around 1120 AD in China, and Chinese dominoes has been played for centuries in that region. Mah Jong, however, bears a much greater resemblance in play to certain card games, namely those of the Rummy family.
Prior to the appearance of Mah Jong, a variety of card games were played in China with at least four types of cards decks. However, just like Mah Jong the majority were of the set-collecting variety and certain terms from these old card games are also used in Mah Jong. So, it seems not unreasonable to place Mah Jong as a nephew of those card games.
There is good evidence from Chinese researchers that Mah Jong originated in the provinces of Kiangsu, Anhwei and Chekiang near Shanghai because no records of Mah Jong are found in any other part of China before 1900.
During the Sung Dynasty (960-1279 AD) there is history of a game called "Ya P'ai" which is played with 32 cards made of either wood or ivory, and are oblong in shape similar to the present day Ma Jong tiles. During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD) a game called "Ma Tiae" (Hanging Horse) was invented. This game was played with 40 paper cards similar in appearance to the cards used in the game Ya P'ai.
These forty cards were numbered 1 to 9 in four different suits along with four additional flower cards are quite similar to the numbering of Mah Jong cards today. It is thought that roughly around 1850 AD in the city of Ningpo two brothers had developed Mah Jong from the earlier game of ma tiae.
In 1905, Mah Jong was not really known outside its original area but over the next 15 years it spread incredibly quickly across most of China and in doing so replaced chess as the most popular Chinese game. The Chinese gradually removed the clumsy elements of game play and incorporated a host of rituals surrounding the method of play that have now become enshrined in stone. To a beginner, they seem confusing and unnecessary but the truth is that Mah Jong is, by origin, a gambling game and most of these traditions prevent cheating very effectively.
Suffice to say that numerous experts of the game regard the variety of Mah Jong of 1920 as the "perfect" Mah Jong and look upon all future modifications and evolutions with great contempt. In fact, at this time, the Chinese played a lot of variations in rules and procedures according to the milieu and the importance of the game, and so there was nothing clear-cut about the Chinese game of the 1920s which was as unfettered then as it is now. However, the game had come about with a natural regard for playability and elegance.
Western Introduction
The introduction to the western world is thought to have begun with two brothers named White, who introduced Mah Jong to the English clubs of Shanghai in the early 1900's, where it quickly gained popularity among the foreign residents. When this occurred the Mah Jong craze increased by another factor again to cover much of the world.
Many regions in the Far East play a game similar to the classical Chinese form but in particular, the Japanese, the Americans and the British all snatched the game and took it in their own direction.
Mah Jong in Japan
Mah Jong first hit Japan in 1907 and, like North America and the British Empire, became a fad in the 1920s. A similar but less dramatic experience to that of America occurred in that the initial game was simplified and then complicated again with new rules. However, the Japanese managed to do this without completely altering the underlying nature of the game and thus the game has remained steadily popular.
Japanese rules take two general forms - those adopted officially by the Japanese Mah Jong Association and "riichi", all the unofficial but sometimes more popular versions played by casual players. However, the main differences from the classical Chinese game are consistent in both.
Unlike other variants, therefore, each Japanese round is an all-out race to be the first to go Mah Jong as opposed to a more careful campaign with the long term objective of amassing the greatest number of points over a series of games.
Mah Jong in America
Mah Jong was taken to America by Joseph P. Babcock who began importing sets in bulk to the USA in 1922. At that time Babcock was the Soochow representative of the Standard Oil Company. It wasn't however until two years later a lumber merchant from San Francisco named W. A. Hammond formed the Mah Jongg Sales Company of San Francisco and began importing large quantities of sets.
In order to make it a commercial success, Babcock heavily simplified the rules, much of the interesting intricacies of play being removed. This worked to a degree because the game did indeed become popular very quickly. 1923 marked the height of the Mah Jong craze in the United States, Mah Jong sets numbered 6th in exports from Shanghai totaling in excess of $1.5 million. During this period cow bone was actually shipped from Kansas City and Chicago to Shanghai to meet the demand for production of new sets.
A number of books where published attempting to standardize the rules, and in 1924 the Standardization Committee of the American Official Laws of Mah-Jongg was formed to write a standardized set of rules. The committee consisted of M.C. Work, Robert Foster, Joseph Babcock, Lee Hartman, and J.H. Smith. All of these gentlemen had previously written their own book of rules, and the American Official Laws of Mah-Jongg were published in 1924.
However, Americans were not satisfied for long with this version. Consequently they began to embellish it, by the addition of an array of weird and wonderful "special hands" that allowed one to go Mah Jong and other new rules supposed to increase the enjoyment.
The result was confusion. The two most popular variations of the game in 1924 were the One-Double and the Cleared-Hand games and little was known of the classical form from China. While superficially more enjoyable, after a short time, people lost interest in these games and consequently, the Mah Jong bubble burst.
In 1935, the game began to gain again in popularity in America based on newly published rules from the The National Mah Jongg League Inc. who still claim to produce the "official" American rules. This complicated and pushed American Mah Jong even further from the original form. Indeed, it is now so different from the original Mah Jong that it is effectively a different game, it's most notable feature being the huge number of legal special hands.
Nevertheless, throughout the years since Joseph Babcock first thought of importing this intriguing and addictive game, Mah Jong has become an intricate part of American history.
Mah Jong in Britain
In Britain, an explosion of interest occurred about the same time as the initial craze in America and this was mirrored in many other parts of the British Empire, especially in India. Both the American and the Chinese forms were played but, unlike most Americans, the British understood that the Chinese version was the "real" game and that the American and other versions were modern forms.
The most popular variations were based on semi-official rules in circulation - The Queens Club Rules and the rules laid down in a booklet by C.M.W Higginson. Both of these were based on Chinese variants, which probably accounts for the fact that the game remained popular in Britain well into the 1930s - considerably longer than in America - although interest waned between the wars.
Currently in Britain, although the usual wealth of rules exists, the British Mah Jong Federation publish a set of rules that are a refinement of the way that Mah Jong has been played in Britain during the 20th century and these rules are closer to the Chinese game than the Japanese or American varieties. The main differences are that only one Chow is allowed per person per round and that a few additional special hands are allowed.
Mah Jong in China
For almost 50 years since 1950 communist China had tried to suppress Mah Jong as gambling, corruption and one of the four "olds": old ideas, old culture, old customs and old habits. Mah Jong was completely banned during China's 60's & 70's Cultural Revolution. The effort was unsuccessful.
China finally realized that Japan might take over this clacking of the heavy tiles just like judo, domino games, flower arrangements and other nice Chinese traditions and in 1998 decided to reclassify Mah Jong as a "sport" and allow public "tournaments".
Modern Day Mah Jong
Now, nearly 80 years after the game's introduction to the western world a whole new generation is discovering "the game of a hundred intelligences". Through the popular computer solitaire games that make use of Mah Jong tiles that began appearing in the early 1980's, and now through the subsequent introduction of versions incorporating the traditional four-player game, a renaissance of the game is beginning in the United States.
Many new players are being introduced to the game solely through the solitaire versions and are slowly realizing the intrigue and challenge that the traditional game offers. There are now many online servers where the traditional four-player version can be played against real opponents, especially in the Netherlands and Japan
As we enter the new millennium Mah Jong is beginning its second wave of popularity in the United States, and with a new generation discovering the joy of this fascinating game it is securing its place in western history.
