Tiles

The game is traditionally played with a set of 136 standard pieces (and eight bonus pieces), similar to dominoes, of bamboo and ivory engraved in color. There are 34 distinct types of pieces and four of each kind make up the set.

The thirty-four different kinds of pieces are made up as follows:

First, there are the three suits, designated by "Bamboo," "Dots," and "Characters," and called by Chinese, respectively, "tiao," "tung," and "wan" (see figures 1, 2 and 3).

Figure 1: Bamboo suit (Tiao)

Figure 2: Dots suit (Tung)

Figure 3: Characters suit (Wan)

Each of these three suits runs from one to nine. Thus, the various pieces are referred to as "one tiao," "four tung," "seven wan," etc. In the three suits there are twenty-seven different kinds of pieces, four alike of each kind; making a total of 108.

Suit tiles may be either simple or terminal. Terminal tiles, 1s and 9s, are more valuable in winning than simples, 2s through 8s.

In the character suit, instead of the corresponding number of symbols on the tile, the Chinese numeral character appears above the character signifying 10,000. A "one character" then would have the Chinese character for the number one, above the Chinese character for the number 10,000 - signifying "one ten-thousand" or one "wan."

If a set does not have the English numbers on the tiles, the Chinese characters for 1 through 9 must be memorized. A true Chinese set will not have any other numbers appearing on the tiles. The 1 bamboo is usually a bird.

In addition to the suit tiles there are two types of honor tiles.

First are the four winds: East, South, West, and North (see figure 4).

Figure 4: The winds (l-r: east, south, west and north)

Then there are the three dragons or colours: Red, Green, and White (see figure 5).

Figure 5: The dragons (l-r: red, green and white)

Just as there are four of each suit number, there are four of each wind and four of each dragon. As with the character tiles, the wind tiles usually have the corresponding English letter on the tile. If the set does not have these letters, players must memorize the Chinese symbol for each of the directions.

The dragons appear on some Americanized sets as dragons in the colors in red, green and white. On more traditional sets (fig 5.), the red has the Chinese character (in red) for Cheung - meaning center of the four directions. Some sets will have a "C" on the red dragon character tile.

Similarly, in traditional sets, the green dragon is not really a dragon, but a green imprinted Chinese character, Fa (or Fa Choy), meaning "commence" or "begin good luck." The green dragon will often have an "F" appearing on the tile.

The white dragon (also known as white board, soap, bak board, or pak board) may have a rectangle on the tile. In some sets, a "P" or "B" appears as well.

Lastly there are 8 bonus tiles, the seasons (see figure 6) and flowers (see figure 7).

Figure 6: The seasons (l-r: spring, summer, autumn and winter)

Figure 7: The flowers (l-r: plum, orchid, chrysanthemum and bamboo)

The flower and season tiles differ in nature from the suit and honor tiles. There are only 4 flowers (plum, orchid, chrysanthemum and bamboo) and only 4 season tiles (spring, summer, autumn and winter).

Some versions of the game call for exclusion of the flower and season tiles. In most Chinese-American circles, however, they are used. Their use is somewhat like that of the joker in card games. When drawn, they are declared and a substitute tile is drawn.

They are not collected for scoring, but the flower(s) or season(s) corresponding with the winning player's wind may double the winning score one or more times. Seasons are sometimes depicted by people or animals.

American Mah Jong uses 8 extra Joker tiles which are used to complete quints in several combinations of hands.

Figure 8: The Joker  

Other Items used in Mah Jong

Racks - Each player has his/her own rack to hold his/her tiles. The little nail-like projections on the left of each rack form the place to hold the player's chips. The rack holds 13 tiles and several chips. Each player receives 13 tiles except the EAST player, in which case East gets one extra tile to start the game.

Dice - Each player rolls the dice. The player with the highest number becomes the East or Host and starts the game. If more than one game is played , the person to the right of the East becomes the East for the next game.

Chips/Mah Jong Money - Mah Jong set comes with several colored chips, they are used to keep the point scores. Before the games different color chips are given different point values determined by all players.

Each player has 1,000 points represented by chips at the beginning of the games: 6 chips of one color are worth 25 points each; 10 chips of another color 5 points each; 4 chips of the third color 200 points each.

Bettor - A person, not participating as a player in the game, can bet on the game by locking in on the bettor his selection of the player he thinks will win. He then places the bettor face down on the center of the table until the game is over.