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This page isn't anywhere near ready for publication, I only uploaded
it due to a post
in the forum about Mahjong.
This essay is intended to be a lightweight language analysis of the various words, phrases and characters used in the popular Chinese game of Mahjong. I am not going to teach the rules of the game but links are provided at the end for further reading.
[Note about romanisation - this site uses "jyutping" romanisation to explain how to pronounce the various Cantonese words here. If you are new to the site a guide on jyutping may be found here.]
Finally, feedback about this article would be welcomed so I have set up a dedicated forum thread for reader discussion.
The name Mahjong 麻雀 literally means "Sparrow" or "Sparrows" and is pronounced
maa4
zoek3*2. 麻
can mean "flaxen" or "pock-marked" and 雀
is a generic name for a bird (generally with a short tail).
Other common spellings are mah-jong, mah-jongg or mah-johng.
A Wind Indicator,
in this case showing North
East wind is given a special counter to show they were the starting player 做莊
, and the counter also shows which Wind started the round.
If East Wind loses the game then the counter is passed to the next player and in this way the counter progresses round the table until East wind gets it again. This is known as a Round of play. Mahjong sessions may be played as a set number of rounds although it can be seen that if a player with the counter wins repeatedly a round could last a long time. This is possibly the reason some sessions go on until the early hours of the morning!
The basic game of Mahjong is played with 36 different tiles and each tile is repeated 4 times, making 144 tiles in a set.
A tile is called 牌
pai2.
Each player will have at least thirteen tiles in their hand at any time and the game is generally won by picking up a tile to make 4 sets of 3 tiles plus a "pair of eyes". The sets of 3 may be runs of the same suit (eg a 1,2 and 3 of sticks) or groups of the same tile (eg: a set of 3 South Winds). The pair of eyes is simply a pair of any tile (eg: 2 West Winds).
Play is simple, Three players start with 13 tiles in their hand and the player to go first starts with 14. The game starts with this player discarding a tile and from then on the game progresses in sequence with each player first picking a new tile and then discarding one.
Picking a new tile
There are four ways of picking up a new tile:
- 摸牌
mo2
paai4*2
(take from the wall)
This is the normal way of getting a new tile. The tile will be face down so there is no way of knowing what it will be until it is taken.
If the tile can be used to make up a soeng (see below) the
player simply leaves it hidden and can break up the set again later if
needed. If however it makes up a pung (see below) then
they are obliged to take all three tiles and place them face up in
front of them for the rest of the game. This shows the other
players that three out of four of that particular tile have now been
removed from play, so they may need to reorganise their hand
accordingly!
- 上
soeng2
The tile discarded by the previous player may be picked up by the next player if it can be used to complete a run. If it is taken then the player shows the run to the other players by putting the three tiles on display, face up. They remain like this until the game is over, allowing all players to see that those tiles have been used. A player may only
soeng when it is their go. It isn't unusual to say soeng as
you pick up the tile, to inform other players that you are taking it,
but there is no real need as it will be your turn anyway.
The word soeng2 simply means "up".
- 碰
pung3
When a tile is discarded any other player may call "pung" to take it provided they have two of the same tile to for a set of 3. As in the case of a
soeng, the set must be put on open display after it is made. Unlike a
soeng, a player may pung even if it is not their turn, causing other players to miss a go.
Because it interrupts the order of the game it is more important to
say "pung" out loud. In the case of one player calling
soeng and another calling pung the pung player takes priority.
However, it is considered bad form to delay before declaring pung because
then the player who has called soeng will have revealed which
tile they were waiting for. The lesson is, slow "pung'ers"
will get scolded!
Addendum: it has been noted on our forums, that some players
will deliberately discard their tile first, and only show their
completed soeng once play has passed on.
- 槓
gong3
This is the same as a pung except with all four
tiles making up the set, instead of just three. If the player picked
up the gong themself (ie: from the wall) they are rewarded with
an "extra turn", and this tile is taken from the back of the
wall (ie: the next player will still take the same tile they would
have had the gong not happened. It is obviously quite
funny to gong a tile that another player needed to win, as then
they must reorder their hand!
Discarding a tile
To finish a turn, a player will choose one of the tiles in their hand and place it face up into the discard pool. Thus, all tiles that have been discarded may be seen for the duration of the game, allowing skilled players to make judgements on which tiles are still in play and what the other players are likely to have in their hands.
Winning
To win the game the player will typically have 14 tiles, consisting of 4 sets of three and a pair of "eyes"
眼
ngaan5. The eyes are any two identical tiles. Winning is known as
食和sik6
wu2 or just 食
sik6 which many players will say as they win to let everyone know the game has ended. They will also tip all their tiles face up to prove they have won.
sik wu literally means "I am eating", another example of how ingrained food is to the Chinese culture!
As you will see below in "Gambling", it is bad news for the
player that discarded the tile that allowed the winner to win. If
the winner picked their own tile themselves though, it is known as 自摸
zi6 mo2*1
(self pick), and is bad news for all the losers!
The Mahjong Tile Set
There are three standard "suits" in Mahhong, each numbered between 1 and
9. These numbered suits are the only tiles which may be used to score "runs" of three.
The "Characters" suit
萬子maan6
zi2 Character Suit
萬 means "10,000". So, a number 3 of this suit would be called 三萬
saam1 maan6, meaning 30,000.
The "Sticks" suit
索子
sok3 zi2
Sticks Suit
Also known as the "Bamboo" suit. 索
actually means a thick rope rather than a stick.
The "Circles" suit
筒子tung4
zi2 Circles Suit
Also known as the "Balls" or "Dots" suit. 筒
actually means a tube or cylinder rather than a circle.
Winds and Dragons, the "Honour Tiles"
Additionally, there are 7 special tiles without numbers which score when three or more are collected.
These are collectively known as 番子
faan1
zi2 or
字牌
zi6
paai4*2 and
sometimes as the "Honour Tiles" in the west.
The "Winds" suit, shown here as East North South West
風牌
fung1 paai4*2
Winds Suit
東
dung1 East, 南
naam4 South, 西
sai1 West, 北
bak1 North.
The "Dragons" suit
三元牌
saam1 jyun4
paai4*2 Dragons Suit
中
zung1 Red Dragon, 發
faat3 Green Dragon, 白
baak6 White Dragon
Note that none of these characters actually mean anything to do with
dragons at all. Indeed, the whole concept of "dragons" may have
originated when the game was exported to the west.
中
is normally known as 紅中
hung4
zung1,
which means "red central".
發 is normally known as 發財
faat3
coi4, which means to
become rich or "good fortune" (obviously relevant to a gambling
game!).
白
is normally known as 白板
baak6
baan2,
which means "white board".
Mahjong Gambling Scoring
The scoring in Mahjong is very much influenced by gambling. In the west players may often play for counters but I have never personally seen any Chinese people play for anything other than money!
Whether you are playing for money or "chips" the principle is the same; we'll assume here that we are playing for chips. Winning a game earns you a certain number of chips from the other three players.
The amount given depends on how rich your winning hand is and is expressed
as 番
faan1 (sometimes written as 翻
faan1). Here are some examples of some typical "faan" of hand. Note they all have a pair of eyes, the deciding factor in their richness is the other 4 groups of three tiles.
| 翻
faan1 (points) |
Example Hand Description |
Chips won from each player |
| 0 |
雞和
gai1
wu4*2 - literally "chicken
hand" (a.k.a. KFC!). This hand contains at least two runs of a different
suit and no pungs. It is the poorest hand and only earns you a measly one chip from each player, hence the disparaging name. Crafty gamblers will often deliberately pass up a chance to win early in a game in favour of achieving a richer hand later on.
Another style of play is that anyone ending the game with such a
poor hand actually has to pay the other players! This isn't
common, but would certainly help deter boring players who never aim
for anything higher than the easiest hand. |
1 |
| 1 |
一番
jat1 faan1
- All soengs plus one pung
- Player picked up a flower or season
|
2 |
| 2 |
二番
ji6 faan1
- A pung of the player's own wind, ie: the player
receives one faan1 for the pung and one for their
own wind, maiking two in total.
|
4 |
| 3 |
三番
saam1 faan1
- All pungs or gongs
- All pungs or gongs
|
8 |
| 4 |
四番
sei3 faan1 - All soengs plus one
flower. |
16 |
In addition to the grades of winning hands, there are a multitude of ways in which you can increase your earnings:
- first of all, the player who was careless enough to discard the winning tile is punished by having to pay twice as many chips to the winner. This is extremely sickening if they have a rich winning hand!
- if you are lucky enough to pick your winning tile from the wall yourself then you win double the amount from each player. This is known as "zi6 mo2".
Winning with your starting hand.
If a non-dealing player wins upon picking up their first tile from the wall this is known as "Earthly Hand" dei6 wu2
If the dealer immediately wins with their fourteen self-dealt tiles this is known as "Heavenly Hand". Tin1 wu2
Special Hands
Finally, just to make matters intolerably complex, there are some winning hands which don't follow the "3 groups of 4 and a pair of eyes" format. The rewards for achieving a special hand are high as if you go for one of them you are effectively making it impossible to win any other way.
Here are some example of special hands:
Note about the rules here
Mahjong is played all over the world and like any popular parlour game there will be "house rules" favoured by different groups of people. This article is based on what I have been taught by native Hong Kong players. If your rules differ please feel free to post about them in the forum thread dedicated to this page.
More vocab
Baau3 Paang4 - fill the racks, means the limit bet, full house.
zong1 - dealer, bin go zou zong1? "who is the dealer?'
Ceot cung - to give away the winning tile.
Sik6 Ceot1 Cung (winning on a discarded tile) (the
last word is spoken with different tones by different people: 1,
2, or 3)
Sap6 Saam1 Jiu1 (Thirteen Terminals)
Hoi daai lau jyut - stealing the moon from under the sea (winning on the last tile).
Hoi gong - declaring a gong
Coeng gong - stealing someone's gong to win.
Daan diu - winning by picking up an eye (+1 faan)
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