Mahjong

1. Mahjong 麻將 Májiàng

2. The circle suit 筒子, tong zi The bamboo suit 索子, suo zi The character suit 萬字, wan zi

3. Wind tiles consist of four kinds of tile: East (東, dōng), South (南, nán), West (西, xī), and North (北, běi). Dragon tiles consist of three kind of tile: Flower tiles 花牌 hua pai

4. Prevailing Wind and Game Wind • To determine the Player Game Wind (門風 or 自風), each player throws three dice and the player with the highest total is chosen as the dealer. • The dealer's Wind is now East, • the player to the right of the dealer has South wind, • the next player to the right has West • the fourth player has North. • Game Wind changes after every round, unless the dealer wins. • The Prevailing Wind (場風) is always set to East when starting. • changes after the Game Wind has rotated around the board, that is, after each player has lost as the dealer.

5. Dealing • The dealer throws three dice and sums up the total. • Counting counterclockwise • so that the dealer is '1', • a player's row is chosen. Starting at the right edge, 'sum' tiles are counted and shifted to the right. • The dealer now takes a block of 4 tiles to the left of the divide. • The player to the dealer's right takes 4 tiles to the left, and players (counterclockwise) • take blocks of 4 tiles (clockwise) until all players have 12 tiles • each player then takes one more tile to make a 13-tile hand. • The board is now ready and new tiles will be taken from the wall where the dealing left off, proceeding clockwise.

6. Flower tiles • Flower tiles, when dealt or drawn, must be immediately replaced by a tile from the dead wall, • They are immediately exposed (placed in view on the table on front of the player's tiles). At the start of each round, where two or more players may have flower tiles, flower tiles are replaced starting with the dealer and moving to the right. • Flower tiles may or may not have point value • Acquiring your own flower will gives you one point. • Acquiring all the flowers of the same color will yield three points

7. Melds • Pong (碰 pinyin peng, Japanese pon) - A pong is a set of three identical tiles. • Kong (槓/杠 pinyin gang,) - A kong is a set of four identical tiles. • a Kong must be immediately exposed when explicitly declared. • f the fourth tile is formed from a discard, it is said to be an exposed Kong (明槓/明杠, pinyin ming gang). • If all four tiles were formed in the hand, it is said to be a concealed Kong (暗槓/暗杠, pinyin an gang). • It is also possible to form an exposed Kong if the player has an exposed Pung and draws the fourth tile. • In any case, a player must draw an extra tile from the back end of the wall and discard as normal. • Play then continues to the right. • Shang (上 shang) - A shang is a meld of three suited tiles in sequence. Unlike other melds, an exposed Chow may only be declared off the discard of the player on the left. • Eye (眼 yan) - The pair, while not a meld (and thus, cannot be declared or formed with a discard), is the final component to the standard hand. It consists of two identical tiles.

8. Extra Winning Criteria • 自摸 (zì mō) - self-pick, the winning tile must be drawn (rather than discarded). • 天胡 (tiān hú) - heavenly hand or the heavenly victory, this occurs when the winner, as the dealer, wins the round on the first turn • 地胡 (dì hú) - earthly hand or the earthly victory, this occurs when a non-dealer wins off of the dealer's first discard. • 雞胡 (ji hú); "Chicken Hand", this is used to describe a winning hand worth zero fān, or no points.

9. 自摸 (1 fān) - self-pick, the winning tile must be drawn (rather than discarded). • 平胡 (1 fān)) - Known in English as the sequence hand, this occurs when every meld is a Shang. • 對對胡 (3 fan) - Known in English as the triplets hand, this occurs when every meld in the winning hand is either a Pong or Kong. • 混一色 - (3 fān) - Known in English as the mixed one suit hand, the winning hand must have only honor tiles and tiles from one suit. • 清一色 (6 fān) - Known in English as the pure one suit hand, the winning hand must be either all honor tiles, or tiles all of the same suit. • 字一色 (8 fān) - Known in English as the pure honor hand, the winning hand must consist of all honor tiles. • 門風 (1 fān) - The winning hand contains a meld of the winner's seat wind. • 圈風 (1 fān) - The winning hand contains a meld of the prevailing wind. • 紅中 (1 fān) - The winning hand contains a meld of the red dragon. • 青發 (1 fān) - The winning hand contains a meld of the green dragon. • 白板 (1 fān) - The winning hand contains a meld of the white dragon.

10. Special Hands • 小三元 (3 fān) - Known in English as the three lesser scholars, the winning hand contains melds in two of the three dragons and a pair of the third dragon. • 大三元 (6 fān) - Known in English as the three great scholars, the winning hand contains melds in all three dragons. • 小四喜 (6 fān) - Known in English as the four small blessings, the winning hand contains melds in three of the four winds and a pair of the fourth wind. Some variations have a further restriction with the prevailing wind or the seat wind disallowed as the pair. • 大四喜 (8 fān) - Known in English as the four great blessings, the winning hand contains melds in all four winds. • 十三么 (8 fān) - Known in English as the thirteen terminal hand or the thirteen wonders, this occurs in 13-tile variants when the winning hand consists of one of each one, nine, wind, and dragon, and a 14th tile that matches any of the other 13.