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European Classical Mahjong Rules |
Mahjong is a Chinese game of skill, which involves four players. Although the game play in general is similar in all of the versions of mahjong, the game pieces and scoring, however, slightly differ depending on the regional variations. These rules are based on classical Chinese Mah Jong, which is no longer played in Asia, but is very popular in the European countries.
Almost similar to gin rummy, the object of mahjong is to build sets, as well as get the highest point value. In order to do this, each player selects and discards tiles (the game pieces, bearing different designs) until an entire set of combinations has been made.
So let's start the ball rolling (in this case, the dice), and begin playing mahjong.
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The Mahjong set
The basic Mahjong set has 136 pieces, which contains 36 distinct kinds of pieces (4 of each kind). There are three suits, which run from one to nine.
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There are three suits, which run from one to nine.
| 1) Bamboos |
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| 2) Characters |
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| 3) Dots |
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Furthermore, there are four directional tiles (Winds or Feng), labeled as East, South, West, and North (4 pieces each)
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| There are also three Cardinal tiles (Dragons or Special Honor Pieces), labeled as Red Dragon (matches with Character suit), Green Dragon (matches with Bamboos suit), and White Dragon (matches with Dots suit). There are 4 pieces of each Dragon. |
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| Lastly, there are eight optional Flowers & Seasons tiles, which consist of two sets of four tiles; each series marked 1, 2, 3, and 4. |
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Mahjong Flowers |
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The flower and season tiles differ in nature from the suit and honor tiles. There are only 4 flowers (1, 2, 3, and 4) and only 4 season tiles (1, 2, 3, and 4). When drawn, they are declared and a substitute tile is drawn. The flower(s) or season(s) corresponding with the winning player's wind may increase the score.
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The Flowers are represented by a plum, orchid, chrysanthemum and bamboo, and Seasons by a fisher, woodcutter, farmer and scholar.
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| Flower |
Season/Occupation |
Number |
Corresponding Wind |
| Plum |
Spring/Fisherman |
1 |
East |
| Lily/Orchid |
Summer/Woodcutter |
2 |
South |
| Chrysanthemum |
Autumn/Farmer |
3 |
West |
| Bamboo |
Winter/Scholar |
4 |
North |
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