mahjong

Etymology

The game was originally called 麻雀 (pinyin: máquè; Jyutping: maa4zoek3–2)—meaning 'sparrow'—which is still used in several Chinese languages, mostly in the south, such as Cantonese and Hokkien. It is said that the clacking of tiles during shuffling resembles the chittering of sparrows. It has also been suggested that the name came from an evolution of an earlier card game called Madiao from which mahjong tiles were adapted. In Chinese, 麻雀戰 (麻雀战; máquè zhàn) denotes a form of guerrilla warfare tactics colloquially called 'sparrow warfare (tactics)'. Other languages, such as Sichuanese, Shanghainese and Standard Mandarin, now call the game 麻將 (májiàng), which is a nasal erhua form of the original name. Its name is similar in other languages, except in Thai, where it is called ไพ่นกกระจอก (phai nok krachok), a calque meaning 'sparrow cards'.

History

There are two disputed origins of mahjong, namely Ningbo and Fujian. The author of the first mahjong guidebook, Yifan Shen, wrote in his book "Illustrated Mahjong Guide" (1914) that the birth of mahjong was roughly thirty years earlier in Ningbo, which is around the late 19th century. In the book "Endless History (博史)" written by Chinese scholar Yaquan Du in 1933, he believed that "mahjong was originally popular among fishermen in Guangdong and Fujian. Later in the early years of Guangxu, it spread among the businessmen in Ningbo. Roughly speaking, mahjong started in late Qing, around the 19th century, with different scholars debating its actual year of invention. Late Qing scholar, lecturer of the Shanghai Jiaotong University, Zhixian Xu wrote in the book "Folklore of the Ten Leaves" that the popularity of mahjong grew in the last years of Guangxu (after the end of the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895). One can conclude that the decades between the late 19th century to the early 20th century were the infant years of mahjong.

Mahjong is based on draw-and-discard card games that were popular in 18th and 19th century China, some of which are still popular today. They were played with a stripped deck of money-suited cards. Each deck is divided into three suits of Cash or coins, Strings of cash, and Myriads of strings. There are nine ranks in each suit. In addition, there are three wild cards: Red flower, White flower, and Old thousand. Depending on the game, there are multiple copies of each card.

Games scholar David Parlett has written that the Western card games Conquian and Rummy share a common origin with Mahjong. All these games involve players drawing and discarding tiles or cards to make melds. Khanhoo is an early example of such a game. The most likely ancestor to Mahjong was pènghú which was played with 120 or 150 cards. During the late 19th century, pènghú was used interchangeably with máquè in both card and tile form.

It is not known when the conversion from cards to tiles took place precisely but it most likely occurred in the middle of the 19th century. The earliest surviving tile sets date to around 1870 and were acquired in Fuzhou, Shanghai, and Ningbo. These sets differ from modern ones in several ways, there were no "flower" and fā ("green dragon") tiles. In their place were "king" tiles for heaven, earth, man, and harmony and also for each of the 4 "winds" which may have acted as bonus tiles. In the contemporaneous Himly set, there were no zhōng ("red dragon") tiles either. Instead there were the wild cards known as Cash Flower, String Flower, and Myriad Flower plus an additional tile, the king of everything. These early jokers are still found in Vietnamese sets. They may have been removed as the tiles share the same titles as the leaders of the Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864). For example, Hong Xiuquan was the self-styled "Heavenly King of Great Peace" and his top subordinates were called east king, south king, west king, and north king.

Mahjong in the West

The first Western records about mahjong seem to correspond to the papers of British Consul General F.E.B. Harvey, around the time when he served as consul in Ningbo, during the 1860s. He mentions in his papers making the acquaintance of an English-fluent, rank-three official under the Daoguang Emperor, Chen Yumen, who taught him the game. In the same writings he details the rules he was taught by Chen. In 1895, British sinologist William Henry Wilkinson wrote a paper which mentioned a set of cards known in central China by the name of ma chioh, literally, hemp sparrow, which he maintained was the origin of the term Mahjong. He did not explain the dialect of the originator or region specific etymology of this information. By 1910, there were written accounts in many languages, including French and Japanese.

The game was imported to the United States in the 1920s. The first Mahjong sets sold in the U.S. were sold by Abercrombie & Fitch starting in 1920. It became a success in Washington, D.C., and the co-owner of the company, Ezra Fitch, sent emissaries to Chinese villages to buy every Mahjong set they could find. Abercrombie & Fitch sold a total of 12,000 Mahjong sets. Mahjong became a central part of cultural bonding for Chinese Americans in the 1920s and '30s in Chinatown, Manhattan and was part of community building for suburban American Jewish women in the 1940s and 50s.

Also in 1920, Joseph Park Babcock published his book Rules of Mah-Jongg, also known as the "red book". This was the earliest version of Mahjong known in America. Babcock had learned Mahjong while living in China. His rules simplified the game to make it easier for Americans to take up, and his version was common through the Mahjong fad of the 1920s. Later, when the 1920s fad died out, many of Babcock's simplifications were abandoned.

The game has taken on a number of trademarked names, such as "Pung Chow" and the "Game of Thousand Intelligences". Mahjong nights in America often involved dressing and decorating rooms in Chinese style. Several hit songs were recorded during the Mahjong fad, most notably "Since Ma Is Playing Mah Jong" by Eddie Cantor.

Many variants of Mahjong developed during this period. By the 1930s, many revisions of the rules developed that were substantially different from Babcock's classical version (including some that were considered fundamentals in other variants, such as the notion of a standard hand). Standardization came with the formation of the National Mah Jongg League (NMJL) in 1937, along with the first American Mahjong rulebook, Maajh: The American Version of the Ancient Chinese Game, written by NMJL's first president and co-founder, Viola L. Cecil. In 1999, a second organization was formed, the American Mah Jongg Association.

Current development

There are many governing bodies which often host exhibition games and tournaments for modern and traditional Mahjong gaming.

Mahjong, as of 2010, is the most popular table game in Japan. As of 2008, there were approximately 7.6 million Mahjong players in Japan and an estimated 8,900 Mahjong parlors did ¥300 billion (converting to US$2.8 billion according to exchange rates for 30 April 2020) in sales. There are several manga and anime (e.g. Saki and Akagi) devoted to dramatic and comic situations involving Mahjong. Since the 1980s, hundreds of different Mahjong arcade machines in Japanese video arcades have been created, including strip versions. Newer units can connect with other arcade machines across the Internet.

Mahjong culture is still deeply ingrained in the Chinese community. Sam Hui wrote Cantopop songs using Mahjong as their themes, and Hong Kong movies have often included scenes of Mahjong games. Many gambling movies have been filmed in Hong Kong, and a recent subgenre is the Mahjong movie.

Although the popularity of the game in China is still broad, since 1949, mahjong was frowned upon by the government because it is seen as a means of gambling addiction, an issue that the government always sought to tackle.

Prolonged playing of Mahjong may trigger epileptic seizures according to a 2007 study. To date there are 23 reported cases of Mahjong-induced seizures in the English medical literature. Some doctors speculate that this may be due to stress and complex manual movement correlated with intense brain function similar to playing chess or card games such as poker.

Studies by doctors have also shown in Hong Kong that the game is beneficial for individuals suffering from dementia or cognitive memory difficulties, leading to the development of Mahjong therapy. Many elderly in Hong Kong actively and regularly go to Mahjong Schools as a form of leisure and entertainment activities. As the Government has not allowed gambling since the end of World War II, the Government issued 144 licenses to these "schools" in 1956 in order to legalize the operation of places that provide Mahjong entertainment.

Competition

In 1998, in the interest of dissociating illegal gambling from Mahjong, the China State Sports Commission published a new set of rules, now generally referred to as Chinese Official rules or International Tournament rules (国标麻将; Guóbiāo Májiàng). The principles of the new, wholesome Mahjong are no gambling, no drinking, and no smoking. In international tournaments, players are often grouped in teams to emphasize that Mahjong from now on is considered a sport.

The new rules are highly pattern-based. The rulebook contains 81 combinations, based on patterns and scoring elements popular in classic and modern regional Chinese variants; some table practices of Japan have also been adopted. Points for flower tiles (each flower is worth one point) may not be added until the player has scored eight points. The winner of a game receives the score from the player who discards the winning tile, plus eight basic points from each player; in the case of zimo (self-drawn win), they receive the value of this round plus eight points from all players.

The new rules were first used in an international tournament in Tokyo, where, in 2002, the first global tournament in mahjong was organized by the Mahjong Museum, the Japan Mahjong Organizing Committee, and the city council of Ningbo, China. One hundred players participated, mainly from Japan and China, but also from Europe and the United States. Mai Hatsune, from Japan, became the first world champion. The following year saw the first annual China Mahjong Championship, held in Hainan; the next two annual tournaments were held in Hong Kong and Beijing. Most players were Chinese; players from other nations attended as well.

In 2005, the first Open European Mahjong Championship was held in the Netherlands, with 108 players. The competition was won by Masato Chiba from Japan. The second European championship in Copenhagen (2007) was attended by 136 players and won by Danish player Martin Wedel Jacobsen.

The first Online European Mahjong Championship was held on the Mahjong Time server in 2007, with 64 players, and the winner was Juliani Leo, from the U.S., and the Best European Player was Gerda van Oorschot, from the Netherlands. The Third Open European Mahjong Championship 2009 at Baden/Vienna, Austria, was won by Japanese player Koji Idota, while runner-up Bo Lang from Switzerland became European Champion. There were 152 participants.

Superstitions

Even though both skill and chance play a fundamental role in the game, there is no shortage of superstitions in which players believe where they sit, how they hold their pieces or objects they have on their person will somehow affect the outcome. For example, players will try to find seats with the best feng shui or wear their lucky clothing or trinkets. Usually, after one round (everybody has been the dealer once in a particular prevailing wind), players will switch seats. Yet, some players may refuse to do so when they have won multiple games sitting in that seat. They may believe that position possesses luck that is beneficial to them. Some believe that specific pieces (one dot, for example) bode bad luck if received in their opening hand. The belief of feng shui is still rather prevalent in the Chinese society, with over 47% of Chinese adults believing in it.

More elaborate superstitions in mahjong range from those found in the game poker, such as not counting one's wins and losses, to the comical, such as changing one's undergarments after a loss. These rituals have become an integral part of the game experience and its aesthetics.

In popular culture

The game was popular in Shanghai in the mid- to late 1800s where it was part of the nightlife and courtesan halls. By the turn of the century, it was popular enough to be played in the royal palace of Beijing. The game continued to spread to Japan, throughout Southeast Asia, and eventually the United States in the 1920s where it made a mark with the president's family and movie stars in high-society. The game fell out of fashion in the United States during World War I, but was picked up again by the Jewish community in the 1930s. In the early 20th century, the game was banned in China due to its outlook on gambling, but the ban was lifted during Chinese New Years which ironically added to its popularity. The game was completely banned in China during the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976 due to its association with capitalism. The 2018 film Crazy Rich Asians lead to a surge of interest for the game for tourists in Singapore. The game was trending in TikTok for GenZ and Millenials during the Covid-19 pandemic as a way to create social connections and improve mental health. Today, there are several dedicated clubs for Mahjong throughout the United States, and hotels would even host events.

In recent years, the appearance of mahjong in popular culture has contributed to a resurgence in popularity of the game:

The manga and anime Saki revolves around a high school Mahjong club. Other notable anime and manga with mahjong include Pon no Michi.

The video game series Like a Dragon allows a player to play Mah-jong games in the form of mini-games.

In the 2018 film Crazy Rich Asians, the main character Rachel lets the traditional mother of her boyfriend win a Mahjong game at a parlor as a major plot point to convey the nature of their relationship.

In Kung Fu Panda 4, director Stephanie Ma Stine of Chinese descent made it a point to ensure the authenticity of her culture depicted in the film. To do so, she taught a few members of her animation team how to play Mahjong, which unexpectedly became popular with the rest of the creative crew.

Old Hong Kong mahjong rules

There are many highly varied versions of mahjong, both in rules and tiles used. "Old Hong Kong mahjong" uses the same basic features and rules as the majority of the different variations of the game. This form of mahjong uses all of the tiles of the most commonly available sets, includes no exotic or complex rules, and has a relatively small set of scoring sets/hands with a simple scoring system. For these reasons, Hong Kong mahjong is a suitable variation for the introduction of game rules and play, and is the focus of this article.

Tiles

Old Hong Kong mahjong is played with a standard set of 144 mahjong tiles (though cards may be used). Sets often include counters (to keep score), dice (to decide how to deal), and a marker to show who the dealer is and which round is being played. Some sets include racks to hold the tiles, especially if they are larger or smaller than standard tiles or have an odd shape. Mahjong sets originating from the United States, Japan, or Southeast Asia will likely have extra tiles or specialized markings.

The tiles are split into three categories: suited, honors, and bonus tiles.

Suited tiles are divided into three suits and each are numbered from 1 to 9. The suits are bamboos, dots, and characters. There are four identical copies of each suited tile, totaling 108 tiles.

The bamboo suit is also known as "sticks", "strings", or "bams" suit; the first tile usually has a bird (traditionally, a peacock or sparrow) instead of a single bamboo. The dots suit is also known as the "wheels", "circles", "coins", "stones", "marbles" or "balls" suit. The characters suit is also known as the "myriads", "cracks" or "numbers" suit since the top characters are numbers in the Chinese writing system, and the bottom characters (in traditional Chinese characters) are the Chinese character for "ten thousand".

There are two different sets of honors tiles: winds and dragons. The winds are east, south, west, and north, beginning with east. The dragons are red, green, and white. The white dragon has a blue or black frame on the face of the piece, or in some sets, is entirely blank. These tiles have no numerical sequence like the suited tiles (for example, the bamboo pieces numbered 1 to 9). Like the suited tiles, there are four identical copies of each honors tile, for a total of 28 honors tiles.

There are two sets of bonus tiles: flowers and seasons. The flower and season tiles play a unique role in the mechanics of the game. When drawn, the bonus tile is not added into a player's hand but are instead set aside and kept near the player's other tiles for scoring purposes should they win the hand, and an extra tile is drawn in replacement of the bonus tile.

Choosing table positions and first dealer

Before the game can begin, players need to be assigned one of the wind positions at the table – those being (in counterclockwise order) East, South, West, and North. East will also be the first dealer. Play proceeds in this counterclockwise order.

There are a variety of ways to determine positions. For example, one way is to have each player roll the dice and assign East to the player who rolls the highest, South to the second-highest, and so on. Another way is to shuffle the 4 wind tiles face down and have each player choose one, determining their position.

Hands, rounds, and matches

A match consists of four rounds, each representing a "prevailing wind", starting with East. Once the first round is completed, a second round begins with South as the prevailing wind, and so on. Wind position is significant in that it affects the scoring of the game. A mahjong set with winds in play will usually include a separate prevailing wind marker (typically a die marked with the wind characters in a holder).

In each round at least four hands are played, with each player taking the position of dealer. In the first hand of each round, Player 1 (winner of the dice toss) is East and therefore dealer. In the second hand, Player 2 takes the East position, shifting the seat winds amongst the players counter-clockwise (though players do not physically move their chairs). This continues until all four players have been East (dealer). A marker is used to mark which player is East and often the round number. (In sets with racks, a rack may be marked differently to denote the dealer.)

Whenever a player in the East position (dealer) wins a hand, or if there is no winner (a draw or "goulash hand"), an extra hand is played with the same seating positions and prevailing wind as in the previous hand. This means that a match may potentially have no limit to the number of hands played (though some players will set a limit of three consecutive hands allowed with the same seat positions and prevailing wind).

Example of games:

Dealing tiles

All tiles are placed face down on the table and are shuffled. By convention, all players should participate in shuffling using both hands, moving the pieces around the table rigorously and loudly for a lengthy period. Tiles may get flipped up during this process, and players should flip them facing down as soon as possible to avoid identifying the location of any revealed tiles.

Each player then stacks a row of 18 tiles, two tiles high in front of them (for a total of 36 tiles). Players then push each side of their stack together to form a square wall.

Regular players usually place their stacks in a slightly diagonal position (about 20 to 30 degrees counter-clockwise); the right end of their stack is pushed somewhat further into the centre of the table to meet almost the middle of the stack of the player on the right. This creates a smaller square wall, the length of about half of each stack, with walls extended away from each corner of the square. The diagonally positioned stacks and a smaller square create a bigger space for players' tiles and also make an ergonomic position for drawing tiles from the stack.

The dealer throws three dice on the square wall and sums up the total. Counting counter-clockwise so that the dealer is 1 (or 5, 9, 13, 17), so that south (player to the right) is 2 (or 6, 10, 14, 18), etc., a player's quarter of the wall is chosen. Some house rules may use only two dice but have double throws to increase randomness. In the case of double throws, the player of the selected wall makes the second throw.

Using the exact total on the dice (or the total of the two throws), the player whose wall is chosen then counts the stacks of tiles from right to left. (For double throws, the count may extend to the left side player's stack.) This determines the location where the 'deck' of tiles is cut. Starting from the left of the stacks counted, the dealer draws four tiles for their hand. Proceeding in counter-clockwise order, players take turns drawing blocks of four tiles (so that the stacks decrease clockwise) until each player (including the dealer) has 12 tiles. Each player then draws one last tile (top first, then bottom, then following stack, etc. to make a 13-tile hand. The tile to be drawn is always the topmost tile left of the cut.

Rules

Each player, in turn, in a counter-clockwise direction, draws a tile from the wall. When drawing, continue around the wall, taking one piece from the wall (from where you last left off after dealing the tiles), top first. If that is taken, then the bottom one, moving in the same direction the tiles were dealt (counter-clockwise). The player then discards a tile (either the tile just drawn, or a tile in the hand) to maintain a hand of 13. The discarded tile is thrown into the centre and, if desired, the player announces out loud what the piece is. The other players have an opportunity to seize the discarded tile if they can make a meld with it; if no one takes it, the turn continues to the next player. Play continues this way until one player has a legal winning hand and calls out the win (each region does this call differently—no Asian version uses the word "mahjong" to signal a win) while revealing their hand. Playing in English, players will usually shout out Mahjong!

There are four different ways that regular order of play can be interrupted:

A bonus tile (flower or season) is drawn

A meld (pung, kong, or chow) is made from a seized discard (only from the most recent discard)

Going mahjong (declaring a winning hand)

Robbing a kong

During play, each player's hand should always be 13 tiles (meaning in each turn a tile must be picked up and another discarded). The count of 13 tiles do not include any bonus tiles (flowers and seasons), which are set to the side, nor does it include the fourth added piece of a kong. If a player is seen to have fewer or more than 13 tiles in their hand outside of their turn, they are penalised.

A winning hand consists of 14 tiles. Since players always have 13 tiles in their hand during play, they must win by either drawing a piece from the wall that completes a 14-tile hand ("winning from the wall") or claiming a discard from another player, which completes a 14-tile hand ("winning by discard"). The winning hand is made of four melds (a specific pattern of three pieces) and the eyes (a pair of identical pieces). The exceptions to this rule are the special hands listed below.

Scoring

Old Hong Kong scoring is relatively simple. There is only one winner (or if there is a draw, the hand is replayed). The winner must have a legal hand that meets the minimum faan points agreed to in advance (not including any bonus points). Only the winner scores, and the other players pay the winner various sums. After each hand ends, the winner counts their faan points.

Faan points depend on:

The composition of the entire hand

How the hand was won

Bonus tiles

Special patterns

A few other special criteria.

In order to win, a player needs to have at least the minimum faan value agreed in advance (often 3). Bonus tiles and a few other elements are not included in the minimum faan value a player needs to form a legal winning hand. For example, in a three faan minimum game, if a player has two faan points and one bonus point, the player has not met the proper requirements to win and will need to gain another faan point before calling a win. Though the bonus points cannot be included in the minimum points needed to win, they are included in the overall score after a player wins.

The other players do not score their hand. Once the winner has added their points (faan points plus bonus points), the points must be converted into base points (the chart is below). These base points represent how much the opponents pay to the winner

Players then pay the winner (in money or when not gambling with "chips or points") based on three factors:

The base points (faan points and bonus points converted into a payment unit)

If the player won from the wall (doubles the points)

If the player was the dealer (doubles the points).

Variations

Variations may have far more complicated scoring systems, add or remove tiles, and include far more scoring elements and limit hands.

In many places, players often observe one version and are either unaware of other variations or claim that different versions are incorrect. In mainland China alone, there are over thirty variants, and across the world, there are over forty variations. Many variations today differ only by scoring.

Chinese variants

Changsha mahjong is widely played in Hunan Province. Like Wuhan mahjong, players need to obtain special Jong consisting of only tiles of two, five or eight. Changsha mahjong forbids using winds and some special tiles, those tiles are first drawn out from the table when playing. Winners each round get a special drawing session for bonuses, usually doubling the score.

Chinese classical mahjong is the oldest surviving variety of mahjong and was the version introduced to America in the 1920s under various names. It has a small, loyal following in the West, although few play it in Asia. All players score and it is possible to score higher than the winner.

Fujian mahjong, thirteen tile hands. Certain tiles can be wild. No dragons. Winds are treated as bonuses.

Harbin mahjong, popular in northeastern China, using only 108 suit and 4 red dragon tiles. The player's hand must meet a set of few conditions (e.g. at least one chow/pung, at least one terminal or red dragon, etc.) and be declared "ready" in order to win, with points earned by discard or self-draw and a bonus tile revealed when the player wins.

Hong Kong mahjong or Cantonese mahjong is a more common form of mahjong, differing in minor scoring details from the Chinese Classical variety. It does not allow multiple players to win from a single discard.

Mahjong Official Rules (Chinese: 麻将竞赛规则), commonly known as MCR or Chinese official mahjong, is an international standard founded by All-China Sports Federation in July 1998 and governed by the World Mahjong Organization. It includes a large variety of different scoring rules in a way that emphasizes strategy and calculation ability. Some mahjong societies have adopted it for competition play, and in some cases for all play. While not very popular in China and Asia, it is one of the most popular mahjong variants in Europe, particularly in the Netherlands, France and Italy.

Shenyang mahjong, a fast-paced version with 13-tile hands. Valid winning hands must contain all 3 suits, honor or terminal tiles, and at least one open pung.

Other variants

American mahjong is a derivative of mahjong, standardized and regulated by the U.S.-based National Mah Jongg League, Inc. and the American Mah-Jongg Association. Unlike other forms of Mahjong, permitted "legal" hands are changed annually through a published card that must be purchased by players from one of the sponsoring organizational bodies. It uses joker tiles, the Charleston, plus melds of five or more tiles, treats bonus tiles as honors, and eschews the chow and the notion of a standard hand. Purists claim that this makes American mahjong a separate game. In addition, the NMJL and AMJA variations, which have minor scoring differences, are commonly referred to as mahjongg or mah-jongg (with 2 Gs, often hyphenated).

European classical mahjong is a family of European variants that remained closer to Chinese classical mahjong than most modern Chinese variants, some of which are still actively played today. Most notably:

Dutch tournament rules (Nederlandse Toernooi Spelregels or NTS) are a ruleset formalized in 2002 that is now maintained by the Dutch Mahjong Federation. Although nowadays not as popular as MCR in the Netherlands, it is still actively played in local clubs, tournaments, and living rooms.

Italian official rules (Regolamento Ufficiale Italiano) are a ruleset maintained by the Italian Mahjong Federation.

Filipino mahjong is a fast-moving variant that uses the standard 144-tile set. It does not use jokers, and groups all dragon, wind, season, and flower tiles as "flowers" for the purpose of collecting bonus points.[1]

Japanese classical mahjong is still used in tournaments. It is closer to the Chinese classical scoring system but only the winner scores.

Japanese mahjong is a standardized form of mahjong in Japan and South Korea. It is also found prevalently in video games, which helped make it one of the most widespread forms of mahjong worldwide, including in English-speaking countries and Europe. In addition to scoring changes, the rules of rīchi (ready hand) and dora (bonus tiles) are unique highlights of this variant. In addition, tile discards are specifically arranged in front of each player by discard order, to take discarded tiles into account during play. Some rules replace some number 5 tiles with red tiles so that they can eventually get more value.

Equipment

Tables

Mahjong playing surfaces are typically square and small enough to be within arm's length of all equipment. The edges are raised to prevent tiles from sliding off and the surface is covered in felt to limit wear on the tiles. Automatic dealing tables, often used for high stakes playing and tournaments, are able to shuffle tiles, build walls, and randomize dice. It is an elaborate device built into a table which uses two alternating sets of tiles. It shuffles one set of tiles while the players play on the other set. Tiles made for automatic dealing tables contain magnets, so that the tiles will be face-down in the walls when the shuffle is complete. After the round is finished the tiles are dropped into the table and the standby wall raises upwards.

Tiles

The following chart shows the most generic set of tiles

There are variations that feature specific use of tiles. Some three-player versions remove the North wind and one Chinese provincial version has no honors. Korean mahjong removes the bamboo suit or at least its numbers 2–8 so that terminals can be used. Japanese mahjong rarely uses flowers or seasons. Korean mahjong uses seasons but calls them flowers, while many Southeast Asian sets have more flower series.

Some mahjong variants accept wildcard tiles. The wildcard tiles are decided at the beginning of the game by choosing one random tile. The wild card could be the immediately following tile on the wall, after distributing tiles to all players, or it could also be separately decided by a dice throw. Wildcard tiles cannot be discarded and can only replace tiles in chows. Wildcard tiles cannot replace tiles in pungs and kongs. For example, if a character 4 is chosen, then character 4 and the next sequential tile, character 5, can be used as wild cards in this round. (When the wildcard indicator is chosen and exposed, only 3 tiles remain of the same denomination, so the next tile in the suit will also be used as a wildcard, adding to 7 wildcard tiles for 4 players.) Also, if a tile numbered 9 is the indicator, the suits circle back to 1, after 9. Thus, the number 9 and 1 are wild cards.

Also, if the chosen tile is not in the suited tiles, the wild cards are decided in rules:

The bonus tiles are not available for wild cards.

A feature of several variations of mahjong, most notably in American mahjong, is the notion of some number of Joker tiles. They may be used as a wild card: a substitute for any tile in a hand, or, in some variations, only tiles in melds. Another variation is that the Joker tile may not be used for melding. Depending on the variation, a player may replace a Joker tile that is part of an exposed meld belonging to any player with the tile it represents.

Rules governing discarding Joker tiles also exist; some variations permit the Joker tile to take on the identity of any tile, and others only permit the Joker tile to take on the identity of the previously discarded tile (or the absence of a tile, if it is the first discard).

Dice, markers, and counting pieces

Depending on the variation, two or three dice are usually used to decide what part of the wall to start dealing from. They are six-sided dice, traditionally but not necessarily Chinese dice with red one and four pips.

The dealer marker is a round or square object that the dealer places to the side to remind players who the dealer is. The wind marker may be used which indicates the current prevailing wind. In some cases the dealer marker and the wind marker are represented by one large marker, usually a small wheel where one can swivel the outer circle to indicate the prevailing wind (which the dealer holds onto), a cube with the four winds placed onto four of the sides which can be placed in a hollow square (the dealer holds onto it), or a cylinder locked into frame which can be rolled to expose the wind on the top. Japanese mahjong, especially in a gambling environment, may optionally use four yakitori markers to indicate which players have not won a hand yet and have to pay a penalty.

There are a variety of counting pieces used in different countries. They range from Chinese or Japanese counting sticks (thin sticks with various dots on them to represent various points), jetons, play money, paper and pencil, or various apps on touchscreen devices used to calculate and keep scores.