FAQ 2b. Identifying a Mah-Jongg Variant

Before You Buy A Mah-Jongg Set or Book, Make Sure You Buy The Right Thing

Like it says in FAQ 1, Mah-Jongg is played in many different ways. The first thing you have to do is make sure you know which kind of mah-jongg you want to learn.

a. So, if you are new to mah-jongg, first you need to choose a rule set to study.
b. If you are already playing mah-jongg, and are not sure which of the 30+ known varieties of mah-jongg you play, it's helpful to have a name to put on it. Especially if you have a question to ask about your variant on our Q&A Bulletin Board.

This FAQ will help you with both. Click the following links to jump to the appropriate section of this FAQ.

"Which Mah-Jongg rules should I learn?" (FAQ 2a)

How to find out which version of Mah-Jongg you or your friends play.

Click here to see a detailed overview of many different types of mah-jongg.

Click here to see an abbreviated overview of many different types of mah-jongg.

Mah-jongg map I made for my Smithsonian talk in 2002.

Click the tree to see a larger picture of the mah-jongg family tree!

How to find out which version of Mah-Jongg you [or your friends] play.

If you have friends who play Mah-Jongg and you want to get a book so you can study up on the way they play, you have to first know which version of Mah-Jongg your friends play. There are two problems with this:

A. Most people who play Mah-Jongg are unaware that there are more ways to play. If you just ask them "which style Mah-Jongg do you play?" they may give you a blank stare (or they may give you an imprecise answer). So you may have to ask in a different way (described below).

B. Very few books on Mah-Jongg make it clear which variety of Mah-Jongg they describe. The books too seem to have this attitude that there's just one way to play. In order to find the proper book, you can refer to the books FAQ (once you know which flavor of Mah-Jongg you want to study).

C. There is no one established standard naming system for the various flavors of Mah-Jongg. Different authors use different names to refer to the same style of Mah-Jongg. The naming system used here is just the naming system that this author chose.

To find out which game your friends play (or to identify the version you are already playing), start by asking your friends a few simple questions:

1. Do you use a card that changes every year?
- If yes, your friends play American (probably NMJL), and you can stop asking questions. All other varieties of Mah-Jongg use constant rules that stay the same from year to year.

2. How many tiles do you hold in your hand during play? 13 -- or 16? (When you win, do you go out on 14 tiles -- or 17?)
- If your friends say they play with 16 and go out on 17, then your friends play Taiwanese or Filipino style, and now you only have to ask one more question: "when you get a Wind or Dragon do you keep it in the hand and make groups of them, or do you treat them like flowers?"
- If they treat winds and dragons as flowers, then it's Filipino. Otherwise, it's Taiwanese. Also, it's likely that if you've narrowed their game down to Filipino or Taiwanese, you could simply ask, "Do you know if it's Taiwanese? Or Filipino?" Most likely, when you ask this question, the person will look puzzled briefly, then say "Well, the person who taught me the game was from Taiwan" (or the Philippines), and you will have your answer.
All other styles use 13 tiles in the hand, winning (going out) with 14 tiles in the hand.

3. Do you use "Reach" and "Dora"?
- If yes, your friends play Modern Japanese style, and you can stop asking questions.

4. How many tiles do you use when you play?

144: Your friends could play any of a variety of styles. Hard to tell; see below.
152: They probably play American (most likely NMJL).
136: They probably play Japanese, or maybe Chinese or HK but without the flowers.
160 or more: Vietnamese, or maybe Thai style mah-jongg (about which little is known).
108: Hunan style or Malaysian 3-player "B".
132: Fuzhou style.
104: Korean (3 or 4 players).
84 or 88: Malaysian 3-player "A".
72: Szechuan style.

The main problem with that last question is, of course, that most people never bother to count their tiles. And most people do not want to go through all the work of figuring out how many tiles they used just to satisfy your seemingly unending barrage of questions. But in fact this is the last question that can be asked to easily identify a style of mah-jongg. There is another way to ask it: how long is each player's wall? If it's 17 stacks long, then 136 tiles are in use. If the wall is 18 stacks long: 144 tiles. If it's 19 stacks long: 152 tiles.

4. How many flowers / jokers are in use?

In May of 2016, Raymond Lee provided the following table showing types of flowers and jokers used in different Chinese and Southeast Asian variants:

For more on the variants Hua Maque and Wang Maque, see the learned research of Michael Stanwick and Hongbing Xu at mahjongtileset.co.uk. And for more about the difference between "general jokers" and "special jokers," see FAQ 7E, the "mystery tiles" FAQ. In the table above, "Animals" refers to what I call "Singapore flowers," also described in FAQ 7E.

5. Are the players all female and caucasian?
If so, your friends are probably playing American or Western/British (which includes Wright-Patterson, Australian, and India/Mumbai styles).

6. Is a substantial portion of the other players of Asian descent?
If so, your friends are probably not playing American or Western/British. They are playing one of the other variants.

If you have not yet identified which style your friends play, they may play Chinese Classical, Chinese Official, Hong Kong, New Style, Malaysian. . . to name a few possibilities. So below I describe the main characteristics of all the major varieties of Mah-Jongg which I can describe as of this writing, and you can figure out the questions from there. Don't stop reading before you get to the bottom. Variants are usually mentioned numerous times.

Note: the names of the various flavors of mah-jongg are not necessarily universally recognized. Some authorities may call a particular style of mah-jongg by a different name.

Detailed overview of the major varieties of mah-jongg

CHINESE ARCHAIC (ca 1890)

Uses 136 tiles (suit tiles and honors only; no flowers/seasons).
Flowers/seasons not used.
Hold 15 tiles in the hand, go out on 15 tiles ("as in Khanhoo").
No special hands.
Score: count up points based on "tricks" (i.e. pongs, kongs, and pairs), according to "tariff". "Sequences help towards filling a hand, but are not regarded as tricks, and score nothing." Points for Out not mentioned. Four own winds ("e.g. the 4 East in the East hand") double "stakes all round". "In some cases" 4 own winds double "the value of all tricks in the holder's hand only".
All players earn points (?) -- this is inferred from preceding point.
Source: Wilkinson (see FAQ 11). Thanks to Thierry Depaulis for the details.

LATE QING STYLE (ca 1903)

Uses 136 tiles (suit tiles and honors only; no flowers/seasons).
Flowers/seasons not used.
Hold 13 tiles in the hand, go out on 14 tiles.
Few special hands.
Score 10 points for Out, then count up points based on pongs, kongs, and pairs, then double if appropriate. Concealed sets are more rewarded (as in CC and Japanese). East pays/receives double.
Only the winner is paid.
Source: Li Boyuan in novel "Officialdom Unmasked" (Guanchang xianxing ji) of 1903-5. Thanks to Thierry Depaulis.

CHINESE PRE-CLASSICAL (pre-WWI)

Uses 136 tiles (suit tiles and honors only; no flowers/seasons).
Flowers/seasons not used.
Hold 13 tiles in the hand, go out on 14 tiles.
Few special hands.
Score 10 points for Out, then count up points based on pongs, kongs, and pairs, then double if appropriate. Concealed sets are more rewarded (as in CC and Japanese). East doesn't pay/receive more than other players.
All players earn points (not only the winner).
Source: Mauger, 1915. Thanks to Thierry Depaulis.

CHINESE CLASSICAL -- the game that took the world by storm in the 1920s.

Uses 144 tiles. (Sets may come with extraneous tiles.)
Flowers are melded instantly when received (some players may omit flowers).
Hold 13 tiles in the hand, go out on 14 tiles.
Not many special hands (somewhere around 19 tile combinations).
Score 10 or 20 points for Out, then count up points based on pungs, kongs, and pairs, then double.
All players earn points (not only the winner).
Books: Kohnen, Millington, Whitney, Thompson & Maloney, Carkner (also most 1920s authors, now out of print; see FAQ 3 and the 1920s books page). And for a comparative analysis of several of the earliest known forms of mahjong, see sloperama.com/mahjongg/analysis.html.

HONG KONG OLD STYLE (Cantonese)

Uses 136 or 144 tiles.
Flowers are optional; if used, they are melded instantly when received.
Hold 13 tiles in the hand, go out on 14 tiles.
Not many special hands (tile combinations).
Score by counting doubles, then convert to points.
Only the winner is paid.
Books: Perlmen & Chan, Constantino, Li, Lo, Tsui (see FAQ 3).

HONG KONG NEW STYLE

Uses 136 or 144 tiles.
Flowers are optional; if used, they are melded instantly when received.
Hold 13 tiles in the hand, go out on 14 tiles.
Many many special hands (tile combinations).
Score by counting doubles, then convert to points.
Only the winner is paid.
Books: Perlmen & Chan, Dr. Tong Seng Tjoa (see FAQ 3).

TAIWANESE STYLE

Uses 144 tiles.
Flowers are melded instantly when received.
Hold 16 tiles in the hand, go out on 17 tiles.
Several special hands (tile combinations).
Score by counting doubles, then convert to points.
Only the winner is paid.
Books: Amy Lo, Dragon Chang (see FAQ 3).

CHINESE OFFICIAL (Official International Rules, CO, OIR, COIR, AKA Chinese Majiang Competition Rules, MCR, CMCR, Guóbiāo Májiàng)

Uses 144 tiles.
Flowers are melded instantly when received.
Hold 13 tiles in the hand, go out on 14 tiles.
Many special hands (tile combinations).
Score by counting points for hand characteristics.
Only the winner is paid.
Discards placed in orderly rows.
Books: Dragon Chang, D.B. Pritchard, Sekai Majan, and the Official International Rule Book (see FAQ 3 and Wikipedia).

FILIPINO STYLE

Uses 144 tiles (possibly more) -- certain tiles in the set may be designated as Jokers per a rule which is not known at the time of this writing.

Flowers are melded instantly when received; Winds and Dragons are treated the same as Flowers.

Hold 16 tiles in the hand, go out on 17 tiles.

Several special hands (tile combinations) -- Kongs get paid at the instant they are melded.

Score by counting doubles, then convert to points.

Only the winner is paid (?) -- thrower pays double.

Books: No books, but see http://mahjongarchives.tripod.com/post/1998/9809-03.htm. Also see http://gingsbrain.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-to-play-filipino-mahjong.html (thanks to Joseph Smith for the link).
Note: author Dragon Chang says that a style similar to Filipino is also played in Fuzhou (Fukien) in China.

AMERICAN STYLE

Uses 152 tiles (8 jokers added to regular Chinese set). (Note: the makeup of the American set fluctuated in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s - see column 509.)
Flowers are used in the hand (you can pung and kong them).
Hold 13 tiles in the hand, go out on 14 tiles.
Many (about 52) special hands (tile combinations) -- players must make these special hands (no free-form hands allowed) - card changes every year.
There is an exchange of tiles called the Charleston as a preliminary to each turn.
Score by looking it up on the card (available from NMJL and/or AMJA).
Only the winner is paid.
Books: NMJL (see FAQ 3).
Many people refer to American mah-jongg as "Jewish Mah-Jongg." I object to this as being not completely accurate. Although a majority (somewhere between 60% and 80%) of the players are Jewish, there are quite a lot of non-Jewish players of American mah-jongg. Approximately 98% of the players of American mah-jongg are female. So perhaps it would make more sense to call it "Womens' Mah-Jongg" than to call it "Jewish Mah-Jongg." Some authorities use the term "American Mah-Jongg" in reference to Western (British Empire) style. And Wright-Patterson also is distinctly an American variety. I have chosen to call NMJL / AMJA mah-jongg by the inclusive name "American" as my way of differentiating it from the other 40+ varieties, and still portraying it accurately.
Some purists have said that American mah-jongg is "not mah-jongg," because it is so totally different from all the other types of mah-jongg (primarily in that chows are not used). Some of those purists would therefore undoubtedly object to its inclusion in this list. Much has been learned since the start of the 21st century about other variants that do not include chows, the existence of which weakens the argument of those purists.

WRIGHT-PATTERSON

Uses 144 tiles (some players may add 2 jokers, making a total of 146; probably a table rule).
Flowers are melded instantly when received.
Hold 13 tiles in the hand, go out on 14 tiles.
Many many special hands (70-80 tile combinations).
There is an exchange of tiles called the Charleston as a preliminary to each turn.
Count up points based on pongs, kongs, and pairs, then double.
All players earn points (not only the winner).
Books: Wright-Patterson AFB OSC (see FAQ 3).

WESTERN/BRITISH/AUSTRALIAN* (British Empire)

Uses 144 or more tiles (jokers are optional and may vary in number).
Flowers are melded instantly when received.
Hold 13 tiles in the hand, go out on 14 tiles.
Many special hands (70-80 tile combinations) which vary slightly from book to book.
There is an optional exchange of tiles called the Charleston or Razzle as a preliminary to each turn. And there is an exchange of tiles called the Goulash after a game is drawn (nobody wins).
Score 20 points for Out, then count up points based on pongs, kongs, and pairs, then double.
All players earn points (not only the winner).
Books: Strauser & Evans, Thompson & Maloney, Whitney, Carkner, Robertson, Pritchard, Glass, Headley & Seeley see FAQ 3.

* Note: In some of these FAQs I have referred to this style as "Vanilla Western" to differentiate it from other western varieties. Some call this style "American," but this game is played in the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, India, and Italy (as well as other nations that have been or are still are associated with the British Empire). In order to differentiate this game from other so-called American styles (and from European styles if differing from Classical Chinese), I gave it the name "Vanilla" Western. Maybe "Western Classical" is a better name, but it might be even better to call it "British Empire style."

INDIA / MUMBAI

Uses 144 tiles.
Flowers are melded instantly when received.
Hold 13 tiles in the hand, go out on 14 tiles.
Many special hands, similar to Western/British or Wright-Patterson.
Count up points based on pungs, kongs, etc., then double.
All players earn points (not only the winner).
There is an exchange of tiles called the Goulash after a game is drawn (nobody wins).
Additional: All players put chips in a kitty at start of each hand. Each round uses different rules (one round permits chicken hands; another round requires special hands; another is a "goulash" requiring all pungs in one suit; fourth round is dealer's choice in which wild tiles may be declared. In some rounds a player can "buy" a discard and take it into the hand. I'd initially thought India/Mumbai mahjong was the same as "vanilla" British/Western mahjong, but learned differently when I visited Mumbai in March 2009. For more details, see column 396 and column 399.

J.P. BABCOCK'S ORIGINAL 1920 RULES*

Uses 136 or 144 tiles.
Flowers, if used, are melded instantly upon receipt.
Hold 13 tiles in the hand, go out on 14 tiles.
Few special hands (tile combinations) -- less than Chinese Classical.
Score 20 points for Out, then count up points based on pongs and pairs, then double. (Kongs and flowers not used in Babcock's original simplified system.)
All players earn points (not only the winner).
Books: Babcock's little red book, "Rules for Mah-Jongg" (out of print, but copies are often sold on eBay -- also see the websites FAQ, FAQ 4b).

* It should be noted that Babcock's rules were "simplified" to make the game more palatable for Western players. Many other 1920s American authors documented the Chinese Classical rules without these simplifications. Babcock was the man who introduced mah-jongg to the West, and many copies of the Little Red Book still circulate today, thus his rule book is listed herein (even though it is long out of print and his simplified rules are rarely used today). (And even though his glib opening statement, "MAH-JONGG is played with a set of 136 pieces of bone or ivory with bamboo backs," often causes sellers to erroneously claim that the set for sale is made of "ivory.")

JAPANESE CLASSICAL

Uses 136 tiles.
Flowers come with the tile sets, but are not used in play.
Hold 13 tiles in the hand, go out on 14 tiles.
Several special hands (tile combinations).
Score 20 points for Out, then count up points based on pongs, kongs, and pairs, then double.
Only the winner is paid.
Books: Kanai and Farrell, Whitney, Carkner (see FAQ 3).

JAPANESE MODERN ("RIICHI / DORA")

Uses 136 tiles.
Flowers come with the tile sets, but are not used in play.
Hold 13 tiles in the hand, go out on 14 tiles.
Many special hands (tile combinations).
Score most easily by memorizing chart. Base points times fan.
Only the winner is paid.
Discards placed in orderly rows.
Books: downloadable version from European Mahjong Association (see books list, below).

SINGAPORE STYLE

Uses 148 tiles (basic set plus 4 animal flowers).
Game requires 12 flowers (the 8 regular flowers plus 4 animal flowers).
Hold 13 tiles in the hand, go out on 14 tiles.
Relatively low number of special hands (tile combinations) to learn.
Scoring: count the fan (doubles) and convert to points.
Only the winner is paid.
Books: AMAZING MAHJONG by Celia Ching (Amazon link). Also see singaporemahjong.com/. Also see mahjongsg.com. Also see justanotherguysg.com/2020/05/21/how-to-play-singapore-mahjong-part-1/.

MAHJONG MASTERS MILLIONS

Uses 136 or 144 tiles.
Flowers are optional; if used, they are melded instantly when received.
Hold 13 tiles in the hand, go out on 14 tiles.
Several special hands (tile combinations).
Score points based on pongs, kongs, and pairs, then determine "aux" value, then multiply accordingly.
Only the winner(s) is paid.
Books: none.

VIETNAMESE CLASSICAL

Uses 160 tiles.
Includes flowers/seasons, 8 kings/queens, and 8 jokers.
Hold 13 tiles in the hand, go out on 14 tiles.
There are 19 ways of going Out.
Scoring is based on the 19 ways of going Out.
Only the winner is paid.
Books: none in English. Contact webmaster at sloperama dot com to obtain or exchange information about Vietnamese rules.

VIETNAMESE MODERN

Uses 176 or more large tiles.
Includes flowers/seasons, 8 kings/queens, and 24 or more jokers.
Hold 13 tiles in the hand, go out on 14 tiles.
There are 19 ways of going Out.
Scoring is based on the 19 ways of going Out.
Only the winner is paid.
Books: none in English. Contact webmaster to obtain or exchange information about Vietnamese rules. Interested in more info about regional expatriate variants (Montreal, France, Houston, etc.).

HUNAN / SICHUAN / TIBETAN MAH-JONGG

Uses 108 tiles (suit tiles only; no winds or dragons).
No flowers or jokers -- nothing but suit tiles.
Hold 13 tiles in the hand, go out on 14 tiles.
Hunan style: 5 ways to go out: hand must include pair of 2s, 5s, or 8s, else must be 7 pairs or "pure."
Tibetan & Sichuan style: Hand must use no more than two suits. Punging OK but chowing not permitted.
Only the winner is paid; discarder pays for all.
Books: none in English. You would have to go to Hunan, or Sichuan (where the variant has also been reported by other correspondents), or Tibet, and/or make the acquaintance of someone from there, to learn the variant. (Thanks to Jo Vandeweghe and Benjamin Boas for the info on Tibetan style, posted September 2006 on the mahjong newsgroup.)

Morten Andersen reported on the newsgroup in November 2007, confirming the above and adding further details on Sichuan style, as played in Chengdu:

Kongs apparently score very well.
Play continues after the first player goes out. And doesn't stop untill three players are mahjong or the wall runs out.
There is a penalty for having all three suit in your hand when the game ends.
Payment is settled between all players according to the value of their hand. (There seem to be few patterns..mostly just full flush and as many kongs as possible seem to score a lot).
Our guide mentioned a local rule from his village to the south which I found very interesting. On his turn a player is allowed to expose his hand if he is waiting, doing so means he can only win on selfdraw but the other players are not allowed to throw any of the tiles he is waiting for which could mean they will end up paying a penalty for having all three suits in their hand when the game ends.
Thanks to Morten for the above. It's interesting that Dragon Chang reports an entirely different way of playing in Sichuan (Szechuan) province, below.

SICHUAN STYLE as reported by Dragon Chang

Uses 72 tiles (bams and dots only)
No flowers or jokers.
Hold 7 tiles in the hand, go out on 8 tiles. (Some players hold 10, go out on 11.)
Scoring: Unknown
Payment to: Unknown
Books: none. Website: none. Information based on conversations with author Dragon Chang. This is a very quick gambling game.

KOREAN

Uses only 104 tiles (Dots, Craks, Winds, Dragons, and 4 flowers) [or perhaps this is only when played with 3 people?]
Uses only 4 flowers.
Hold 13 tiles in the hand, go out on 14 tiles.
Several special hands. There are several regional scoring systems, the most common are called "1,5,10" and "1,3,6."
Books: none.

WMPA/WMF (World Mahjong Players Association is also Korean; based on Japanese Modern)

Uses 136 tiles.
No flowers or jokers.
Hold 13 tiles in the hand, go out on 14 tiles.
Scoring: First determine the total value ("Faan") of the winning hand, then square it to arrive at the "portion."
Only the winner is paid.
Books: WORLD MAHJONG Essence, by Kingstone Kim. See FAQ 3.

ZUNG JUNG

Uses 136 tiles.
No flowers or jokers.
Hold 13 tiles in the hand, go out on 14 tiles.
Scoring: Points-based (doubles are built into the scoring system for simplicity)
Only the winner is paid.
Books: none.

NEPALESE

Uses 144 tiles.
8 flowers/seasons.
Hold 10 tiles in the hand, go out on 11 tiles.
Score 20 points for Out, then count up points based on pongs, kongs, and pairs, then double. Similar to Western but with less tiles in the hand.
All players earn points (not only the winner).
Books: none.

MALAYSIAN 3-PLAYER MAH-JONGG

Uses 84 tiles (one suit, honors, 16 flowers, and 4 jokers). There is also a 108-tile variant. Details unknown at present.
8 flowers/seasons, 4 animals (Singapore flowers), 4 faces, 4 Fly (jokers).
Hold 13 tiles in the hand, go out on 14 tiles.
Scoring: Count the fan, convert to points.
All players are paid, depending on what they hold.
Books: none. See
thewriter2006.blogspot.com/2010/04/malaysian-mahjong.html and sloperama.com/mahjongg/malaysian.html (Vincent Cheah describes the 84-tile 3-player game)

MALAYSIAN 4-PLAYER MAH-JONGG

Uses 164 tiles (24 flowers, and 4 jokers).
16 flowers/seasons, 8 animals, 4 jokers.
Hold 13 tiles in the hand, go out on 14 tiles.
Winning hand must be All Chow, All Pung or Half / Full Flush.
Score 50 points for Out, then count up points based on pungs, kongs, pairs, flowers, then double.
All players are paid, depending on what they hold.
Books: none. Website at sloperama.com/mahjongg/malaysian.html

FUZHOU STYLE

Uses 132 tiles. One honor is removed (probably White).
No flowers or jokers.
Hold 13 tiles in the hand, go out on 14 tiles.
Scoring: Count the points.
Only winner is paid.
Books: none. Website: none. Information from a post by Jesse on the mahjong newsgroup, May 28 and June 1-2, 2003.

SHENZHEN STYLE

Number of tiles used: unknown.
Unknown whether flowers are used.
Unknown if player holds 13 or 16 tiles or some other number.
Winning hand (if I recall correctly) must be pungs only (no chows).
Scoring: Unknown
Payment to: Unknown
Books: none. Website: none. Information based on conversations with author Dragon Chang.

ISRAELI MAH-JONGG ASSOCIATION

Uses 144 tiles or kards
Flowers melded upon receipt.
Hold 13 tiles in the hand, out on 14.
Scoring: Calculate points, then apply doubles (numbers vary greatly from other forms)
Payment to: all players.
Books: none.

BASHI-BASHI "A"

Players: three
Tiles in set: 144
Flowers: None. Instead of flowers, set includes 8 red fives (two each 5C and 5B - four 5D).
Tiles in hand: (probably 13, win on 14)
Scoring: "Simplified and streamlined." (?)
Payment: Unknown.
Books: none, but sets are available for sale in Japan and, perhaps, the Philippines.
NOTE - Bashi-Bashi is a three-player game that originated in casinos in the Philippines. Based on Japanese modern and Filipino rules. The 1s and 9s of craks and the North wind tiles are all green, and can be used as flower tiles (in keeping with Filipino style mah-jongg).

BASHI-BASHI "B" as reported by Vladimir ല., April 2015

Players: three
Tiles in set: 112 (craks are omitted except 1C 5C and 9C)
Flowers: None. Instead of flowers, set includes 6 red fives (two each 5C 5B and 5D).
Tiles in hand: 13, win on 14
Scoring: Count the points
Payment to: Winner only (hand value is paid to winner by both non-winners if self-drawn, or by discarder if by discard)
Books: none.

BEIJING STYLE

Tiles in set: 144 (assumed)
Flowers: unknown. The first picked tile dictates what the wild tile will be (according to similar logic to Japanese dora).
Tiles in hand: 13, win on 14
Scoring: No minimum score. Earn 1 point per pung, 2 points per kong (even non-winners score for kongs). Kong doubles winner's score. Only 3 special hands: Seven Pairs, Pure Straight, Inside Straight On A Five.
Payment to winners and kong holders. Details unknown at present.
Books: None. My thanks to Laurent Mahe for the information above. New, 2016: a blog describing Beijing rules, thanks to Joseph Smith.

NANJING STYLE

Tiles in set: 144
Flowers: In addition to the regular flowers/seasons, the dragon tiles are treated as flowers in NanJing style.
Tiles in hand: 13, win on 14
Scoring: score points for flowers, double for special ways of going out.
Payment to: winner only.
Books: None. Existence of this variant was revealed by Shanghai player "ithinc" on the mahjong newsgroup on April 17-18, 2006.

MACAU SIMPLIFICADO

Tiles in set: 112 (3 suits and green dragons)
Flowers: None
Tiles in hand: 4, win on 5
Scoring: Points for characteristics of the hand.
Payment to: Winner only.
Books: none. Existence of this variant was revealed by Thierry Depaulis in a newsgroup post on Mayday, 2006.

PONG

Tiles in set: 120 (3 suits, and all dragon tiles)
Flowers: None
Tiles in hand: 11, win on 12 (make four threesomes only, no pair. Threesomes are pungs and knitted pungs only. No chows.)
Scoring: Points for characteristics of the hand.
Payment to: Winner only.
Books: Gambling Games of Malaya, C. T. Dobree, Caxton Press, Kuala Lumpur, 1955. Existence of this variant was revealed by Thierry Depaulis in a newsgroup post on May 2, 2006.

FUJIAN STYLE

Tiles in set: 124 (3 suits, 4 winds - no dragons)
Flowers: None. Winds are treated as flower tiles (replaced when acquired). A wild tile from the back end of the wall serves as joker.
Tiles in hand: 13, out on 14
Scoring: Contributor Chris Jacques says: "The scoring system is beyond me... they just throw dollars at me or tell me to pay."

CHINESE CASINO STYLE

Uses 144 tiles (some players may add 2 jokers, making a total of 146; probably a table rule).
Flowers are melded instantly when received.
Hold 13 tiles in the hand, go out on 14 tiles.
<20 special hands.
Scoring: [not reported]
All players earn points (not only the winner).
No chows. Discards briefly shown, then placed face down in orderly rows like Japanese and MCR. Drawn hands result in a goulash like Western and Indian/Mumbai.
Books: None. Reported by Ian Stanley on the ReachMahjong forum in June, 2009.

TAOIST MAHJONG

Uses 148 tiles (including "gold dragons" which may be represented by blanks or jokers).

Flowers may be melded instantly and replaced from wall, or player may use them to form a pair or larger set.

Hold 13 tiles in the hand, go out on 14 tiles.

No special hands, but there are special sets consisting of 3 different single and paired winds or dragons. There is a fourth "suit" consisting of ones and nines of each set, plus an odd-numbered tile from each set (details poorly understood).

Score 25 points for Out, then count up points for sets.

All players earn points (not only the winner).

Books: none. Information herein thanks to Jeff G on the Mah-Jongg Q&A Bulletin Board, January 2 & 3, 2018. If you have further knowledge of this variant, please contact Tom at Sloperama.com.

DUPLICATE MAHJONG

A form of play similar to usual international competition forms
The walls are prebuilt in a special manner so as to remove the elements of luck; winning is then a matter of skill.
Designed so that mahjong can be considered a mind sport, and so mahjong can qualify as a potential event in the Olympics.
The rules of the Mahjong International League may be read at http://mahjong-mil.org/rules_dup.html .

SIAMESE MAH JONGG ®

Special two-handed rules by Gladys Grad (2015). Its name is a play on the phrase "Siamese twins."
Two players each play two hands, on specially designed two-tiered racks.
Primarily designed with American mah-jongg in mind, the concept can be applied to any variant.
Website: mahjongg.org.

TUI DAO HU (推倒胡)

Number of tiles: unknown (unknown if flowers are used).
If flowers are used, it is presumed they are used the classic Chinese way.
Presumably, one holds 13 tiles in the hand, going out on 14 tiles.
Twelve ways of going out. Chicken hand plus 11 standard/classic special hands or winning circumstances.
Scoring system not defined clearly at maque.games. The hand is scored (undefined), and additional points may be added for kongs (defined at maque.games).
More than one player can win.
Website describing rules very briefly in English: https://maque.games/post/323/ - "Tui Dao Hu" means "Push down hu" or "Knock down hu" or "Knockout Hu" or "Overthrow Hu." "Hu" seems to mean "win," but I could be wrong about that. If you have further knowledge of this variant, please contact Tom at Sloperama.com. Thanks to Joe S. for the tip, Jan. 16, 2021.

TWENTY POINT MAH JONG

Designed in 1924 by R.F. Foster, intended to solve the Chinese Classical problems of high-scoring hands thwarted by cheap wins and too-frequent wall-building due to quick wins.
Tiles in set: 144 (the standard 136 plus 8 flowers).
Flowers are used in the hand to form sets.
Hold 13 tiles in the hand, go out on 14 tiles.
Scoring: All sets earn points. Hand cannot go out until points amount to at least 20. Points can be doubled.
All players earn points (not only the winner).
Books: "Twenty Point Mah Jong" by R.F. Foster (1924) and "Foster's Complete Hoyle" by R.F. Foster (editions after 1924 only).

For a comparative analysis of historical early mah-jongg variants in chart form, see http://www.imahjong.com/maiarchives205d_3.html .

Brief overview of styles and English-language authors (see FAQ 3 for more on the books themselves) - listed in no particular order:

Chinese Classical

Hong Kong/Cantonese Old Style

New Style

Chinese Mah-Jongg Competition Rules

Japanese Classical

Japanese Modern "Riichi/Dora"

American style

Wright-Patterson

Western / British Empire

J.P. Babcock

Taiwanese

Filipino

http://mahjongarchives.tripod.com/post/1998/9809-03.htm

Mahjong Masters Millions

Malaysian

Vietnamese Classical

FAQ 7e

Vietnamese Modern

FAQ 7e

Hunan / Sichuan / Tibetan

Zung Jung

WMPA/WMF

Korean

The 12-Tile game

Mhing

see FAQ 7i, the Cards/Kards FAQ

Twenty-Point Mahjong

Nepalese

Malaysian 3-Player "A"

https://www.sloperama.com/mahjongg/malaysian.htm

Fuzhou Style

Shenzhen Style

Sichuan Style

Israeli Mah-Jongg Association

Bashi-Bashi

Beijing Style

Malaysian 3-Player "B"

NanJing Style

Macau Simplificado

Pong

Chinese Archaic

Chinese Pre-Classical

Late Qing Style

Fujian Style

Singaporean

India/Mumbai

column 396

column 399

Chinese Casino Style

Taoist Mahjong

Duplicate Mahjong

mahjong-mil.org/rules_dup.html

Siamese Mah Jongg ®

mahjongg.org

Tui Dao Hu

https://maque.games/post/323/

Twenty Point Mah Jong

For a comparative analysis of several of the earliest known forms of mahjong, see https://www.sloperama.com/mahjongg/analysis.html.

Also: I have written my own simplified set of mah-jongg rules, in FAQ 10. It's basically Chinese Classical, but without any scoring whatsoever (players simply say "ooh" and "aah" when any difficult or "pretty" pattern exists in the winning hand), and without any significance to the winds or the flower numbers, using my philosophy of harmonious play without gambling. See FAQ 10 for details on these simplified rules; see FAQ 9 for my philosophy of harmonious play.

Again: the names of the various flavors of mah-jongg are not necessarily universally recognized names. Some authorities may call a particular style of mah-jongg by a different name. The names attributed herein represent my own naming convention for the various styles of mah-jongg. Somebody has to make sense out of it all!

* Whitney's "American" game lies somewhere between the game defined by Babcock and the Western game defined by S&E and T&M (primarily in that Whitney lists the common Chinese/Japanese/"American" special hands, and not the full list of Western special hands; Babcock's rules do not include special hands at all).

There is bound to be some difference between the game defined by one author and the same game defined by another author (see P&C vs. Constantino vs. Li vs. Lo vs. Tsui, for example). For the people who use a particular book to determine their table rules, the book defines the rules -- some play groups may agree on different table rules. The main criterion that makes a book "authoritative" is whether or not a reasonable number of people play (or at one time played) according to its rules.

Got a question about this FAQ? Ask the expert -- visit https://www.sloperama.com/majexchange/bulletinbd.htm to get answers to your mah-jongg questions.

Archive-name: mjfaq02b.htm
Newsgroups: rec.games.mahjong; fj.rec.games.mahjong
Posting-frequency: n/a (only FAQ 0 is posted on the NG, and it is posted weekly)
Last-modified: July 22, 2002
Version: 2.23
The other mah-jongg FAQ articles are located at: https://www.sloperama.com/mjfaq.html

-------------------------------------------------

UPDATE LOG

FAQ2b (How to identify a rule set)

Feb. 9, 1999 -- added clarification about names of various MJ rule sets. ("Note: the names of the various flavors of MJ are not necessarily universally recognized. Some authorities may call a particular style of MJ by a different name.")
March 28, 1999 -- added newly-identified authors.
April 5, 1999 -- clarified which rule set is described by Headley & Seeley
June 23, 1999 -- further clarified difference between "American" and "Western" styles.
October 26, 1999 -- changed "Filipino" to "Philippine"
July 8, 2000 -- combined two older FAQs together into one concatenated FAQ.
September 29, 2000 -- changed FAQ URL from activision.com to thegameguru.net, added Glass book to list of Western authors.
October 18, 2000 -- corrected the FAQs' URL to match actual direct URL
December 8, 2000 -- changed thegameguru.net to sloperama.com
January 3, 2001 -- updated the Babcock Red Book information; updated info re the HKOS-VS.-CC controversy and added info to the Vietnamese section; changed "Philippine" back to "Filipino"
January 5, 2000 -- added Chinese Official style.
January 28, 2001 -- various wording improvements throughout.
February 19, 2001 -- added WMPA style and made a couple of adjustments. Finished a sentence.
March 15, 2001 -- changed the Taiwanese/Filipino question in Part II, thanks to a suggestion from J. R. Fitch.
May 4, 2001 -- added Hunan style mah-jongg. Thanks to Sehat Nauli for the information. Added details regarding WMPA and Zung Jung styles.
May 25, 2001 -- added info about Korean mah-jongg.
May 25, 2001 -- clarified the info about Korean mah-jongg (I ought to research before I publish!) Thanks very much to Sangchol Sheen for all the help!
May 25, 2001 -- further clarified the Korean info
June 4, 2001 -- added carriage returns (this is a TXT file and displays as is)
July 13, 2001 -- added the Tjoa and Lo books under the New Style category
July 16, 2001 -- cleaned up the Overview section; Lo describes not only New Style but also Taiwanese and HKOS.
July 30, 2001 -- modified references to Hakka style, now that I've learned it's pretty much HKOS. [March 2005 note: have now learned that the Hakkas originated around the Yellow River, far north of Guangdong - so Hakka MJ ("country-style" MJ) may not be the same thing as HKOS]
August 21, 2001 -- minor cleanups
September 2, 2001 -- Added 12-tile mah-jongg.
October 1, 2001 -- added Pritchard book.
November 17, 2001 -- added Mhing to the list of mah-jongg variants.
December 12, 2001 -- changed a couple URLs is all.
December 14, 2001 -- converted FAQ to HTML format. And of course I had to touch up here and there in the process.
January 2, 2002 -- separated the two parts of FAQ 2 into two separate FAQs again. No regrets over having combined them in the first place.
Groundhog Day, 2002 (02/02/02) -- added Vietnamese Modern.
April 24, 2002 -- added family tree picture and link.
July 18, 2002 -- subsequent updates now logged at log.html. Up to a point, that is. After some years, I stopped logging updates entirely.

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