FAQ 4b. Websites about Mah-Jongg
Latest update: February, 2023
FAQ 4a lists websites that I refer people to most frequently. This page, FAQ 4B, lists a lot more mah-jongg sites.
If you play American mah-jongg or if you're looking for information about your mah-jongg set, check not only below but also FAQ 4a and FAQ 7. If you play Japanese mah-jongg, check not only below but also
FAQ 25. If you're researching mah-jongg history, check not only below but also FAQ 11. If you play Mahjong Competition Rules (Chinese Official), check not only below but also FAQ 22.
Broken link? Please report the broken link to webmaster at sloperama.com. Mention "FAQ 4b" and provide the name of the broken link.
Sites pop up or disappear all the time. I do not guarantee that the links below are all still active. You can use the Internet WayBack Machine (https://archive.org/) and find web pages that have gone offline. In addition to checking the links below, I recommend that you also search the web yourself. Many of the sites linked below also contain links to other equally great sites about Mah-Jongg -- it never ends!
Oh... and if you are looking for sites about solitaire tile-matching games, see
FAQ 12. This page lists sites about true mah-jongg only.
Click on the section you're interested in, to jump straight to it.
Mah-Jongg RULES Sites
A reminder: because every author describes the rules differently, it is not recommended that you spend a lot of time trying to reconcile one author's rules with another's (even when they are ostensibly defining the same mah-jongg variant!).
For reader convenience, these Rules sites are categorized by variant. For a complete "menu" of the various flavors of mah-jongg, read FAQ 2b. Since some sites describe multiple varieties of mah-jongg, there may be some duplication.
American Mah-Jongg
- Sloperama.com, the website you are viewing right now, has information about American mah-jongg rules, but mostly it's explanations of frequently misunderstood rules, answers to frequently asked rule questions, and answers to questions sent by email to Tom Sloper, the site owner and webmaster. If you want to explore this website, go to https://sloperama.com/mjfaq.html.
-
Linda Fisher's rules page describes American-style mah-jongg as it is played today.
https://sites.google.com/site/mahjrules/.
- MahJonggMentor.com is a subscription site that offers instructional videos, a free newsletter, blogs, and forums. Focus is on American (NMJL) rules, but also has some info on Asian rules.
- Standardized National Mah Jongg Rules For Tournaments were originally created between 1986 and 2009 FOR and BY the NMJL'S 24 annual tournaments at Sea. Gladys Grad's
Mah Jongg Madness cohosted these events, and then published these Standardized Tournament Rules in 2005.
Mahjongg.org/rules/.
- So-called "Siamese" mah-jongg is a two-player subvariant of American (NMJL) mah-jongg, created by Gladys Grad in 2015, in Florida. See MahJongg.org.
- Cool Old Games describes rules for several variants at coololdgames.com/tile-games/mahjong/. Also tips on restoration and repair of mah-jongg sets! coololdgames.com/old-game-restoration/
- And then there are the 1976-1977 American rules, at Hasbro's website - https://hasbro.com/common/instruct/Mahjongg,nationalleaguerulesfor.PDF. Rule changes have occurred since 1976, so I don't recommend using these old rules as one's authority. Get the booklet from the NMJL (see FAQ 3), and use Linda Fisher's site (above). [Thanks to Eric R. for the link.]
- Mahj-X was developed in 2023: A version of American Mah Jongg that reduces the element of luck and favors strategic thinking.
Chinese Official Tournament Rules (Majiang Competition Rules)
- Download the Official official rules document at https://chinamajiang.com/ssxx20.html.
- You can get rules for MCR and Riichi/Dora Majan at Sylvain Malbec's site: https://ooyamaneko.net/download/.
- These rules are also outlined in the Guóbiāo Májiàng listing on Wikipedia.
- FOUR WINDS is a wonderful mah-jongg computer game that incorporates rules for many varieties of mah-jongg, including Chinese Official. Explore 4windsmj.com/ to find written rules.
- You can try your hand at scoring MCR hands at https://mahjong-o-matic.com.
- Another MCR scoring app is at
mahjonghand.appspot.com/ (thanks to Dick L for the link).
- YouTuber Petr ("Northern Peacock") has posted a nice MCR Practicum of MCR problems - "interesting waitings with ready hands, getting ready when you're 1 step from tempai." It's a PDF, readable/downloadable on Google Drive.
Chinese Classical Mah-Jongg ("CC")
- Scott Nicholson's mahjong video at
https://youtube.com/watch?v=ooY4Ylz0WNQ teaches Chinese Classical.
You can also get to it from
https://boardgameswithscott.com
, Scott's vlog about boardgames.
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https://tu-chemnitz.de/~sontag/mahjongg
(German-language CC rules site)
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https://mastersgames.com/cat/table/mah-jong.htm
(Sets for sale, and CC rules)
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https://xs4all.nl/~korntner/mahjong/nanette/nan_notes.html
(Nanette Pasquarello's Mah Jong Notes - CC rules, or a variation thereon)
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https://digilander.libero.it/seipalle CC rules, Italian style (Italian language). Webmaster Michele (sigbrando) is seeking help in translating the site into English.
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https://fimj.it CC rules, Italian style (Italian language).
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"The American Official Laws of Mah-Jongg" (also known as The American Code of Laws for Mah-Jongg) established by the "Standardization Committee of the American Official Laws of Mah-Jongg" (M.C. Work, Robert Foster, Joseph P. Babcock, Lee Hartman, and J.H. Smith), under the direction of the Auction Bridge and Mah Jongg Magazine, 1924. These laws are included in Work's book Mah-Jongg Up-To-Date and Hartman's Standardized Mah Jong as well as Foster's book referred to in FAQ 11.
- Chris Schumann made a very short PDF document (you'll need Adobe Reader to open it) on how to play basic Chinese mahjong, and put a Creative Commons license on it, and you can download it here:
https://sites.google.com/site/minnesotamahjongclub/general-files.
Chris says he "tried to make it both complete and short, so it's very terse and may not have enough detail or explanation for beginners."
- You can find rules for Chinese Classical online at https://gravon.net/.
Hong Kong (Cantonese) Mah-Jongg ("HKOS")
Japanese Mah-Jongg Rules
A downloadable English-language booklet has been made which describes the standard Japanese riichi/dora majan rules of the European Mahjong Association.
Go to mahjong-europe.org to find it.
You can get rules for Riichi/Dora Majan and MCR at Sylvain Malbec's site: https://ooyamaneko.net/download/.
The Mahjong Denmark Riichi summary sheet covers many of the special cases that exist in Japanese Riichi/Dora Majan, as handled by Mahjong Denmark.
https://mahjong.dk/filer/riichisheet.pdf
Gamegrunt's "Illustrated Riichi Scoring Reference" is available on
BoardGameGeek.
https://delfosse.com/mahjong.html
(Modern Japanese rules in English)
Hai-Shin 2
gamefaqs.com has an
English guide that says little to nothing about the Japanese PlayStation2 game "Hai-Shin 2" (a favorite of Tom's BTW), but rather gives an intro to Japanese mahjong. (Thanx to Chris Stamper)
https://abstreamace.com/mahjong/ - Chinese-language site about the modern Japanese rules.
Western (British/Australian) Mah-Jongg Rules
Singapore Rules
Malaysian Three-Player Rules
Filipino Rules
General Mah-Jongg INFORMATION Sites
-
https://sloperama.com/mjfaq.html
(this FAQ and the other mah-jongg newsgroup FAQs)
- Mah-jongg historian Michael Stanwick's website is at
https://www.themahjongtileset.co.uk/.
- Cool Old Games describes rules for several variants at coololdgames.com/tile-games/mahjong/. Also tips on restoration and repair of mah-jongg sets! coololdgames.com/old-game-restoration/
- www.charli.org/Museum/ - CHarli's museum page is a great resource if you are looking for information about collectible mah-jongg sets.
- Some kids in Calgary blogged about learning (Japanese?) mahjong, at
https://youthareawesome.com/a-story-involving-mahjong/ (June 2011; thanks to King & Faris for the link).
- My Grandfather was the Partner of Mr. Babcock, a 2009 article on Jelte Rep's website.
- https://coololdgames.com/MahJonggallery.html - Some photos of nice mah-jongg sets.
- Joseph Smith shared an article about Filipino mah-jongg at https://philippinesfreepress.com.ph/?p=154.
- There's a nice introduction to Mah-Jongg video at:
https://youtube.com/w/?v=Qxj07M5Ohiw
Or you can get to it from
https://boardgameswithscott.com
where you can find links to other episodes of Scott's VLOG about boardgames.
- How to play Sichuan-style mahjong: https://jasonpym.com/blog/2007/08/10/sichuan-mahjong/.
- A wiki with brief info about mahjong and especially Japanese mahjong:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Mahjong.
- A website that shows a Japanese mah-jongg game with food-themed tiles (available in Japanese and English):
https://characters.butterfly-stroke.com/ma_rule/topRule_eng.html
(thanks to David Willems)
- An English-language fansite about "Mahjong Legend Akagi" (discussed in
column 297
):
https://truepariah.net/
(thanks to David Willems)
- A website where you can see the 26 episodes of "Mahjong Legend Akagi" (discussed in
column 297
):
https://crunchyroll.com/showseries?id=116
(thanks to David Willems)
- Japanese mahjong stuff is available at www.japanese-mahjong.com. The site was formerly known as "Hirohurl.net" where miniature (17×12×10mm) Akagi-style acrylic tiles were available - maybe they still are!
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https://coololdgames.com was created by an anonymous collector of vintage Mahjong sets. The section about history, identification and restoration of vintage plastics is well done. (Thanks to "Nath Krismaratala" for the link.)
- Jesper Harder's site is in Denmark; some pages in Danish; Western rules, and a discussion about the Chinese writing on mahjong tiles.
-
https://mahjongg.com/begin.htm
(Berrie Bloem's guide for beginners)
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https://hakata21.com/suzume/
- Suzume no Oyado(Guesthouse of sparrows) Essays by "Hyakkanjan". The good old age of Japanese mahjong. (Japanese)
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https://geocities.jp/konchan_page/dic.htm
- Konchan Jiten(Mahjong dictionary by "Konchan") (Japanese)
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https://ambitious-net.com/
- Empire of the Mahjong, all about mahjong in Japan. Must see "Beginner's Area". (Japanese)
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https://mj.giganet.net/
(Japanese-language site)
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http://iMahjong.com
(formerly http://cofatsui.com/mahjong.html) (Cofa Tsui's IMJ info and rules site)
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https://cs.utk.edu/~clay/mahjongg/
(Clay Breshears' rules, links, and trivia)
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https://otal.umd.edu/~vg/amst205.F96/vj07/project3.html
(Wai Ling Cheng's rules & history)
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https://tu-chemnitz.de/~sontag/mahjongg
(German-language site)
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https://ifa.au.dk/~harder
(Jesper Harder's site -- in Denmark; some pages in Danish)
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https://members.aol.com/crlancastr/blgupc/khanhoo/deck.htm
(Khanhoo, Chinese card game from the 1890s, possibly a precursor game to mah-jongg)
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https://xs4all.nl/~pega/mjlist.htm
(Peter Gallagher's collection of mah-jongg sets)
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https://msoworld.com/mindzine/news/orient/mah_jong/overview_intro.html
(Mind Sports Olympiad)
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https://web.ukonline.co.uk/james.masters/TraditionalGames/MahJong.htm (UK site; history and sets for sale)
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https://gouden-draak.nl
(Martin Rep's club page) (Dutch)
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Check out the Wright-Patterson OWC's website, at
https://wrightpattersonosc.org/mah-jongg.html
.
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https://fanfic.net/~colette/
-- Colette's Suchie-Pai Connection. Fan site for series of Japanese mah-jongg videogames by Jaleco. These games involve female characters who take their clothes off if you win at mah-jongg. There's a lot of information about games, books, and all the characters in this Japanime universe.
- https://jrn.columbia.edu/studentwork/cns/2002-04-03/386.asp (Article: "Mah jongg takes the 30-somethings by storm" By Alison Damast)
- There's a free online games magazine at
https://dice2mice.com/
(not sure if the magazine covers mah-jongg, but if you like games...)
- https://mah-jong-contacts.net/ is an international contact platform for Mah-Jongg players where they can search for and find other players worldwide.
- The Bay Area Mahjong Dojo's
mahjong.wikidot.com strives to be "the first comprehensive English wiki site for mahjong."
-
The Mahjong Project is
part instructional guide, part oral history project, to document Nicole Wong's family’s house rules for playing, while also seeking to place this way of playing in the broader history and diaspora of the game itself.
- There is a resource for instructors at mahjlife.com. - Tom
Mah-Jongg FORUMS & DISCUSSION Sites
Mah-Jongg MERCHANDISE Sites
Mah-Jongg TOURNAMENT Sites
Mah-Jongg LINKS Sites
Sites where you can find links to lots more mah-jongg sites - it never ends!
Mah-Jongg INFO/RULES Sites in LANGUAGES OTHER THAN ENGLISH
Just in case English isn't your favorite language... (^_^)
- https://chinamajiang.com/ (home of the China Majiang Open Championships)
- At https://ffmahjong.com, websurfers can find all the news about the 'Fédération Française de Mah-Jong'.
- The Dutch Mahjongbond website is at https://mahjongbond.org.
- https://sydnet.net/mahjong/ provides mah-jongg information in Swedish.
- https://purl.oclc.org/net/mahjongmontreal/ ("Mah-jong Montreal", Le Cercle de Mah-jong de Montreal, in French)
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https://hakata21.com/suzume/
- Suzume no Oyado (Guesthouse of Sparrows) Essays by "Hyakkanjan". The good old age of Japanese mahjong. (Japanese)
-
https://geocities.jp/konchan_page/dic.htm
- Konchan Jiten (Mahjong dictionary by "Konchan") (Japanese)
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https://sammaniax.com/
(Japanese-language "Sammaniax" site; includes a mah-jongg-specific search engine at https://sammaniax.com/search/)
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https://mj.giganet.net/
(Japanese-language site)
- Austria's Mah Jong Club Baden website is at https://mahjong.hu is the website of the Hungarian Mah-Jongg Association. Click the English icon if you can't read Hungarian.
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https://dmjl.de - Deutsche Mah-Jongg Liga (DMJL) e.V. - German Mah-Jongg League
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https://tu-chemnitz.de/~sontag/mahjongg
(German-language site)
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https://xs4all.nl/~a3geffen/index.htm
(Adrie van Geffen's Dutch-language site)
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https://ifa.au.dk/~harder
(Jesper Harder's site -- some pages in Danish)
- https://mahjongopas.info/ (Mikko Saari's Mahjong-Opas site -- history, rules, & strategy, in Finnish)
- https://gouden-draak.nl (Martin Rep's Golden Dragon club page, in Dutch)
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https://teaser.fr/u/edetocquev/java/mahjongg/Doc/Regle.html
(French-language site)
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https://kinma.takeshobo.co.jp/
(Takeshobo's page about their Kindai Majan series of comic books) (Japanese)
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https://brmahjong.hpg.com.br
(Brazilian mah-jongg site por Flavio S. Liberal) (Portuguese)
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https://mahjong.pagina.nl/
-- massive collection of mah-jongg links (Dutch)
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https://mahjongfrance.free.fr/ is all about mah-jongg in France. Tournaments and a forum.
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https://digilander.libero.it/seipalle Club Seipalle in Italy. Webmaster Michele (sigbrando) is seeking help in translating the site into English.
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https://fimj.it Italian mah-jongg federation.
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https://dragorosso.it Another Italian club.
- https://kr.javagames.yahoo.com/games/login2.html?page=mjs
In Korean.
- https://an-pro.com/majak.htm
In Korean.
- A Korean site where you'll find lots of information about mah-jongg software. You need a Korean citizens' number to register. https://emulzone.com/gamelist.php?code=all&search=%B8%B6%C0%DB Thanks to Dajava for all the Korean links!
- Spanish language history and rules (respectively):
https://acanomas.com/DatoMuestra.php?Id=121 and https://acanomas.com/DatoMuestra.php?Id=69
- Czech language site about mah-jongg: https://volny.cz/broden/Mahjongg/Mahjong_uvod.htm (Thanks to Teelget for the link!)
- Russian site - https://mahjong.ru (Thanks to Vitaly Novikov aka "Combo" for the link!)
- Japanese site showing a hanafuda game in the form of mah-jongg-style tiles - https://members.at.infoseek.co.jp/stone2/hanafudahai.html (Thanks to Graham Leonard for the link!)
- There's a site (in German) that shows how to play dominos with mah-jongg tiles at https://ebecker.de/djongg/home.htm.
- The site of the Italian Mah jong Association (the first association in Italy to use the Official International Rules in tournaments) awaits with impatience your visit to:
www.mah-jong.it!
- Uwe Martens' German language site (with some parts in English for us furrinners) - with a forum and stuff about his dealing machine too - https://mah-jongg.de.
- There's a Chinese company, AoToMo, that offers automatic tables - too bad I can't read Chinese.
https://aotomo.com
.
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E-mahjong
https://store.yahoo.co.jp/e-mahjong/index.html
Nice catalog of mahjong tables and supplies. Too bad they don't ship overseas. (Thanx to Chris Stamper)
-
Mahjong classroom
https://ream.ais.ne.jp/~aqua/webmj/
- and -
https://ream.ais.ne.jp/~aqua/webmj/masc0101.htm
Japanese primer with glossary. Good reference. (Thanx to Chris Stamper) Tom adds: to read Japanese sites like this one, you can try Eigo-Navi.com (plug the URL into the URL box and select the second language translation option).
-
Mahjong for Beginners
https://h6.dion.ne.jp/~nagayu/menu.htm
Another Japanese primer (Thanx to Chris Stamper)
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Net Mahjong Blog
https://doblog.com/weblog/myblog/4916
Daily Commentary (Thanx to Chris Stamper)
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Daily Mahjong Industry Report
https://d.hatena.ne.jp/izumick/
Insider Buzz (Thanx to Chris Stamper)
-
Austrian Majong Association (Osterreichischer Mahjong Verband). Website:
https://mahjong.at.gg
- https://perso.wanadoo.fr/sparcollet/pages/livre.htm - Chinese Official rules en Francais
- https://abstreamace.com/mahjong/ - Chinese-language site about Japanese mahjong.
- www.mahjongg-spielen.de is the page of an upcoming regional group, named "Bambus" (bamboo) from the German Mah-Jongg league. (Thanks to Guenter Schulte.)
Mah-Jongg-RELATED (or maybe not-quite-so-related) Sites
A two-part blog on a mahjong story from the Oowada Hideki manga "The Legend of Koizumi" from the Salon.com feature, "How the World Works," by Andrew Leonard (January, 2009):
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https://salon.com/tech/htww/2009/01/15/the_legend_of_koizumi/index.html
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https://salon.com/tech/htww/2009/01/16/the_legend_of_koizumi_2/index.html?source=rss&aim=/tech/htww
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https://xs4all.nl/~a3geffen/index.htm
(Adrie van Geffen's Dutch-language site; fortune-telling with mah-jongg tiles or kards)
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https://xs4all.nl/~korntner/mahjong/fortune/index.html
(fortune-telling with mah-jongg tiles or kards)
- https://doubledogmusic.com/buffy_mah_jongg/1.html (somebody made a mah-jongg set themed on Buffy The Vampire Slayer)
- Playing-cards and mah-jongg are not the same, of course, but there is some shared history and some shared gameplay. The ultimate playing-cards website is https://pagat.com/. Especially, the rummy family is related to mah-jongg.
- Pictures of "Games played with Money Cards or Tiles" at pagat.com:
https://pagat.com:80/class/money.html
- Thanks to Pwee Keng Ho.
- Download a scan of Dong Guan cards:
https://members.kabsi.at/alscher/dongguanpai.pdf
- Thanks to Pwee Keng Ho.
-
https://members.aol.com/crlancastr/blgupc/khanhoo/deck.htm
(Khanhoo, Chinese card game from the 1890s; possible precursor to mah-jongg)
- https://ofb.net:80/~whuang/ugcs/gp/ssp/ (Wei-Hwa Huang's description of Si Se Pai, Chinese Chess Cards AKA Four-Color Cards)
-
https://sloperama.com/hanafuda.html
(Tom Sloper's Hanafuda page, on this website - rules, info, and links)
- A couple of sites about the game of go, by Pieter Mioch:
https://msoworld.com/mindzine/news/orient/go/special/goseigen.html
- Here's 2 (somewhat different) sets of rules for Si Se Pai (四色牌 - Four Color Cards), a Chinese game somewhat similar to Chinese Chess, in English: https://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~tnt/rules.html and https://ofb.net/~whuang/ugcs/gp/ssp/
Here's a page with more background on the Si Se Pai cards https://a_pollett.tripod.com/cards18.htm. (Thanks to Graham Leonard.)
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