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Mahjong tiles are tiles of Chinese origin that are used to play Mahjong. Although they are most commonly tiles, they may also refer to playing cards with similar contents as well.
Mahjong Tiles Construction
Mahjong tiles have been constructed from various materials throughout the years. Traditionally, Mahjong tiles were constructed from ivory or bone, often backed with bamboo. Bone, and to a lesser extent, ivory tiles are still available but most modern sets are constructed from various plastics such as Bakelite, celluloid, and more recently nylon. Regardless of the material used to construct the tiles, the symbols on them are almost always engraved or pressed into the material. It is said that some expert players can determine the face value of their tiles without actually looking at them by feeling these engravings with their fingers.
Mahjong Tiles Contents
A set of Mahjong tiles will usually differ from place to place. It usually has at least 136 tiles, most commonly 144, although sets originating from America or Japan will have more. Mahjong tiles can be organized into several categories:
Mahjong Stick Suit
In earlier centuries, these pieces were depicted as spears. In modern games, they are bamboo sticks (suozi, or commonly called tiao, meaning "stick"). Each set has four of each of the following pieces, numbered 1 through 9.
Note that the 1 of sticks is generally rendered as the image of a bird--usually a sparrow or peacock.
Mahjong Wheel Suit
Anciently, these were depicted as coins or shields. Now they are called wheels or balls (tongzi). Again, each set has four of each of these pieces, numbered 1 through 9.
Number Suit
Finally, there is a suit consisting of the Chinese characters for the numerals 1 through 9 (wanzi). The character on top of the tile face is the numeral; the character below that is the Chinese symbol wan (wan), meaning 10,000. This suit is therefore also called the wan suit. Each set contains four of each of these tiles.
Wind Tiles
Each game contains a set of tiles inscribed with the Chinese characters for the four compass directions, representing the four winds: East, South, West, North.
The four winds are: East (dong) South (nan) West (xi) North (bei) There are four of each of these tiles in the game.
Dragon Tiles
These pieces are called "dragons" in the West: the red dragon (hongzhong), symbolizing the "middle" or "animal" order, including humans (zhong is the Chinese character meaning "center"), the green dragon (qingfa), symbolizing the "lower" or "plant" order of life, and the white dragon (baipi), symbolizing the "higher" order of spiritual beings).
There are four of each dragon in a Mahjong set. Note that the "white dragon" tile is simply a plain white tile with or without a rectangular border drawn on it.
Flower Tiles
There are eight "flower tiles" (huapai) in each Mahjong set. While they are all collectively called "flower tiles" in these rules, four of them represent different flower blossoms, while the other four represent the four seasons.
Each of these tiles represents a different flower, and is associated with a specific wind, which has relevance only for scoring purposes. There is only one of each flower tile in a Mahjong set.
- Plum (mei) - East
- Orchid (lan) - South
- Chrysanthemum (ju') - West
- Bamboo (zhu) - North
Season Tiles
Season Tiles are just like the flower tiles; Season Tiles do not enter play except to enhance the score of a player's hand. There is only one of each season tile.
- Spring (chwen) -- East
- Summer (xia) -- South
- Autumn (qiu) -- West
- Winter (dong) -- North
Don't worry too much about memorizing the appearance or characters of the flower and season tiles. Just remember the correspondence between the numbers on the tiles and the four wind directions:
- East
- South
- West
- North
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