This is an attempt to collect all major rules and variants of Mahjong in one place, since this does not seem to exist on the internet yet. It will trace the history and development of mahjong and the major differences the game has seen in its spread across China and beyond. It will also include an introductory ruleset that will allow one to easily learn any specific variant later. I hope to eventually develop a standardized system or language of describing mahjong variants so that they can be quickly learned and understood by any seasoned mahjong player. I also hope to have this page eventually in both English and Chinese. Images will also be added to visualize hands and rules easier. As scoring tends to be complicated and specific to each region, I only want to provide the basics of scoring for each variant; look up details and hash them out with your table before play. Score numbers are only for reference and should be tweaked to the tables needs and agreed upon before play. I try to include romanizations of regional terminology.
Mahjong at its core is a game similar to the card game Rummy and mahjong tiles are essentially the same as poker cards. All players have a certain amount of cards in their hand, and must have certain types of combinations in their hand in order to win. Every round, each player chooses a tile to discard and draws a new one. In certain rules, players can take the tiles discarded by other players to add to their hand. Part of what makes mahjong confusing to newcomers but also makes it so interesting is that there are many varieties in the exact rules of mahjong; While all mahjong varieties aim to complete combinations in their hand, rules vary from region to region, city to city, family to family. With rules differing for scoring, amount of tiles you have in your hand, what kind of combinations are valid, special tile types, etc it is fun to observe how rule variations encourage different playstyles and mindsets.
The most "neutral" form of mahjong and is most common in online play in China is 国标麻将 (guobiao, Chinese National Standard). This is the easiest ruleset to learn to immediately begin playing and to have a basic understanding that can be easily applied to learn all other variants. In the West, a method that is becoming popular in teaching the basics of mahjong is known as the "Tibet rules". To my knowledge, this is nothing like the actual rules played in Tibet, but is a ruleset that starts with the bare minimum of the game and gradually builds up in complexity so that learners can take in the game step by step. While this page has a components section which explains all the tiles in mahjong, the Tibet rules section is intended for standalone reading and will go over everything needed to play the game like determining order.
The game is played with four people. Flip over tiles so you can see the front side. There are three main suits; the green line bamboo, the circle-shaped dots, and the Chinese characters. These suits go from one to nine, and there are 4 of each. Choose one suit to remove from the game (characters are reccomended as they are hard for non-Chinese beginners to read) and put them away from the table. Then remove the dragon tiles, the white (blank), green, and red tiles, which also have 4 of each. Then remove the wind tiles, the east, south, west, and north tiles, also of 4 each. If your tileset has flower, season, or other special tiles, remove them as well. There should only be tiles of two suits left (72 tiles in total). Flip the tiles over so that they are covered and hidden, and scramble them in the middle of the table.
Hong Kong rules are also known as 舊章 (gauzoeng, old charter) as it represents one of the oldest (and simplest) versions of mahjong. It has a couple iconic winning hands that are widely used in almost all other variants; Cantonese new rules build on HK rules by adding in more winning hands. Unlike northern variants but like most other southern version, the game uses the flower and season tiles. Some versions do not include flowers. A winning hand is known as 食糊 (sik wu, eating a win) and a player declares their win by calling out "食!" (sik).
Both the flower and season tiles are called flower tiles. At the start of the round before any draws, players take out flower tiles from their own hands and set them aside opened and replace them with tiles from the back of the wall. Flowers drawn during the game must be replaced in the same way. Flowers add to the score at the end for the winner.
HK mahjong is played in fixed rounds. The dealer is always East Wind (relevant to scoring) and rotates counter-clockwise with each round; winning or rounds with no wins means the dealer continues. When the dealer goes around and back to the first dealer, that is one Wind round. After four Wind rounds (East round, West round, etc; dealer is still always East), a 雀 (zoek, sparrow) is completed, which is a full game. This is different from more informal game variants, where people just play until they feel like stopping. The longer the game of course, the more likely chance wins and losses are to even out, with the ending winner being the person that had the more solid gameplay in the long run.
Winning with no fan and only a simple 4 meld and 1 pair is not allowed and is known as a 雞糊 (gaiwu, chicken win). When flowers are in play, because of the ease of getting at least 1 fan, some rules require at least 2 fan or up to win. The winning hands in HK rules form the basis of most winning hands of almost other variants, and if one of these are missing from another ruleset, talk with your table if you want to add it in and discuss what fan it should be.
Shanghai Mahjong is characterized by relatively few but strict winning combinations, the use of flowers, and the 包牌 relationship.
Both the flower and season tiles are called flower tiles. At the start of the round before any draws, players take out flower tiles from their own hands and set them aside opened and replace them with tiles from the back of the wall. Flowers drawn during the game must be replaced in the same way. Flowers add to the score at the end for the winner and are scored seperately from the fan of winning hands.
When a hand is ready, the player must declare that they are ready, or 敲 (chio, knock). After ready is declared, the player can no longer change their cards like in riichi and may only draw and discard the same tile as usual until they get the winning tile. A declared ready player must win with whatever tile they can; they cannot choose to pass a tile hoping for a better win.
Winning with only a simple 4 meld and 1 pair is not allowed (including normal hands with only Self-Draw or Concealed Hand); the hands one must have to win with must be either a All Pung Win, a Pure Flush, or a Mixed Flush (opening a chow essentially means declaring that you are only playing with that suite + winds and dragons). When a player chows, pungs, or kans another player three or more times in one round, they are in a mutual 包牌 (bopo, serving tiles) relationship. If one of the players self-draws or wins off the other's discard, the other must pay the entire round to the winner or pay extra (depends on the table). If one of the players win off a different player who does not have a ready hand, the other player in the bopo relationship that did not win must pay half of what the losing player pays.
Unlike the flower system in HK rules which require that they fulfill certain hands, having one flower in Shanghai mahjong simply means you get one flower score; four flowers = base flower score * score, etc. Open kans count as one flower, and closed kans count as two flowers. A pung of winds is 1 flower, and a pung of dragons is 2; these stack with the kan flower score if these are kans instead of pungs. Fan are exponential is used to multiply the total of the basic score plus flower score. Shanghai mahjong also uses 栏子 (lezi, fence; also rendered as 辣子 or 勒子), which is a pre-agreed upon limit (typically worth 4 or 8 flowers). A score after fan are applied cannot exceed the lezi; However, certain large hands allow the score to exceed the lezi by a certain multiple; if a hand is valued in lezi, directly multiply the basic lezi score for the final score (lezi are linear). Note that one cannot win via Self-Draw until they've had at least 1 flower. One cannot win via another's discard until they've had 2 flowers or more. In some rules, however, winning while having 0 flowers is known as 无花果 (vuhauku, flowerless fruit), which counts as having 10 flowers.
Beijing Mahjong is also similar to variants surrounding the city in Tianjin and Hebei. It is notable for its rules on concealed hands and the wild card.
The Beijing wild card is known as the 混儿 (hun'er, muddled). Before the tiles are drawn, the last tile is flipped up. The tile higher is then the wild card; If a 1 of bamboo was drawn, then 2 of bamboo is the wild card; if 9 of cracks is drawn, it loops back to 1 of cracks as the wild card. For winds and dragons, E>S>W>N and R>G>W. The wild card can be used as a stand-in for any tiles. Multiple wild cards can be used to stand-in for different tiles. A wild card cannot be used to form an open meld. When you have three or more wild cards in the hand, you cannot win by taking a discard and must win by self-draw.
Discarding a wild card is not allowed, and a person that discards a wild card becomes a 相公 (xianggong, male prostitute). The xianggong continues to play, but cannot win. The discarded wild card cannot be taken by others.
Before a player makes an open meld, they are considered to be 闭门 (bimen, closed doors). When a player makes an open meld (including chi, pung, and open kan), they are then 开门 (kaimen, opened doors). A player who has opened the doors cannot win by discard, and must win by self-draw. Self-drawing in Beijing slang is known as 提 (di [pronounced like 滴], raising), and because this rule encourages a concealed hand playstyle, Beijing mahjong is also known as 吃碰提 （chipengdi, chi pung self-draw). Closed kans do not open the doors, but when a closed kan is declared, one card should be revealed to show what the kan is made of.
Kans are scored seperately, and are double the base rate each.
Northeastern cities all have their own slight differences, but what ties all variants of Northeastern Mahjong together are their strict winning requirements. The following rules are for Changchun Mahjong.
There are not many special winning hands in Changchun mahjong. The main winning hand is 4 melds and a pair. However, there are strict requirements that must first be fulfilled. The requirements are:
Another interesting feature of Northeastern mahjong is 听牌 (tingpai, listening to the cards). The first to have a ready hand may declare their ready and 上听 (shangting, go into listening). This is somewhat similar to riichi in riichi mahjong. The person that is shangting rolls a dice, and counts from the back, taking the tile and checking the value without letting anyone else see. This tile is put to the side and is known as the 宝牌 (baopai, treasure tile). The shangting person may no longer change their hand and can only keep drawing and discarding like in riichi, but if the shangting person draw another tile of the treasure tile again, or if the treasure tile was the exact tile needed to complete their hand, the shangting person automatically wins. If all 3 other treasure tiles have clearly been discarded/in an open meld and there are no more in the walls, then a new treasure tile is rolled for. Anyone that is ready after the first shangting person may also declare shangting on their turn and inspect the treasure tile as well; whoever can draw a treasure tile (or getting a winning title through the usual means) first wins. Winning off the treasure tile counts as a self-draw. A shangting person cannot win off a discarded treasure tile (unless of course they could win with that card anyway). Kans may still be made after shangting as long as it does not break or change the ready hand.
While there isn't much variety in winning hands, Northeastern mahjong has some interesting special kans. Most of these kans must be declared and opened at the very first turn before any tiles are drawn and changed; they exist to help fulfil the winning requirements and add to the score (see the scoring section for details). Kans are known as 蛋 (dan, eggs), and declaring a kan is 下蛋 (xiadan, laying eggs). Like normal kans, tiles in an egg cannot be used to also join other merges. However, during the game, tiles can be added to existing eggs, which add the fan value. The most common eggs (variants of Northeastern will have others) are:
Kans are scored seperately, and are double the base rate each. A big egg is triple the base rate when open and quadruple when hidden.
Developing from the Fujian/Hokkien playstyle, Taiwanese mahjong is notable for having 16 tiles in hand (17 to win). Flowers are common in the north of Taiwan, while in the south they are removed from play. Winning hands and other rules are fairly standard, but the scoring of the dealer means that consecutive wins grant huge multipliers.
Both the flower and season tiles are called flower tiles. At the start of the round before any draws, players take out flower tiles from their own hands and set them aside opened and replace them with tiles from the back of the wall. Flowers drawn during the game must be replaced in the same way. Flowers add to the score at the end for the winner.
Fan are linear instead of exponential, and are known as 台 (tai, steps). The average wining score is thus base + tai. Consecutive dealer wins grant tai equal to (wins*2) + 1. A self-draw multiples the total score (including after dealer tai) by three. A dealer loss to a self-draw pays double, but a dealer loss by discard pays plus their consecutive win tai! Flowers add 1 tai by-themselves, but can also activate additional hands like Proper Flower. The limit is usually capped at 16 or 24 tai.