Xinping's Page on Mahjongg (Mahjong)
"Card games are probably coeval
with cards themselves and may have been invented
by the Chinese when they began shuffling paper
money into various combinations. The Chinese are
thought to have played both for and with this money,
and in China today the general term for playing
cards means paper tickets.
—
Encyclopędia Britannica, Under Card Game
Origin and Introduction
MahJongg(Mahjong) is a domino-like game of Chinese origin dating back to over 2,000 years ago. It is said to have originated in the court of the King of Wu where legend states a beauty of the court who lived in seclusion invented the game to keep herself from boredom. A complete historical article of Mahjongg can be found following this link. For centuries, MahJongg remained exclusive to the Chinese royal class and it was against the law for commoners to play. Commoners caught playing MahJongg were decapitated. This law was revoked around 500 AD and the game began to spread westwards. There are many forms of MahJongg, multi-player and solitaire.
"American mahjong, which was mainly played by women during the time, grew from this craze, and in the 1930s, after many revisions of the rules (including some that were considered fundamentals in other variants, such as the notion of a standard hand) led to the formation of the National Mah Jongg League in 1937, along with the first American mahjong rulebook, Maajh: The American Version of the Ancient Chinese Game. Despite it being Chinese in origin and accepted by players of all racial backgrounds when first introduced by Babcock, American Mahjong is considered a Jewish game, as many American mahjong players are of Jewish descent, and the NMJL was founded by Jewish players and considered a Jewish organization." - From Encyclopedia Entry
Rules
The Mahjongg rule is quite simple for play but very complicated for calculating scoring. It demonstrates the mathematics capability of ancient Chinese. Be aware of that there are different rules for each region of China and other countries. It also depends on the players. One possible rule for 13 tile traditional Chinese Mahjongg is described in the following link. It also explains some terminology. Another link describes the rules and score sheet of 16 tile Taiwanese Mahjongg.
Software
There are two kinds of Mahjongg games currently. They both share the same name - "Mahjongg"
but they are quite different. One is so called Chinese Solitaire game. This kind of game
is not played anywhere in China as I know. It is basically a mix and match game which can
be quite complicated to solve. You don't need a partner to play this game. The other one
is the genuine Chinese Mahjongg which is covered above. Playing games on the computer is
also a good way to practice and be familiar with the rules
Here are two example of each kind of game.
1. Xmahjongg
2. Mah-Jong for Unix (and Windows)
.This software is equipped with a detailed use and
rule document which is worth reading and studying.
This game can also played via the Internet or on a same UNIX host by multiple persons.
Reference
There are plenty of books and Internet websites explaining Mahjongg rules and teach people how to play this fascinating game. I compiled a list of highly valuable books.
