Mah+Jong!


 * Mah Jong!**

The History of Mah Jong - The inventor of the Mahjong game, Chen Yumen was from Ningbo. He liked to play card games with the noble lords and while Chen Yumen was very good at playing card games, he felt that cards were inconvenient to play with and it was in 1864 that he first introduced bamboo tiles and added more contents to the playing tiles than cards. The game, Mahjong, was then created. Since then its integration and development were all closely linked with Ningbo. ‘Mahjong’ is from Ningbo dialect 'Maque’ (meaning sparrow), ‘He’ and ‘Ding’, 'Qian’, 'Peng’, 'Xiang Gong’, 'Cuo’ and other Mahjong terms are also evolved from the Ningbo dialect.

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 * **Chinese Classical Mahjong** is the oldest variety of Mahjong, and was the version introduced to America in the 1920s under various names. It has a small, loyal following in the West, although few play it in Asia.


 * **Hong Kong Mahjong or Cantonese Mahjong** is possibly the most common form of Mahjong, differing in minor scoring details with the Chinese Classical variety.

- Chen Yumen added ‘south, east, north, west’ as four new tiles, signifying the importance of the wind on sailing. ‘Wan’ means millions, or in terms of trade and commerce, the desire for wealth. ‘Suo’ means the ropes of the ship and its fishing nets. ‘Tong’ means water buckets - the scarcity of freshwater during sailing makes water as a symbol of life. Naming the game ‘sparrow’ is for luck, as in older times, it was believed the sight of a sparrow meant that the land is not far away.
 * **Sichuan Mahjong** is a growing variety, particularly in southern China, disallowing eating, and missing the "fa", "zhong", and other pieces. It can be played very quickly.

There is still some debate about who created the game.
- One theory is that Chinese army officers serving during the Taiping Rebellion created the game to pass the time. - Another theory is that a noble an living in the Shanghai area created the game between 1870 and 1875. - The most popular theory states that mahjong was developed from this game in Ningpo around 1850. It is believed that two brothers recreated the deck on tiles of ivory and bamboo and created mahjong -> The introduction to the western world is thought to have begun with two brothers named White, which in the early 1900's introduced mah jong to the English clubs of Shanghai, where it quickly gained popularity among the foreign residents. ( The introduction to the western world is thought to have begun with two brothers named White, which in the early 1900's introduced mah jong to the English clubs of Shanghai, where it quickly gained popularity among the foreign residents. Importation of mah jong tiles began with Joseph P. Babcock, who at that time was the Soochow representative of the Standard Oil Company. He simplified the game eliminating most of the limit hand scoring, and retained only the essential basic scores. Mr. Babcock is also credited with starting the practice of putting English numerals on the tiles, and in September of 1920 he copyrighted and put his rules into print for the first time. It wasn't however until two years later a lumber merchant from San Francisco named W. A. Hammond formed the Mah Jongg Sales Company of San Francisco and began importing large quantities of sets.)



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