Terminology

1. Tiles

There are main classes of Mahjong tiles: Suited Tiles, Honour Tiles, and Bonus Tiles.

1.1 Suited Tiles (序数牌)

Suited tiles run from 1 to 9. There are four copies of each tile.

  • Characters Suit (万子):

    1 Character(一万)2 Characters(二万)3 Characters(三万)4 Characters(四万)5 Characters(五万)6 Characters(六万)7 Characters(七万)8 Characters(八万)9 Characters(九万)

  • Circles Suit (筒子 tǒng zi):

    1 Circle(一筒)2 Circles(二筒)3 Circles(三筒)4 Circles(四筒)5 Circles(五筒)6 Circles(六筒)7 Circles(七筒)8 Circles(八筒)9 Circles(九筒)

  • Bamboo Suit (索子 suò zi) :

    1 Bamboo(一索)2 Bamboos(二索)3 Bamboos(三索)4 Bamboos(四索)5 Bamboos(五索)6 Bamboos(六索)7 Bamboos(七索)8 Bamboos(八索)9 Bamboos(九索)

1.2 Honour Tiles (大牌)

Honour tiles consists of the 4 Wind Tiles and the 3 Dragon tiles. Again, there are four copies of each tile.

  • Wind Tiles (风牌) (1-4):

    East(东风)South(南风)West(西风)North(北风)

  • Dragon Tiles (三元牌) (1-3):

    Red Dragon(红中)White Dragon(白板)Green Dragon(青发)

1.3 Bonus Tiles (花牌)

Bonus tiles consist of the flowers, seasons, and animals. There are one of each tile.

  • Flower Tiles (花牌):

    Flower 1Flower 2Flower 3Flower 4

  • Season Tiles (季牌):

    Season 1Season 2Season 3Season 4

  • Animal Tiles (动物牌):

    Cat(猫)Rat(老鼠)Rooster(公鸡)Centipede(蜈蚣)

2. Classifying tiles

We further classify tiles because they are defined in different winning hands.

  • Simple Tiles (中张牌): Suited Tiles between 2 and 8. E.g., 2 Characters.

  • End Tiles (老头牌): Suited Tiles 1 and 9. I.e., 1 Bamboo9 Bamboos1 Circle9 Circles1 Character9 Characters

  • Terminal Tiles (幺九牌): Include End Tiles and Honour Tiles. I.e., 1 Bamboo9 Bamboos1 Circle9 Circles1 Character9 CharactersEastSouthWestNorthRed DragonWhite DragonGreen Dragon

  • Value tiles (番牌): Honour tiles that gives you 1 Tai in a triplet. Any Dragon Tile Red DragonWhite DragonGreen Dragon, your seat wind (E.g., East), and the prevailing wind (E.g. South) are value tiles.

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