History Of Mahjong Game

History Of Mahjong Game

Mahjong is a four player Chinese game which is modified in the recent times, to suit the Western style as a tile matching Computer game. The original game is actually played with 136 tiles which are based on the Chinese symbols and characters. Each player is given thirteen tiles in the beginning. The players have to draw the tiles and discard them accordingly in turns. By the fourteenth draw, the players have to form a pair and four groups. The groups are called 'Melds' and the pair is called 'Head'. There are certain rules regarding how the cards are drawn, the cards are taken from other players to form melds, the numbered tiles are used, winds and dragons types of tiles are melded, what are the different types of melds, and how the cards are dealt in an order and played. But these rules differ according to the local regions they are played at, depending upon the scoring system as per the local rules.
There are interesting myths regarding the origin of the game. One of them states that it was Confucius, the Chinese philosopher who developed this game around 500 B.C. The word 'Mahjong' means 'sparrow' in Chinese. There's also a strong belief that Confucius was so fond of the birds and hence the game was named 'Mahjong'. But some historians claim that the game was actually developed during the period of early Ming Dynasty. Another theory suggests that it was developed by the Chinese army officers during the Taiping Rebellion, to keep them engaged in some means of passing their time, when they were not on duty. It is also believed that the game was developed by a nobleman who was living in Shanghai between the year 1870 and 1875. There are no clear written records regarding who created the game and the debates are still going on.

Mahjong was one of the major games of gambling in China and some other Chinese speaking countries and communities. So when the Communist government came to power in China in 1949, it banned the playing of the game, stating that the game influences corruption among the citizens. The game was initially played in China alone as the game was not popular in other Western countries due to the lack of knowledge of the game. It was only after 1910, several written records of the game spread across the globe. When the game was imported to New York in the year 1920, it took a revolutionary turn and became an instant popularity among the Americans. From then on, this game has become one of the mostly played games, by the common people.