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The Circle Tiles (Tung Jee) 筒子牌
The Bamboo Tiles (Sok Jee) 索子牌
Note: The No.1 Bamboo tile is represented by the picture of a sparrow.
The Character Tiles (Man Jee) 萬子牌
(2) The Honor tiles consist of the Dragons and the Winds: (Fan
There are three Dragons, Red, Green, and White, with four tiles each. 三元牌
Red (Chung), Green (Fat), White (Bak) 中發白
There are four Winds, East, South, West, and North, with four tiles each. 風牌
East (Dong), South (Nam), West (Say), North (Buk)
(3) An optional group of 8 Flower tiles exists: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, Plum, Orchid, Chrysanthemum, and Bamboo (no relationship to the Bamboo tiles in the Common group). (Far Pai) 花牌
1.2 Accessories
♦ Dice 骰子
Dice are used for the allocation of seats, for the designation of the First Dealer, and for breaking the wall of tiles for each game. A set of two or three dice may be used, although beginners are advised to use only two dice for all purposes. This is because the highest sum of dots from three dice is 18, which exceeds the number of tile stacks in each section of the walls, thus complicating the breaking of the walls.
♦ First Dealer Indicator (Hei Jong) 起莊
The indicator is displayed at the left-hand corner of the First Dealer to remind the players to change the Wind in each round of the game.
♦ Dealer and Wind Indicator Jong) 莊
The Indicator, which is used to designate the Dealer in each hand of the game, can be any one of many different designs. When a hand is finished, the Indicator is passed to the next Dealer. The Indicator is also used to indicate the Wind of the round. Accordingly, the Wind sign shown on the Indicator is also changed after each round.
1.3 A Hand of Tiles 一手牌
A playing hand consists of 13 tiles. A winning hand consists of four matched sets of 3 tiles each and one pair called the Eyes of the hand. A matched set can be a Sequence or a Triplet. Thus, a player is always waiting for either a 14th tile that completes the last matched set or the Eyes to declare a win.
A sequence is composed of any three consecutive numbers of the same suit. (Sun Jee) 順子
A Triplet is composed of any three identical tiles of the same suit. (Hak Jee) 刻子
The Eyes can be any 2 identical tiles. (Ngan, Jiang) 眼，將
1.4 A Few Examples of Winning Hands
A. Chicken Hand: Consists of Sequences and Triplets of more than one suit. It is the easiest way to assemble a winning hand. 雞糊
B. Common Hand: Consists of only Sequences of more than one suit. 平糊
C. All Triplets Hand: Consists of only Triplets of more than one suit. 對謝糊
D. Mixed One-Suit Hand: Combines tiles in one suit and Honor tiles. 混一色
E. Pure One-Suit Hand: Consists of tiles in only one suit. 清一色
F. All Honor Tiles Hand: Consists of Honor tiles only. 全字
G.13-Terminal Tile Hand: Consists of one each of numbers one and nine of each Common suit and one each of the Honor tiles, plus one additional tile that matches any of the tiles in the hand. 十三么
1.5 Players and Their Respective Playing Positions
A game of mahjong requires four players. The players sit around a square table, and the game proceeds in a counterclockwise direction. Each player calls the player on his or her right the Lower House, the player on his or her left the Upper House, and the player sitting across the table the Opposite House.
There is a Dealer for each hand of the game. His or her sole function is to commence the game by casting the dice and breaking the walls of tiles.
During each and every hand of the game, the Dealer is called the East House. His or her Lower House is the South House, the Opposite House is the West House, and the Upper House is the North House.
1.6 Playing Directions
The allocation of each player's seat, the designation of the First Dealer, and the playing of the game proceed in a counterclockwise direction. The order in which the players take turns to retrieve a tile and discard a tile also travels counterclockwise. As has been pointed out, each player calls the player on his or her right the Lower House, the player in front of him or her the Opposite House, and the player to the left the Upper House. The breaking of the walls and the drawing of tiles from the wall proceed in a clockwise direction, however.
