About the Game of Mah Jong, its history and types: spelled variously as Mahjong Mah-jong mah jongg : Presented by Astral Castle

History of The Game of Mah Jong

Whether Mah Jongg originated as a card game and then got made into a tile game, or began as a tile game from which the idea of card games originated is lost to history -- but it's certainly true that cards and mahjong are intimately tied together, as you can tell by the fact that many terms dealing with mahjongg are card-related (like calling the tiles set in front of you on a rack "a hand" though you'd be hard-pressed to hold them in your hands). And, of course, Mah Jong is still available in card form, in its smallest "travel" version.

Mah Jong probably originated in the Tang Dynasty in China -- about 4000 years ago. For most of its history it belonged to the aristocracy, who were the only ones to know the rules. Only in the early 1900s, when China became a republic, did it become a game of the people.

In the early 1900s Mah Jong was introduced to English clubs in Shanghai (hence a traditional name for the solitaire version of the game is "Shanghai"). Then in 1920 Joseph Babcock imported Mah Jongg to the United States, and from there it spread to Europe. The game enjoyed huge popularity in the U.S. for a decade after its initial discovery by players here. During this period a bewildering variety of rules were generated, causing much confusion among players encountering players from other regions. The first rule book was written by Babcock in 1925 -- including a main set of rules, some variations, and the original Chinese rules -- however it seems to be the simplified rules that caught on. In 1937 the National Mah Jongg League was formed, further codifying the rules -- which get modified on a regular basis.

The name "Mah Jong" literally means "flax/hemp" and "sparrow" in Chinese -- probably referring to the sound of the leaves in a wind, and the chirping of birds, relating to the sound of the tiles as they are played. More recently the name is translated as "bird of 100 intelligences" a reference to the great variety and possible complexities in the game.

How American Mah-Jongg Is Played

Though most recently Mah Jongh's fame is being spread by its many versions as a solitaire game played on computers -- with tiles built up in various formations, removed in pairs, the object being to remove all the tiles (statistically an often impossible task), this solitaire form bears almost no relation to the actual game of Mah Jongg which is most often played with four players. The true game is very similar to the card game rummy, since the object is to make sets and runs which have point values which are scored at the end of the game.