#mah-jong

Mah-jong

Recently, my mom taught me how to play Mah-Jong, but the American version of it, as that’s how she learned it. The American version uses an “Official Mah-Jongg League” card that updates every year (And you have to pay for that card), and I found that really strange since no other version of the game from across the world seems to need that card.

And since we live in an awful world, my mind couldn’t help but go to racism as a reason for the card’s existence, that the card might be an arbitrary means of exclusion for POCs. Unlike the card, that unfortunately does make a lot of sense because as previously stated, we live in an awful world.

拼音：má jiàng

英文：mah-jong (1922年进入英语)

笔顺： 

麻雀牌起源说

      麻雀牌这种说法是最主流的麻将起源的说法。麻将牌又称麻雀牌、麻雀儿牌，本是江苏太仓“护粮牌”。

      有关资料记载，在江苏太仓市曾有皇家的大粮仓，常年囤积稻谷，以供“南粮北调”。粮多自然雀患频生，每年因雀患而损失了不少粮食。

      管理粮仓的官吏为了奖励捕雀护粮者，便以竹制的筹牌记捕雀数目，凭此发放酬金，这就是太仓的“护粮牌”。这种筹牌上刻著各种符号和数字，既可观赏，又可游戏，也可作兑取奖金的凭证。这种护粮牌，其玩法、符号和称谓术语无不与捕雀有关。

      麻雀牌三种基础花色的名字叫做“万、束、筒”。“筒”的图案就是火药枪的横截面，“筒”即是枪筒，几筒则表示几支火药枪。“索”即“束”，是用细束绳串起来的雀鸟，所以“一索”的图案以鸟代表，几索就是几束鸟，奖金则是按鸟的多少计算的。“万”即是赏钱的单位，几万就是赏钱的数目。

      此外“东南西北”为风向，故称“风”，火药枪射鸟应考虑风向。“中、白、发”：“中”即射中之意，故为红色；“白”即白板，放空炮；“发”即发放赏金，领赏发财。

      麻将玩法的术语也与捕雀护粮有关。如“碰”即“彭”的枪声。又如成牌叫“和”（音胡），“和”“鹘”谐音，“鹘”是一种捕雀的鹰。除此还有“吃”、“杠”等术语也与捕鸟有关。 

      那么为何又叫做“麻将”呢？在太仓方言中，“麻雀儿”和“麻将”读音较近。太仓话的儿话音念做（/ng/），打“麻雀儿”自然也就叫成打“麻将”了。太仓方言雀（/tsiak/）儿（/ng/），合在一起就变成将（/tsiang/）。

麻雀 (Mah-Jong)

Platform: Famicom | Genre: Mahjong | Year: 1983 Current Market Price: ~$12 USD (Cart only)

There’s not much for me to say about this game. I’m not very good at Mahjong and certainly didn’t play it much as I was growing up. In fact, I don’t really recall every watching my friend playing this game either. Mind you, it was so long ago I could be completely wrong.

Fun fact: When you pause the game you get a “Tea Time” screen.

Fun fact 2: Apparently this was the 5th game that Nintendo released on the Famicom