True Chinese Mahjong: the Regular Hand

by Alan Kwan
12 April 2000


While both Chinese mahjong and some "Western" versions are played
with much the same equipment, they are essentially different
games in that Chinese mahjong is entirely centered around the
concept of the 'regular' hand, while in some Western versions
such concept is non-existent or of little significance.

In 14-tile games (which is most versions of mahjong), a
'regular' hand is one which consists of 4 sets and a pair.  
A 'set' may be any one of the following:

1.  a sequence (or chow, chi) is 3 consecutive tiles in the same
suit, e.g. B-234 or C-789

2.  a triplet (or pong, pung, three) is 3 identical tiles (in the
same suit), e.g. C-555 or EEE

3.  a quartet (or kong, four) is 4 identical tiles (in the same
suit), e.g. D-8888 or RRRR

A pair is simply 2 identical tiles (in the same suit), e.g. B-44

Note that a quartet counts only as one set of 3 tiles towards the
14-tile hand.  When one melds a quartet, he immediately draws a
supplement tile so that his hand has the right number of tiles
for the regular hand.

Here are two sample regular hands:

B-999 C-345 C-456 NNN SS

B-444 C-1111 D-666 D-678 B-55

In the Classical Chinese game, any regular hand is allowed to go
out.  There are no restrictions as to the maximum allowed number
of sequences or the mixed composition of suits.  Though in Modern
Chinese versions, some players impose some kind of minimum score
limit for a winning hand, as a house rule.  (There is no such
restriction in Zung Jung.)

Most mahjong versions also recognize some 'irregular' hands,
which are additional winning hands not conforming to the regular
hand format.  Chinese versions universally recognize
"Thirteen Terminals", the hand with one pair of terminal or honor
("major") tiles and one each of the 12 others.  In Chinese
Classical, this is the only irregular hand commonly recognized.
(In Zung Jung, only 2 irregular hands are recognized: Thirteen
Terminals, and "Seven Pairs".  These two are the only ones 
commonly recognized in Modern Japanese mahjong.)

During play of Chinese mahjong, there are mechanisms for claiming
tiles discarded by other players to complete the sets you need.
In particular, you can claim a tile discarded by your upper seat
to complete a sequence.  For more details on how Chinese mahjong
is played, please consult Tom Sloper's mahjong FAQ (which points
to additional literature).

Note that Chinese Classical mahjong is not commonly played among
Chinese people today.  Instead, most play Modern Chinese versions
such as Hong Kong Old Style.  An interesting fact is that
Classical Chinese is still being played by certain playing groups
in the West.  If you find that the version you're playing is
highly centered on the regular hand and recognizes few irregular
hands, then you've been playing the Chinese game (or a close
variant of it) and not the essentially different "Western" game.

Zung Jung is a scoring system for use with Chinese mahjong.  Thus
the regular hand is the central concept, and few irregular hands
are recognized.  The vast majority of patterns in Zung Jung serve
to award scores for regular hands which exhibit extra consistency
or difficulty.  (Though some of the patterns also apply to Seven
Pairs hands.)  They do not define the hands you can go out with;
that is defined primarily by the regular hand, with the 2
irregular hands as occasional exceptions.