Langzhong Mahjongg
After living here for about five months and after asking nearly everyone in town about it, one of my friends finally tried to teach me how to play Majiang (the Chinese correct spelling). As I quickly discovered, it is very similar to Rummy but with much more sporadic scoring that seems to make no sense: Like most things in Langzhong. There are rules upon rules to learn, especially the scoring, so it’s difficult to master Majiang quickly. Also after talking to many of my friends around the rest of the China, the rules for Majiang change region-to-region and sometimes town-to-town. The Majiang that’s played in Langzhong is a simplified version without the special tiles that include the dragons, seasons, flowers, and the four winds. The suits in Langzhong Majiang are stones, bamboo, and the Chinese numbers and each is numbered one through nine.
The game begins when each of the four players “Build the Great Wall” or just stacking the tiles facedown, two high, in the basic shape of a square. And, yes, it must be four players or else because playing with more or less seems to be sacrilege punishable by death (although 2-4 players works). I’ve seen other rules that say each of the four players must have their walls 18 tiles long, but here it just seems to be as many as you wish; which often leads to the finished product not looking like a square but a rhombus or the like as the players search for room in front of them to set up their tiles for playing. As before specified, this game doesn’t have the usual 144 pieces; it lacks the special characters so 18 tiles long will not work. After the wall, then the confusing task of trying to find which of the four sides to take tiles from begins. The players all rolls a die, the highest number wins, to see who will be the first to pick up tiles. The winner then rolls again and that number dictates the location to begin picking up tiles. For instance, if the winner rolls a 3, you begin with your wall and count to your right and that chooses the wall you will draw tiles from. The players then take 4 tiles each until they get 12, and then the winner of the last game or the person that choose tiles first gets 2 extra tiles (picking the 1st from the top of the wall that’s being drawn from and then skipping one to get the 2nd) while the others get only 1 tile.
Now that the fiasco of getting tiles is complete, arrange
your tiles in numerical order to see what you have. The three suits used in
Langzhong Mijiang are Stones or “Tong”, Numbers or “Wan” (actually, Wan means
10000; refer to the chart for the Chinese number characters), and Bamboo or
“Tiao”. You are looking for 3 or 4 of a
kind and runs (tiles in sequence like 3 stone, 4 stone, 5 stone) just like in
Rummy. The winner of the last game or
the player to win the dice roll then discards the tile of least worth, and the
player to the right of them picks up a tile from the wall that the tiles were
drawn from in the beginning of the game and it continues like this until
there’s a winner. Each player must also
call out the tile that they discard for instance “yi tong” or “san tiao”. The winner is the person that ends up with 3
sets of 3 of a kind or runs, and a pair.
To win you can either draw a tile from the wall or pick up a tile that
is discarded in the same round.
Most people will
say “Bao Jiao” or “I’m going to win” right before winning; in other words, if
they only need one more tile to win.
This is a good idea if you are certain that you will win. In a way, it’s like saying “UNO” but it’s
not required; after you call “Bao Jiao” you cannot change your tiles because
it’s like saying you have a “set hand” in poker. If you win, you will get an extra Yuan for announcing “Bao
Jiao”.
The one annoying
difference between Rummy and Majiang is that you cannot draw tiles from the
discarded tiles except for in 3 situations.
First, if you have 2 matching tiles and another player discards the same
tile, you have the option of saying “Pong” and taking discarded tile and
placing your tiles facing up for the other players to see. You can also do the same thing if you have 3
of a kind in your hand and another player puts down a fourth or you draw it;
this is called “Gang” and it gets you an extra 1 Yuan at the end if you
win. If you draw the Gang yourself, you
can place three of the tiles facedown and one of them face-up, but if a player
discards the forth tile you need in Gang, you place all of them face-up. This just helps with the scoring at the
end. When you get a Peng or a Gang,
playing resumes with the person to the right of the person that called “Gang”
or “Peng”. Also, when you get a Gang,
you must roll the dice and go to the opposite wall that hasn’t been broken and
count that many tiles and draw.
This is the most difficult part. There are many ways to accrue more money after you win the hand. In the typical Majiang of China, everyone’s hand is calculated for points but in Langzhong, only the winner’s tiles are. The points are based on money, and how much you pay is based on the increment you decide on before beginning to play. For instance, each game can be worth 1, 5, 10, or 100 RMB, and the amount of money you have can fluctuate dramatically in a short amount of time. The following rules are how you can earn or lose money in Langzhong Mijiang:
--Special Note: If you win by drawing from the wall, everyone pays you. If you win by someone discarding the tile you need to win, only that person pays you. Also, the rules stack throughout the game, so you can win more money for each of the conditions below that you meet. For instance, winning with no Peng after saying Bao Jiao and drawing the winning tile from the wall will get you 4 from everyone. Refer to the below rules to see how much you can win in all. If it seems to make no sense, that’s ok…it makes no sense to me either.
- Winning a hand = 1
- Saying “Bao Jiao” or “I’m going to win” and then winning = 1
- If you win by drawing the tile from the wall = 1
- Having a 2, 5, or 8 pair = 1
- Having a 4 and 6 of any suit and then drawing the 5 of that suit = 1
- Not having any Peng or Gang = 1
- Getting Gang after someone discards the tile you need (all tiles placed face-up) = 1
- Getting Gang by drawing from the wall (three tiles faced down, one faced up) = 2
- Winning after drawing a tile due to Gang = 1
- Having only two suits after winning = 1
- Having only pairs = 5
- Having 2 Peng in sequence = 1
- Having pairs or Peng in a sequence = 1
- Having all Peng and 1 pair = 2
- Having all runs (1-9 same suit) in sequence = 1
- Having all the same suit = 5
- Having 5 pairs and someone discards and you Peng and win = 4
- If someone discards a tile that will cause more than one player to win, the points will be
tallied and the loser will pay all of the players the proper amount.
Bao Jiao – I’m
going to win, literally “full win”.
“Building the Great
Wall” – Stacking the tiles in a long row, two high.
Gang – called out
when you get four of a kind.
Majiang – the
correct spelling in China for Mahjongg.
Peng – called out
when you get three of a kind.
RMB – Chinese
money.
Tiao – Bamboo suit
in Majiang.
Tong – Stone suit
in Majiang.
Yuan – Chinese unit
of money; 1 Yuan, 5 Yuan.
Wan – Numbers suit
of Majiang; “Wan” actually means 10000.
An Gang – Getting
Gang by drawing from the wall.
An Qi Dui – Winning
with all pairs.
Bu Qiu Ren –
Winning without anyone drawing any discarded tiles (no Peng no Gang).
Da Dui Zi – Winning
with 4 Peng and one pair.
Da Majiang – “Play
Majiang.”
Dian Pao – Winning
after someone discards the tile you need.
Jiang – Winning
with 2, 5, or 8.
Ming Gang – Getting
Gang after someone discards the tile you need.
Ming Qi Dui –
Winning with 6 pairs and 1 Peng.
Qing Yi Se – If you
win with all the same suit.
Que Yi Meng –
Winning with only two suits.
Xiong Di Kan –
Winning with 2 Peng in sequence.
Yi Tiao Long – All
tiles in sequence.
Zi Mo – Winning by
drawing from the wall.
Zi Mei Hua –
Winning with 3 pairs in sequence.
The Chinese numbers
1-10:
|
English Numbers |
Pin Yin (Pronunciation) |
Chinese Characters |
|
1 |
yi |
一 |
|
2 |
er |
二 |
|
3 |
san |
三 |
|
4 |
si |
四 |
|
5 |
wu |
五 |
|
6 |
liu |
六 |
|
7 |
qi |
七 |
|
8 |
ba |
八 |
|
9 |
jiu |
九 |
|
10 |
shi |
十 |