The history and origin of Mahjong Mahjong originated in China. It was originally a game for the royal family and princes, and its history can be traced back to thousands of years34. Over the long term, mahjong gradually spread from the court to the private sector, basically taking shape during the historical evolution of the Qing Dynasty.

According to legend, the Ming Dynasty created a "leaf cell playing mahjong" called 000, named "Wan, Pancake, Bar" for the three basic colors of pancake strips (or "Million Wang Bingzhang"). On the other hand, some people say that Mahjong is a health food brand in Taicang, Jiangsu Province. For example: the "powder keg" pattern. The mahjong number 108 represents the 108 heroes in "Water Margin". These heroes come from all directions, southeast, northwest, white, some are middle class, and some high-ranking nobles, representing the southeast, northwest, and some are the origins of oral medicine.

The recorded information is that rice is hoarded all year round in the royal granary in Taicang County, Jiangsu Province, for southern food and northern food. A lot of food is lost every year due to the frequent occurrence of natural bird infestations and much suffering from bird food. Officials who manage the granary are rewarded with rewards. This is Taicang's "guaranteed food brand" with eye-catching bird health food. The bamboo chip brand records the number of fishing birds. The chip card is engraved with various symbols and numbers that can be seen, but the game, Also for the redemption of the award certificate. Such health food brands play with the symbol and title terminology

For example, the pattern of "tube" is across the part of the gunpowder gun. , that is, barrels, barrels, said several gunpowder guns, "cables" or "girders" with thin ropes strung up on birds, representing the "cable pattern bird". "Ten thousand" tip unit, the amount of remuneration is in the hundreds of thousands.

In addition, "southeast, northwest" is the wind direction, so it is called "wind". The pink gunbird should consider the wind direction. "White hair": "That shot, it is red," "white", the white board, the "hair" of the empty cannon, issued the bounty, the bounty hunter's wealth.

The terminology of the Mahjong game is also Catching birds takes care of food. Such as "touch" means "peng gunshot". Enter a brand called "Paste", "Paste", a homophone of "Falcon", "Falcon" is another example of an all-encompassing bird hawk. Besides "eat", "bar" terms and Fowler. So, why is it called "Mahjong"? In the local dialect of Taicang, it is called "Mahjong", "Mahjong" and playing mahjong is naturally called playing mahjong.

The popularity of mahjong tiles (also known as bricks) evolved from the mahjong mark playing cards in the late Ming Dynasty. Horse mark, playing cards And other entertainment games, they are inextricably linked to the history of our country's oldest entertainment game - gambling. Even in the "blood" game, chess, cards and other popular entertainment are not related. The development was based on gambling.

The exact age when ancient gambling began is difficult to say. According to "Historical Records" and other records, gambling was produced at least in the Yin Dynasty. The earliest gambling was called "Liu Bo", with chopsticks and 12 chess pieces. The chopsticks were a slender bamboo product, equivalent to mahjong dice today.

It is included in "Yan's family motto: Zaoyi, gambling is divided into gambling, and the law of gambling and playing chess can no longer be tested. Xiaobo recorded it in detail in ancient gambling. The method is: two people sit opposite each other on the chessboard To the 12th, two of the rectangular black and white chess pieces are placed on the board. The two players take turns rolling the dice (dice) to determine the pawn move. The chess pieces reach the end and become small chess pieces (or fierce chess pieces). Small chess pieces enter the water and pull the fish to the chip. The unpaired Xiao chess pieces can also attack each other. You can play chess and cards casually, but don’t give up the opportunity.

There is another way to say about the origin of mahjong.

In the Ming Dynasty, Zheng He went to the West and had entertainment equipment on board. The officers and soldiers on the ship only threw dice and gambled as a pastime. However, during the long voyage, the soldiers were tired of it. Often the officers and soldiers were homesick and even tried to rebel. Zheng He killed them. In order to stabilize the morale of the army, Zheng He A tool for entertainment was invented.

Zheng Yapai, playing cards, Pai Gow, more than 100 pieces of small wood chips, prepared by the fleet, carved 1-9" as the basis of the brand, and then mounted on the plate, the number of fresh water barrels carved 1-9" barrel" (Bucket). Then according to the wind direction, the four winds of "East and West" are engraved. The slogan "Greater China Yaobing Exotic" is engraved with money. , and then according to the four seasons, there was finally a permission to engrave nothing, which was the "blank slate"

When Zheng He went to the West for the first time, he was the deputy commander-in-chief and the general. Ms. Zheng Houhudi (the wife of the eunuch) and four people played together, and finally determined the rules of the game. The whole ship started playing this game. The general named Ma on the ship was very good at playing this game. So? Zheng He's voyages to the West were named after this game. For the "Ma Zong Business License", which is the descendant of Mahjong

Mahjong Transition

Han, Wei Bo Opera has undergone fundamental changes to play pawns and independent businesses. Chess developed in the direction of chess and became a game. The five-wood dice became independent and became a gambling tool. According to legend, Cao Zhi at that time made the game. Jade, bone dice after the switch. Two dice in the Zhai Palace, six sides engraved with dots, counting from one to six months.

Gambling in the Tang Dynasty. Dice's independent blog. Become six dice, two dice. This is the soul-washing battle between Tang Minghuang and Yang Dice to entertain the poor Tang emperor, with only six dice and two dice open at the same time. Therefore, Emperor Ming of the Tang Dynasty rolled the dice on the side of Lotus Lake and weighed four. The dice stopped, there were only four. Emperor Dayue of the Tang Dynasty ordered Gao Lishi to paint the four points of the dice with red. To this day, the youngest dice has red four on both sides and the rest are surrounded by black.

Since the Tang Dynasty, theatrical entertainment has involved various name duels composed of six dice, which is known as the dice grid. The dice-playing lattice entertainment device evolved from the Song Huizong Xuanhe years of dominoes (also known as visual and licensed, Pai Gow, still popular in some areas, Niu's brand, Nine-day license) . Dominoes use ivory or elephant bones to change the dice into cubes, and the six-sided dice is carved with dots. There are 21 designs of dominoes. Each color of domino is a combination of two dice with a maximum of 12 points and a minimum of two points. There are two of each color, or a total of 32.

In the mid-Tang Dynasty, it was similar to the dice grid, but it was also a game called "Yi Zi Opera". Opinions differ on the origin of the play leaf. Tang "The Risk Princess Chuan Webster Zhu Haoye played ball." This is the earliest written departure. In addition, there are several theories: an active relationship was achieved between the woman Ye Bu Tang and the geisha Ye Maolian. These claims seem far-fetched. In fact, "leaf play" as it was called at the time was not a well-established game. There's nothing like a piece of paper to record the value won or lost on a dice grid. This can be proven from Ouyang Xiu's "Return to the Fields":

The scrolls from the Chinese collection were subsequently left in the hand times, in which the leaves were examined. The writing of the dice grid is therefore written on the blade, so the name Seoul is written.

Ye Wenwen Chat is a piece of paper, but it is not a game, it is just a piece of paper for recording, but we can regard it as the originator of Mahjong tiles.

The appearance of horse tags

In the Ming Dynasty, the chip was originally used as a game accessory, and then gradually evolved into a new theatrical entertainment device, the horse tag.

Horse tag is a paper card with 40 cards, divided into 4 designs of 100,000, Wan Guan, Bamboo, and Penny. Wan Guan, the bamboo color is always consistent from one to nine hundred thousand, consistent from 200,000 to 900,000, or even millions, always consistent, from one to nine cents, or even half a person (also known as called a branch flower) and one without words (also called an empty soup). 100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 the portrait of the hero of "Water Margin" in the card face painting is absolutely in line with the natural distribution to Song Jiang,which means that non-thieves cannot become rich. The money asking graphics are painted on the cable cent card.

In the play of horse tag, each person with four to eight cards gets the first place, and the remaining eight are in the table. The four people take turns to draw the cards, and the cards are played according to the cards, from small to large. The horse label maker is out of work. The banker does not have a fixed owner and can take turns, so the helicopter attacks the banker. The three idlers are at home, so they go to the banker.

The origin of the tag name has been subject to different opinions. However, according to the evolution of this card from the horse, money is painted on the card: a penny has always been a thousand-and-one cents, the money of a cable string, a string of money; and in ancient times, a thousand-and-one cents were also called To hang money, it seems that you can see the shadow of "horse" and "hang". If the meaning of the name of the horse label is understood in this way, it is self-evident, and the translation may be "money card."

The modern form of mahjong, popular in the Ming and Qing dynasties, is the horse with a fork

The Solitaire Horse is a theatrical entertainment device called the Solitaire (also known as the Silent Horse) which is a four-player playing card that is two inches long and less than an inch wide. There are 60 pieces in the beginning, divided into three sets of one-cent bamboo and one-tenth of two colors, and another single first three-color (mahjong tile, hair, white) 2 pieces. When cards are taken after the first 10 of every four, three interconnected cards are called "three plus one". The title of winning card is "和" (yin Hu). Play one card, two, or even three at the same time to get an early license win. The brand grid is much like today’s mahjong tiles. This card game is always played in silence, the so-called silence and permission.

Since then, some people felt that the cards were too few to play together, so when the two types of cards were played together, the combined number of cards played became 120. In the play, in addition to three interconnected cards, three identical cards can become one. In other words, using this card, you can still eat and touch if you start to need it. When a combination of cards has a "Hill" (three numbers connected to the same door), "Touch" (three), and "Open Column" (four). This time playing cards is called "touch and brand."

"Dream of Red Mansions" back to the 47th "The bitter battle of accommodation overlord flirting, the torch of cold music goes away from home" by Wang Xifeng, Jia Mu, Xue Yima , etc. barrel touch and license. Wrote:

The mandarin ducks see Jia Muka and the cake is just waiting for a two-hand password and the disciples to seal it. When Sister Feng dealt the cards, she hesitated deliberately for a long time, and said with a smile: "My card is stuck in Xue Yima's hand. If I don't deal the card, I will push it down again." ...

The cake is two texts, and the door of the text has been painted on the pie of the horse hanging wheel (see Ming?pan hanging "Leaf Pu"), which is an example of the top card of the problem.

At the same time, Dominoes also has "Touch" 21 kinds of brand colors for each of the five major compositions. Open bars, self-touch doubles, and regulations to combat fraud and penalties. These domino playing techniques and terminology are inherited from Solitaire.

As the Qing Dynasty comes to an end, the number of wind cards in the four colors of east, south, west and north (4 of each color) increases. At that time, the most commonly used table was the square table, also known as a square table. The name of the Eight Immortals Table comes from the fact that eight people can sit in the restaurant. Always used to play card type party organizations, which restricts two people from sitting together. Gradually a custom play-by-play party was formed for each meeting. It is inspired by the four directions, adding cards, east, south, west and north winds.

As for the dragon's roar, the increase in white hair may be the ambition of the person who misses it. After being in a lift (you'd never know it in the mountains, the champions were called triples), a move was made to make naturally rich official hair. The whiteboard may be blank, which means innocence.

Later people discovered that when playing cards, they often get stuck before they can finish, and no one felt disappointed when they got stuck. To make up for this shortcoming, so listen. Initially, there were only two growths year-on-year, and gradually developed to add more tables, until it developed into mahjong tile painting.

However, since the number of playing cards is more than one, it is very inconvenient to combine licenses, and people are inspired to gradually change to playing dominoes with legislative bones stuck on the table. convenient.

The authentic mahjong tiles begin.

The origin of the name of Mahjong tiles cannot be verified. Possibly incorrect pronunciation. Wu Yin's "Niao" Diao label on the horse bird, horse, ma bird mahjong tiles, and then to a mahjong.

Mahjong was formed, sued in court, and enjoyed by all the common people. Common people also got the fun of mahjong. With a permit, a very good person was transported, and he wrote a poem:

PAY Bureau, lined up with pairs of moves. The three elements (white) and the chief four elements (south, southeast, northwest) are enough to hold the single case. Flowers from the bar's hair, moonlight from the bottom of the sea. Complete to escape, terrible ripped off.

Who wouldn’t be happy with such good luck?

Mahjong is complex, volatile, exciting, and fun since its birth, and has quickly become the most popular form of gambling in the entire world. Whether it is the supreme emperor or powerful ministers, many people are interested in mahjong, common people, villagers and common people in general, like to play mahjong, and there are countless mahjong fights. Although this actually reflects the feudal era when people pursued excitement and the bad habit of gambling addiction, it also reflects the endless mahjong game activities and rich taste.

From above, we can see the general trajectory of the mahjong tiles.

Chess → Chess (current)

Ancient gambling

Chopsticks → Joan → Dice → Dice grid

Domino ( Current)

(Leave the field)

Horse Tag (Solitaire) → Silent Tiles → Mahjong Tiles (Bone)