History Of Mahjong Game

Mahjong is a player Chinese game which is modified in the recent times, to suit the Western style as a tile matching Computer game. The original game is actually played with 136 tiles which are based on the Chinese symbols & characters. Each player is given thirteen tiles in the beginning. The players must draw the tiles & discard them accordingly in turns. By the fourteenth draw, the players must form a pair & groups. The groups are called 'Melds' & the pair is called 'Head'. There is positive rules regarding how the cards are drawn, the cards are taken from other players to form melds, the numbered tiles are used, winds & dragons types of tiles are melded, what are the different types of melds, & how the cards are dealt in an order & played. But these rules differ according to the local regions they are played at, depending on the scoring method as per the local rules.

There is fascinating myths regarding the origin of the game. Of them states that it was Confucius, the Chinese philosopher who developed this game around 500 B.C. The word 'Mahjong' means 'sparrow' in Chinese. There is & a powerful belief that Confucius was so keen on the birds & hence the game was named 'Mahjong'. But some historians claim that the game was actually developed in the coursework of the period of early Ming Dynasty. Another theory suggests that it was developed by the Chinese army officers in the coursework of the Taiping Rebellion, to keep them engaged in some means of passing their time, when they were not on duty. It is also believed that the game was developed by a nobleman who was living in Shanghai between the year 1870 & 1875. There is no clear written records regarding who created the game & the debates are still going on.

Mahjong was of the major games of betting in China & some other Chinese speaking countries & communities. So when the Communist government came to power in China in 1949, it banned the playing of the game, stating that the game influences corruption among the citizens. The game was initially played in China alone as the game was not popular in other Western countries due to the shortage of knowledge of the game. It was only after 1910, several written records of the game spread across the globe. When the game was imported to New York in the year 1920, it took a revolutionary turn & became an instant popularity among the Americans. From then on, this game has become of the mostly played games, by the common people.