Mahjong tiles

The earliest surviving mahjong sets date to the 1870s when the game was largely confined to Zhejiang, Shanghai, and Jiangsu.

The core of the set is the 108 suited tiles which were inherited from Chinese money-suited playing cards.

The honor tiles known as Arrows (Dragons in English) developed to their current form by 1890 concurrent with a new style of play called Zhōngfā (中發).

In contrast, many early sets contained wild cards with specific powers known as Inner Flowers (Chinese: 裏花; pinyin: lǐhuā; Jyutping: loei5faa1) which disappeared from most of China but are still found in Vietnam and Thailand.

'ordinal number tiles'; also Chinese: 數字牌; pinyin: shùzìpái; Cantonese Jyutping: sou3zi6paai2; lit.

The ones and nines of each suit (Chinese: 幺九; pinyin: yāo jiǔ; Cantonese Jyutping: jiu1gau2; Japanese: ヤオ九; rōmaji: yaochū) are collectively referred to as the terminal tiles.

The circle (dot, coin, wheel, stone) suit (Chinese: 筒子; pinyin: tǒngzi; Cantonese Jyutping: tung4zi2; lit.

From the monetary origin of this suit, the circles represent the copper coins known in English as "cash".

The bamboo (stick, string, bam) suit (Chinese and Japanese: 索子; pinyin: suǒzi; Cantonese Jyutping: sok3zi2; rōmaji: sōzu; lit.

From the monetary origin of this suit, the sticks are actually rope strings (索) that tie 100 Chinese copper coins together by the square holes in the middle.

(1索=100銅) The repeated bumps in the sticks depict the individual coins in the strings, but they were mistaken by Joseph Park Babcock as the knots on the bamboo plants, hence the English name of the suit.

In early sets, there was no bird but a single bent string of cash capped with a red knot ().

[1][6] The character (myriad, number, crack) suit (Chinese: 萬子/万子; pinyin: wànzi; Cantonese Jyutping: maan6zi2; Japanese: 萬子; rōmaji: wanzu/manzu; lit.

The rank of the tile is represented at the top, in blue, with Chinese numerals, while the character below (萬 wàn, meaning myriad) is in red.

[8] There is also a rare red white dragon (白ポッチ, shiro pocchi) which can act as a wild card if tsumo conditions are met.

They are divided into two categories: four Wind tiles (風牌/风牌, pinyin: fēngpái, jyutping: fung1paai2, Japanese romaji: fompai or kazehai) and three Dragon tiles (三元牌, pinyin: sānyuánpái, jyutping: saam1jyun4paai2, Japanese romaji: sangempai), each of which is quadruplicated.

The four types of Wind tiles are: Their Chinese characters are usually in blue, like 東, 南, 西 and 北.

Flower tiles (Chinese and Japanese: 花牌; pinyin: huāpái; Cantonese Jyutping: faa1paai2; rōmaji: hanahai/fapai) are not used in melds.

The four tiles in the Four Gentlemen (Chinese: 四君子; pinyin: sìjūnzi; Cantonese Jyutping: sei3gwan1zi2; Vietnamese: Tứ Quân Tử) quartet are: or or Thai, Vietnamese, and Malaysian mahjong sets contain two more quartets of flower tiles in addition to the Four Seasons and Four Gentlemen.

They are not decorated with pictures but just the number and character (e.g. Third Emperor 三皇, Fourth Empress 四后).

The earliest known Chinese sets contained twelve flowers but no Four Gentlemen tiles and the Four Seasons were unadorned.

The "Three Stars" (Chinese: 三星; pinyin: sān xīng) and "Nobility" are typically used in its place, with the usual tiles being: Animal tiles (Chinese: 動物牌/动物牌; pinyin: dòngwùpái; Cantonese Jyutping: dung6mat6paai2) are unnumbered flowers that automatically match the player's seat.

These tiles are found in pairs with their subjects usually based on popular Chinese fables.

They are found in the earliest sets and were inspired by the suit-restricted jokers in older Chinese card games.

After 1975, modern Vietnamese sets triplicated or quadruplicated all eight jokers but each copy will have a different frame (rectangle, circle, lozenge, and hexagon) which allows them to be melded with each other.

However, the Japanese tiles set themselves apart within this class by virtue of their thickness, which allows them to stand upright—despite their diminutive overall size.

This enables Japanese mahjong players also to dispense with the use of racks (these are pervasive in the American game, in combination with slimmer tiles).