Every mahjong tradition in the world — Chinese, Japanese, American, Taiwanese, Filipino, Vietnamese — is built on the same foundation. Four players. One hundred and forty-four tiles, give or take. One winning hand: four sets and a pair.
Everything else is variation.
This page will teach you the universal core of the game in the order you'll actually need it: what's on the table, how you win, how a turn works, and how the major traditions differ. By the end of it, you will not yet be a master. But you will be ready for your first game — and your first game is when the real learning starts.
What You'll Need
A mahjong set. A flat surface roughly thirty inches square — a folding card table, a dining table, a low coffee table on the floor. Three other people willing to spend an evening together. That's the whole requirement.
A few things will make the night better:
- A mat or felt-topped surface to quiet the tiles and protect them from chipping. Mahjong tiles are designed to be played hard, and bare wood is both deafening and unkind to your set.
- Racks to hold your thirteen tiles upright in front of you. Common in American play, optional everywhere else.
- Dice — usually two or three — to decide who deals and where the wall breaks.
- Scorekeeping tools — paper, sticks, or chips, depending on tradition.
If you've never played, borrow a set from a friend or use a small starter set. If you've played for years, you already know that a well-made set is a thing you keep for life.
The Tiles in Your Hand
A standard set contains 144 tiles, divided into three families.
The 1 of Bamboo is traditionally drawn as a sparrow, in homage to the game's Chinese name máquè (麻雀), meaning 'sparrow.' Numbered 1 through 9, four copies each.
Each tile bears the character 萬 ('ten thousand') and a Chinese numeral above it. Numbered 1 through 9, four copies each.
Concentric circles representing strings of coins. Numbered 1 through 9, four copies each.
That's 108 tiles so far. Memorize the look of each suit before your first game — confusing a six-of-Circles for a six-of-Bams in the heat of a turn is the most common beginner stumble.
The Honor Tiles
Twenty-eight tiles, four copies of each.
The Four Winds: East (東), South (南), West (西), North (北). They also determine seating order and dealer rotation.
The Three Dragons: Red (中, "center"), Green (發, "prosperity"), White (白, often a blank tile or one framed in blue).
The Flowers and Seasons
Eight tiles, one copy of each.
Four Flowers: plum, orchid, chrysanthemum, bamboo — the Four Gentlemen of classical Chinese painting.
Four Seasons: spring, summer, autumn, winter.
In most traditions, flowers and seasons are bonus tiles — set aside when drawn and replaced from the wall, scored at the end. In Japanese Riichi, they are removed from the set entirely.
To hold a mahjong tile is to hold a small piece of Chinese cosmology — a counting system, a moral system, and a poetic system, all in your palm.
How to Win
Across nearly every tradition, a winning mahjong hand has the same shape:
Four sets + one pair = mahjong.
A set is one of two things:
- A triplet — three of the same tile (three Red Dragons, three 5-of-Bamboo).
- A sequence — three consecutive tiles in the same suit (4-5-6 of Circles).
A pair is two of the same tile.
That's it. Thirteen tiles in your hand, plus the one that completes you, equals fourteen. Four sets of three, plus a pair of two. Fourteen.
Taiwanese mahjong asks for five sets and a pair (seventeen tiles). American mahjong asks you to match a specific pattern printed on this year's National Mah Jongg League card. Japanese Riichi adds a requirement that your hand contain at least one named yaku — a scoring pattern such as "all sequences" or "all simples." But the bones are the same everywhere: sets and a pair.
Setting Up: Building the Wall
There is a ritual to the start of a hand, and it is part of the pleasure of the game.
Shuffle the tiles face-down on the table. Everyone shuffles. The sound is the first signature of the night.
Build the wall. Each player builds a row in front of them — seventeen or eighteen stacks of two tiles, depending on tradition. The four walls meet at the corners, forming a square. This is sometimes called building the Great Wall.
Determine the dealer. Players roll dice. The highest roll becomes East — the dealer, and the first player.
Break the wall. East rolls again. The dice tell East where to break the wall and begin distributing tiles.
Deal. Each player receives thirteen tiles (sixteen in Taiwanese). East receives one extra and plays first.
You are now staring at thirteen tiles. Most of them will be useless. Some of them will be promising. One or two might already form the beginnings of a set. You have one job: turn this hand into something that wins.
Your Turn
Play moves counterclockwise around the table — to the right.
On your turn:
- Draw one tile from the wall.
- Decide what to keep. You now have fourteen tiles. Thirteen of them will stay; one will go.
- Discard one tile face-up into the center of the table, calling out its name as you do.
That's the entire rhythm of a hand. Draw, decide, discard. Around and around the table, until someone wins.
But there's a twist that makes mahjong what it is.
Making the Calls
When a player discards a tile, the other three players have a brief window in which to call it — to claim that discarded tile for their own hand. There are three kinds of calls, and they follow a strict priority order.
To complete a sequence (three consecutive same-suit tiles). You may only call chow on the discard of the player immediately before you — to your left, in the counterclockwise rotation. If a player to your left discards the 5 of Bamboo and you hold the 4 and 6 of Bamboo, you may call 'Chow' and take it.
To complete a triplet (three identical tiles). You may call pung on any player's discard. Pung outranks chow — if two players claim the same tile, pung wins.
To complete a quad (four identical tiles). You may call kong on any discard if you already hold three matching tiles, or declare it on your own turn if you already have four. Kongs are powerful but rare, and they trigger drawing an extra tile to keep your hand at the right size.
When you call a tile, you must expose the completed set face-up in front of you, where everyone can see it. This costs you something — exposed hands generally score lower than concealed hands — but it gains you speed.
Call too often and your hand becomes predictable. Call too rarely and someone else will win first. The art of mahjong is the art of knowing when.
When Someone Wins
When a player completes their winning hand — either by drawing the final tile from the wall, or by claiming someone else's discard — they announce it:
- "Mah Jongg!" in American.
- "Hu!" (胡) in Cantonese and most Chinese variants.
- "Ron!" (won on someone's discard) or "Tsumo!" (won on your own draw) in Japanese.
The hand is then displayed face-up for everyone to verify, and scoring begins.
Scoring is where the traditions diverge most sharply, and where this page must leave you in the hands of your chosen tradition. But the broad picture is this:
In Chinese and Hong Kong play, you count faan — doubling points awarded for special features of your hand (all triplets, all one suit, dragon pungs, and so on).
In Japanese Riichi, you count han and fu, combined into a point total ranging from a few hundred points to the maximum yakuman (a perfect hand).
In American Mah Jongg, you score by the value printed next to your winning hand on this year's card, with bonuses for concealed play and jokerless wins.
A round of mahjong is sixteen hands — four hands each as East, South, West, and North. A full game is one round. An afternoon is many.
Which Mahjong Are You Playing?
Before your first game, ask the table one question: which tradition are we playing? The differences are real, and learning the wrong one will leave you lost at someone else's table.
The mahjong played across most of southern China, Hong Kong, Macau, and the worldwide Chinese diaspora. Standard 144-tile set including flowers. Faan-doubling scoring. Usually a 3-faan minimum to declare a win. The most common form globally.
The tournament-standard rules codified in 1998 by the Chinese government to make international play possible. Eighty-one named scoring patterns; minimum eight points to win. Played at the World Mahjong Championship. Strategic, precise, and demanding.
The form most played online today, thanks to Mahjong Soul and Tenhou. No flowers. Hands must contain at least one yaku. The riichi declaration — a bet that you'll win on your next chance — is the signature mechanic. Includes hidden bonus tiles called dora, and red-painted 'red fives' that double their value. Arguably the most strategically deep form ever devised.
The form played by hundreds of thousands of American players, codified by the National Mah Jongg League since 1937. Each spring, the League releases a new card listing the year's seventy-some legal winning hands — you must build your hand to match a printed pattern exactly. Uses 152 tiles including eight jokers (which can substitute for any tile in a set, but not in a pair). Opens with the Charleston — a ritualized exchange of tiles among players before the first turn. Different in feel from any Asian variant, and beloved by its community.
Played with seventeen tiles in the winning hand (five sets and a pair). Heavy emphasis on flower bonuses. Common in Taiwan and parts of Southeast Asia.
Your First Game
A few things to know before you sit down for the first time.
You will be confused, and that is correct. Mahjong has more moving parts than most card games, and the first hand or two will feel like watching a foreign film without subtitles. By the third hand, the rhythm will start to come.
Watch the discards. What other players throw away tells you what they are not collecting. By the middle of a hand, you should be able to make rough guesses about everyone's strategy.
Don't fall in love with a hand too early. The tiles you draw should shape your plan. The hand you imagined at the start is rarely the hand you finish with.
When you don't know, ask. Every mahjong table — Cantonese auntie, Riichi pro, NMJL grandmother — has a tradition of teaching newcomers. The game is older than any of us and will outlive all of us. Asking how it works is not a weakness. It is how the game is passed down.
Mahjong is older than any of us and will outlive all of us. Asking how it works is not a weakness. It is how the game is passed down.
Where to Go From Here
This page is a doorway, not a complete manual. Once you have played a few hands, deepen your craft:
- For American Mah Jongg: Order this year's card directly from the National Mah Jongg League. Most active players replace the card annually each spring.
- For Riichi: Start with Mahjong Soul (free, browser and mobile) or Riichi City. Both teach you the rules as you play.
- For Chinese and HKOS: Find a local club, a family table, or one of the new diaspora-led communities reviving the game.
- For all traditions: Mahjong: A Chinese Game and the Making of Modern American Culture by Annelise Heinz is the best single book on what the game has meant and continues to mean.
Visit our History and Resources & Glossary pages to deepen the world the tiles come from. And when you're ready, let us help you outfit your table.