How did mahjong originate and evolve?

Mahjong originated in China. It was originally a game played by royalty and nobility. Its history can be traced back to three or four thousand years ago. In the long process of historical evolution, mahjong gradually spread from the palace to the people, and basically took shape in the middle of Qing Dynasty.

Mahjong not only has unique game features, but also has rich connotations and a long history. It has intelligence, fun and game functions, charm and oriental cultural characteristics, so it has become an important part of China's traditional cultural treasure house.

Mahjong is very popular in the vast urban and rural areas of China, covering all social strata and fields. Entering thousands of households, it has become the most influential intellectual sports activity in China. The objective existence of mahjong is an unavoidable reality in China today.

Mahjong, as a traditional cultural phenomenon in China, has various forms of expression. Because of this, some people think that mahjong is an important part of China traditional culture, and its unique value can be called a national treasure; Some people hate it and think mahjong is the first gambling, and its evil degree is almost the same as drug abuse.

Mahjong is not necessarily related to gambling. After the founding of New China, gambling disappeared, but mahjong has existed healthily in people's amateur cultural life for many years. Today, some people use mahjong as a gambling tool. It's not mahjong that's to blame. Oranges were born in Huainan and planted in Zhunbei. Everything depends on people.

Mahjong, which is widely participated by the masses, can neither be simply affirmed nor accepted completely without screening and comparison; We can't take an absolutely negative attitude, ignore the reality and reject it without analysis. It is not a scientific attitude of dialectical materialism to throw away children with dirty water. Fully seeing the positive social significance of mahjong itself and its disadvantages, it is natural to adopt the method of sublation to actively guide and transform it, to eliminate evil and promote good, and to get rid of old cloth and new ones. This traditional intellectual movement is on the road of healthy and civilized development.

Throughout the history of human sports development, any kind of sports has to go through a development process from low level to high level, such as PLAY)-GAME)-sport, which is the only way for sports to go from disorder to order and from chaos to formality, and it is also a self-protection mechanism for sports development. Mahjong has developed to this day, and it has regularly reached the stage of qualitative change. It would be a real tragedy if we ignore this point, stand by and let it evolve at will, or even become a gambling tool and slide into the quagmire of sin.

In this sense, the objective reality of mahjong in China has indeed reached a state of positive guidance. Over the years, competitive mahjong competitions have been held all over the country, especially between the army and local veteran cadres. The active and beneficial exploration of healthy competitive mahjong undoubtedly reflects people's demands for the correct development direction of mahjong, and also shows us that developing healthy, active and standardized mahjong competitions is not only conducive to carrying forward traditional culture, promoting the construction of socialist spiritual civilization in China, but also conducive to meeting people's growing material and cultural needs.

It is for this purpose that the State Sports General Administration authorized the Social Sports Guidance Center to organize specialized personnel to conduct in-depth and detailed investigation and study on the present situation, history, cultural content and theoretical scope of mahjong for more than two years. In the meantime, he not only held many mahjong theory seminars attended by experts from sociology, physical education, sports management and other disciplines, but also tried out mahjong competitions of different scales. He also conducted a large number of sampling surveys of different social classes and explored a set of practical mahjong competition rules with both theoretical basis and practical experience. A large number of facts have proved that mahjong can exist and develop in the form of healthy and civilized sports competition.

Mahjong tiles (also known as sparrow tiles) evolved from the popular horse tiles and mahjong tiles in the late Ming Dynasty. And entertainment games such as horse cards and cards are inextricably linked with Bo Xi, the oldest entertainment game in China history. Even "blood" relationship. Nowadays, popular chess and other games are developed, derived and evolved on the basis of Bo Opera.

When did Bo Gu Opera begin? It is difficult to tell the exact time. According to the Records of Historical Records and other related documents, there were operas of Bohai State at least before Yin Dynasty.

The earliest Bo Opera in China is called "Liu Bo", which consists of six sticks, 12 pieces. The stick is a long bamboo product, which is equivalent to the dice used to play mahjong today.

According to Yan Family Training Miscellaneous Arts, Bo Opera can be divided into big Bo and small Bo. Dabo's method of playing chess is impossible. Xiao Bo's playing method is recorded in detail in Bo Gu Jing.

The method is: two people sit opposite each other, the chessboard is 12, and there is water at both ends. Put six black and white rectangular pieces on the chessboard. Put two more fish in the water Both sides of the game take turns to throw Joan (that is, dice), and according to the size of the throw, the number of steps forward of the chess pieces is determined. When the chess pieces reach the finish line, they stand up and become small chess (or small chess). If you become a chess player, you can "attract fish" into the water and get a raise. Get six chips and you win. Xiao's chess is called scattered chess. Xiaoqi can attack the opponent's pieces, or give up the chance to walk, but you can't break the chess.

The transformation of mahjong:

After the Han and Wei Dynasties, Bo Opera has undergone fundamental changes. The chess pieces in Bo Opera are separated from Qiong and play chess independently, developing in the direction of chess and becoming a kind of game. The Bohai Opera Joan has become five wooden dice, and it has also become a kind of Bohai Opera instrument independently, which is called Zhupu. Win or lose by losing points. According to legend, this dice made by Cao Zhi was made of jade at that time, and later it was made of bones. Change the wood into two dice, a cube, and its six faces are engraved with points from one to six. So it was also called "Double Six" at that time.

In the Tang Dynasty, dice became an independent tool. From two dice to six dice. According to "West Shu Ji", Tang and Yang Guifei enjoyed rolling dice, and Tang was in a very bad situation. Only when two of the six dice appear "four" at the same time can he turn defeat into victory. So Tang rolled the dice and shouted "Rush to death". The dice stopped and just weighed four times. Tang was very happy. He ordered Gao Lishi to paint the four points of the dice red, so until today, four sides of the dice are red and the other four sides are black.

Starting from the Tang Dynasty, six dice were used to synthesize various names to decide the outcome, which was then called the dice grid. On the basis of dice lattice, the most perfect entertainment equipment is dominoes produced in Xuanhe period of Song Huizong (also called Xuanhe brand, namely Pai Jiu, Niu Brand and Tianjiu Brand, which are still popular in some areas). Dominoes are made of ivory or elephant bones, the cube of dice is changed into a cuboid, and the six sides of dice are turned into one side. Domino has 2 1 colors. Each color consists of two dice, so the maximum number of dominoes is 12 and the minimum number is two. Each color has two or one, ***32.

In the middle Tang Dynasty, there was another game called "Ye Zi Xi" which appeared at the same time as the dice grid. There are different opinions about the origin of Yezi Opera. The biography of Princess with Hair in Tang Dynasty said: "Wei's numerous studies are better than Ye Xixi's." This is the earliest written record about Ye Xixi. In addition, there are several versions: it was put forward by Ye Ziqing; It is made of women's leaves; The Tang Dynasty secretariat of Hezhou and Ye Maolian, a geisha, were playing dice on the boat. These statements seem far-fetched. In fact, the so-called "Ye Zi Xi" at that time was not a formed game. It's just a piece of paper that records the winning or losing values when playing dice. This can be proved by back in the game of Ouyang Xiu:

Books collected in the Tang Dynasty are scrolls, followed by leaves. Now it is folded by hand, and the word checker writes with leaves. Dice lattice is used for inspection, so it is also written with leaves, because it is famous.

The leaves mentioned in this paper are pieces of paper, but this kind of paper is not a game, but a record of values, but we can regard it as the originator of mahjong tiles.

Mahjong and gambling:

After the Han and Wei Dynasties, gambling was often dominated by gold and silver, and most of the gold and silver used were ingots or pieces, which were cut sporadically and inconvenient, so horses (also known as girls) were made. Ma Zi is usually made of rhinoceros horn, ivory or bamboo pieces, which are in strips of different lengths. Draw color codes on both sides. Pay attention to the weight of gold and silver represented by this horse. During the competition, the winner will draw lots with a girl. After the competition, the girl will be converted into gold and silver. In the Tang Dynasty, people used pieces of paper instead of rhinoceros horn, ivory and bamboo chips. , and recorded the weight of gold and silver, each color from one to nine, similar to today's paper money and paper money. It has roughly the same function as the chips in the current mahjong tiles. In ancient times, chips were slightly different from horses: chips only indicated the number of winning or losing, not the size of winning or losing values; The horse calculates the value. Later generations, regardless of chips and horses, are collectively referred to as chips.

The emergence of the horse crane:

During the apocalypse of the Ming Dynasty, it was originally an accessory to games, and gradually evolved into a new entertainment tool, that is, horse cards.

Horse brand is a kind of paper card, with 40 full cards, which are divided into four colors: 100,000, 100,000, Suozi and Qian Wen. Among them, the colors of Wanguan and Suozi are one to nine; 100000 is from 200000 to 900000, or even one million, ten million and ten thousand; The amount of money ranges from one to nine, even half a penny (also called a flower) and no penny (also called empty soup). Hundreds and thousands of cards are painted with portraits of heroes of the Water Margin, which are naturally given to Song Jiang, meaning that you can't make a fortune unless you are a thief. Draw the images of Suozi and Qian Wen on the card.

The horse card is played by four people, each of whom takes eight cards first, and the remaining eight cards are placed in the middle of the table. Four people take turns to play cards, draw cards, and fight big and small. Playing horse cards can be divided into bookmakers and idle people. There is no host in the village, so you can take turns sitting. So the three loafers ganged up to attack the banker and told him to go down to the village.

The origin of Cheng Hangtag's name has always been different. However, according to the evolution of this card from a girl, the paintings on the card are all related to money: money is money, always a thousand pence, and the rope is the rope that wears money, that is, the money string; Moreover, in ancient times, 1000 pence was also called hanging money, from which it seems that we can see the shadow of "horse" and "hanging". If you know this, the meaning of the name Ma Pai is self-evident, which translates to "a card about money".

The formation of modern mahjong;

In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, while the horse brand prevailed, a kind of entertainment equipment called "playing cards" (also called Mohe brand) was derived from the horse brand. Cards are also played by four people. The card made of paper is two inches long and less than one inch wide. There are 60 cards at the beginning, which are divided into three colors: Qian Wen, Suozi and Wanguan. There are two cards in one to three colors and two cards in the first three colors (namely, Chinese, wool and white). When playing cards, four people each take ten cards first, and then take cards and play cards in turn. Three cards together are called a pair, and the person who has three pairs and one deck wins. The title of the medal is "He" (vulva). One family plays cards, and two or even three families say at the same time that the first one to get the card wins. These items and playing methods are very similar to today's mahjong tiles. This card game is always silent in the process of playing, so it is also called silent card.

Later, people felt that the number of cards was too small to play happily, so they put two decks together to form a deck of cards to play, and the number of cards became 120. In terms of gameplay, in addition to three cards connected together, three identical cards can also become a pair. In other words, you can touch the cards you have played while eating. At this time, the combinations of cards are "column" (connected with three numbers of the same door), "bump" (three are the same) and "open column" (four are the same). At this time, the cards are also called "touching cards".

In the forty-seventh chapter of A Dream of Red Mansions, "The foolish man was severely beaten for flirting, and the cold man ran away from home for fear of disaster", and Jia Mu, Aunt Xue, Wang Xifeng and others scrambled for cards. The book says:

Yuanyang saw that the old lady's card was 100%, and only waited for the second cake, so she gave the code to Feng. When dealing cards, Feng deliberately pondered for a long time and said with a smile, "My card is in Aunt Xue's hand. If I don't deal this card, I can't top it. " ……

The second cake is the second article, and the word gate has been painted in the shape of a round cake in Ma He (see Ye Pu by Mingzhi Pan Heng). Here is an example of issuing top cards.

At the same time, there is a kind of "collision and harmony" in the domino, and the brand color of 2 1 is matched with five Zhang Hecheng. And there are rules such as opening a bar, touching each other, playing with each other, and being punished for cheating. These styles and terms of dominoes are also accepted and inherited by cards.

Around the end of the Qing Dynasty, four kinds of wind cards (four in each color) were added to the cards. The most commonly used table at that time was the square table, also called the square table. The name of the square table comes from the fact that eight people can sit at dinner. Always face one side when playing cards, limiting two people to one side. Gradually formed the custom of four people playing cards, each sitting on one side. People are also inspired by four directions, adding east, south, west and north winds to the cards.

As for the increase of "three yuan" cards, it may be people's yearning for promotion and wealth. Success is winning the bid (winning the bid, winning the bid, winning the first prize, called winning the bid). If you win the bid, you will naturally get rich. Whiteboard may mean blank and innocent.

Later, people found that mahjong was often played and no one played, which was very disappointing. In order to make up for this shortcoming, listening comprehension has been increased. At first, I just added two pieces, and gradually developed into more pieces until it developed into a painted mahjong tile.

However, due to the large number of cards, it is very inconvenient to take, discard and combine cards. Inspired by dominoes, people gradually turned into bones and put cards on the table to facilitate playing cards. Authentic mahjong tiles from now on.

As for the origin of the name of mahjong tiles, there is no way to verify it now. It may come from incorrect pronunciation. Wu Renyin's "bird" is diào, and the horse card becomes the horse bird card, the horse bird card becomes the sparrow card, and then becomes the mahjong card.

After the mahjong tiles were formed, they were very popular from the imperial court to the common people. Ordinary people also get pleasure from playing mahjong. A lucky man wrote a poem:

I won the game today, so I arranged the alignment. Three yuan (white) and four joys (southeast and northwest), slam meets all. Flowers are spontaneous, and the moon catches fish from the sea. After the party, avoid it.

With such good luck, who can be unhappy?

From what has been said above, we can know the general track of mahjong tiles.

Chess → Chess (Current)

Bo Gu Opera House

Turn → Joan → Dice → Dice Grid

Domino (current)

(Ye Xixi)

Ma pai (playing cards) → Mohe pai → Mahjong pai (made of bones)

There are only more than 100 mahjong, but it is colorful to play, resourceful and brave. The elder once asked the players who participated in mahjong: "When you enter the game, you must refine your products first. You should be calm, not impetuous, not arrogant or impetuous, not stingy when you lose, not happy when you go along, invisible, motionless, generous, noble in character, gentle and elegant, and excellent in yourself." This reflects the will and spirit of mahjong entertainment itself.

It is precisely because mahjong tiles are interesting, entertaining and educational that they are very popular, popular and influential. In the early 1920s, mahjong tiles were popular not only in Asia, but also in Europe and America. Mahjong tiles exported at that time often had Arabic numerals and English letters on their faces. There are many books and magazines abroad that describe mahjong in detail. Some countries, such as Japan, also have groups specializing in mahjong tiles, and regularly hold national mahjong competitions. In Europe and America, mahjong is regarded as an antique that embodies oriental taste, and many people put it in elaborate boxes. With the development of modern science, the tentacles of electronic computers have extended to all fields of life. In recent years, someone has developed "Mahjong Software". People can sit in front of the computer, press the keyboard, and they can play a "sparrow war" with the computer, which is endless fun.

In our country, mahjong tiles have been put in the cold for some time. Now it has become an entertainment for many people. Retired veteran comrades, playing a few laps in their spare time, are full of energy. In the family, on holidays, family reunion and playing several rounds of mahjong are also filled with festive joy. Now, playing mahjong has become a popular and healthy entertainment.

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Mahjong overall strategy

The whole process of playing mahjong is a process of quarrelling, especially when the master or opponent is evenly matched, which is both wonderful and intense.

Don't underestimate the other three opponents sitting quietly next to you. In a sense, they are even equivalent to the enemies on the ancient battlefield. Playing cards is like fighting. Only by correctly distinguishing the stages of mahjong tactics can players have a comprehensive mind, rely on their keen intuition and use flexible strategies and tactics to fight this battle well.

Therefore, it is very important for players to understand several stages of mahjong tactics.

In ordinary entertainment, people generally use mahjong's 136 cards, but apart from Zhuang cards, only 68 cards can be touched. Each person can only touch 17 times on average. The selection process of this 17 tour can be divided into three stages: strategy, adjustment and arrangement.

Of course, this division is not so absolute, because poker is like a battlefield, which is changeable. Players must divide these three stages according to the specific situation. These three stages are roughly divided as follows:

The first stage: from the first card touch to the fourth card touch.

Mid-stage: from the fifth draw to the eleventh draw.

Final stage: the 12 draw with Huang Zhuang.

The first stage strategy

Because of the luck of the cards, the cards just played by each family are very different. Some people play cards in a mess, and there are many side cards. One, nine, and wind cards are temporarily considered useless. Some people get into the stage of listening to one or two cards after a little tidying up.

The quality of playing cards directly affects the speed of playing cards, but the cards played are related to card transport and have nothing to do with skill. Therefore, once the cards are finished, don't pay attention to luck, but concentrate on playing cards.

In fact, whether a deck of cards can be combined successfully depends in part on the choice after playing, and whether the card selection is appropriate depends on the skill of the card. Even if the cards you play are already quite unfavorable, you should pay attention to the challenge calmly, not lose heart. If you pull yourself together and use superb strategies and tactics, it is still possible to defeat the enemy.

If your cards are really unsatisfactory and there is basically no hope of a draw, you should at least avoid making moves, especially when one of them is making a big card, try to give the little black family a card and make it a card as soon as possible.

It is best not to eat the first card played by the dealer, so as to see whether the first card you touch is good or bad.

There's a saying in mahjong: It's better to bid in person than to touch the cards, which means you can eat your family's cards at will, but it's your turn to touch the cards. At this time, the best thing is not to eat the cards of your family, but to touch a card yourself.

Generally speaking, the day before the start of the game, we should eat less and touch less, mainly by touching cards.

This is because, first of all, if you eat it from the beginning, it will be easy to reveal the operational secrets, make it easier for your opponent to guess the cards in your hand, and also narrow your own operational base, so that the planning circle will fall into a too small range, which will be unfavorable to future operations.

Secondly, in the first stage of mahjong, the demand for cards is relatively wide. If you touch the cards directly, it is easy to find the cards you need. Generally speaking, you can at least make up a face card.

Of course, the specific situation should also be treated differently. If you have 890 thousand in your hand, you just hit 70 thousand last time. Of course, because only 70,000 cards are waiting for 89,000. It's a pity to give up the chance to take it. If you have 70,000 to 80,000 in your hand and 60,000 in your hand, it is better to touch cards on the card wall at this time, because there are 90,000 cards waiting for 70,000 to 80,000. The chance of forming a straight is far more than 88000.

For another example, you should also take the opportunity to eat cards, which can reverse the unfavorable aspects of the hand. If the cards you play are good, for example, you will enter the state of listening as soon as you eat and touch them, then you should eat, touch and listen as soon as possible.

After playing cards, although the cards in hand are sorted out, the cards are not ideal and the cards are not concentrated. Try to touch the cards as much as possible, which is conducive to the adjustment of the cards in your hand and makes the cards wider. When the cards in hand are neat, concentrated and wide, it is mainly to eat cards and touch cards. This is the basic tactic in the first stage.

Under normal circumstances, such tactics should maintain the basic end of the first stage.

Second, the strategy of the intermediate stage.

After the first game, we will enter the mid-term immediately. It can be said that the middle game is the most critical in the whole mahjong game. Generally speaking, the middle game decides the overall outcome.

Because the middle stage of mahjong is a very important stage, we should pay special attention to the application of mahjong tactics at this stage.

If the first stage is not very beneficial to you, then pay attention to the adjustment in the middle stage. If the first stage of card touching is not smooth, you can change the order of card touching by eating cards in the middle stage.

Sometimes, by changing the order of drawing cards, unexpected results are often achieved and unexpected gains are obtained.

When touching cards smoothly, that is to say, touch whatever you need, and try not to eat or touch cards, because once you eat cards, the order of the card wall and the order of playing cards will change, and sometimes you can't touch the cards you want, that is, you can't get on the cards, and the situation will be even worse. If other families have eaten, touched and touched the cards, they can consider eating and touching them.

The intermediate stage is the key to the game. Every family should think carefully in their hearts, not neglect the big chapter, and not take it lightly.

If you blindly bury yourself in your own hands and wait for the cards you desire to appear, regardless of what kind of cards others have and what kind of cards others eat, such people can say that they have never entered the mahjong door.

People often say that knowing ourselves and knowing ourselves is invincible, which means observing this principle in specific battles, in fact, in mahjong actual combat. You know, between a house and a meal, the game is forward, and the eighth to tenth draw is generally the most tense and important stage. Any family's eating and touching is like a blockbuster, which is a great threat to itself.

Masters in the field of mahjong often eat only when they listen. Experienced players generally don't easily reveal their fighting intentions. They give their opponents the impression that sometimes they are like big cards and sometimes they are like small pens, which makes people unpredictable and unpredictable.

In this case, players are required to keep a clear head at the table, look around and listen to all directions, and judge their opponents' cards with their own experience and intelligence. Of course, if it is really impossible to judge, they can also expose their true intentions by probing.

Here, a concrete example is used to illustrate the importance of sizing up the situation in mahjong tactics.

For example, in the middle stage of mahjong, it is found that a family secretly left a card, such as stripes, which may be unified or mixed, but at the same time it also has its own stripes, which may form a confrontation with it.

Once this situation is discovered, we should immediately adopt a high-speed strategy. If the other party is our own family, we will not be very passive. At this time, it is necessary to make a decisive decision, abandon the note and replace it with a million dollars or a pack, so as to get the cards of others and curb the note, which is far behind.

At this time, if your striped surface has basically formed, it is difficult to change the card shape, that is, to keep the pair as the main, supplemented by the partner, and try to use the card-touching method to cause jumping and disrupt the deployment of the last card. This is good for the family, and it is difficult to get along with the family. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the situation of mahjong entertainment.