Mahjong Tiles Explained

What’s in a set

Three suits, numbered 1 to 9: characters, dots and bamboo. Then the honour tiles, four winds and three dragons, which have no numbers. There are four of every one of these tiles, plus one each of eight flowers and seasons.

Many sets also come with spares: extra blank tiles, a second set of flowers, or jokers if the set was made for American Mahjong. Hong Kong Mahjong doesn’t use any of them.

The three suits

Characters 萬 (maahn)

A Chinese number on top, 萬 underneath: . 萬 means ten thousand, so the 3 reads “thirty thousand”. If you don’t read Chinese, these are the hard ones. The top character is always one of these nine:

Dots 筒 (tùhng)

Count the circles: . Most Cantonese players call this suit 餅 (béng), “cakes”, so the 2 of dots is 二餅.

Bamboo 索 (sok)

Count the sticks: . The exception is the 1 , which is drawn as a bird. It’s the tile beginners most often don’t recognise. Players call it 幺雞 (yīu gāi), “little chicken”.

Winds and dragons

The winds are East 東 , South 南 , West 西 and North 北 . Each player sits at a wind, and each round has one too.

• Red dragon 紅中 (hùhng jūng) : 中, “centre”, in red.
• Green dragon : 發, “prosper”, in green. Most players call it 發財 (faat chòih), “get rich”, or 青發 (chēng faat).
• White dragon 白板 (baahk báan) : a blank tile in some sets and a blue frame in others. If your set has both, the blank ones are spares.

Flowers and seasons

Plum, orchid, chrysanthemum and bamboo , then spring, summer, autumn and winter . They’re never part of a hand. When you draw one, you put it face up beside you and draw again.

Each is numbered 1 to 4 for a seat: 1 East, 2 South, 3 West, 4 North. At many home tables, a flower with your seat’s number is worth a faan; the faan table shows the other flower hands.

If your set looks different

Every maker draws the tiles their own way. The calligraphy changes, the dots come in different colours, the bamboo bird can be a peacock or a crane, and older flower tiles are often small paintings with no number. What’s written or counted on each tile stays the same.

Many newer sets print a small number or letter in the corner, like the tiles here. With those, you can play without reading any Chinese.

Every tile

Characters 萬

Dots 筒

Bamboo 索

Winds and dragons

Flowers and seasons

The Cantonese is written in Yale romanisation, where the accents mark the tones. Jyutping, the other common system, uses numbers instead.