Why is there 108 mahjong? What is the truth?

Mahjong is a great invention in ancient China, which is said to have evolved from the "Ye Pai" in the Tang Dynasty. Leaf card, a kind of long card, is named because the card surface is only the size of leaves. Ye Pai has four colors: Qian Wen, Bai Zi, Wan Guan and Bai Wan Guan. It was called "Ma Pai" in Ming and Qing Dynasties, and gradually evolved into three colors: tube, rope (strip) and Wan Guan. "Guan" is a round copper coin with a square hole. String hundreds of copper coins together with a rope, which is called "rope" (also called "strip"); One hundred thousand is ten thousand, and the number of cards has also increased from more than 40 to more than 100.

Mahjong was changed from the horse card, and later added the general card, so it was called General Ma (Mahjong), also known as the sparrow card. Because cards are inconvenient to hold in your hand and difficult to straighten out, they are gradually replaced by hard materials. During the reign of Xianfeng and Tongzhi in Qing Dynasty, mahjong was made of bamboo chips and aggregates, and detailed rules were formulated. Mahjong tiles include barrel, rope (strip), ten thousand, southeast, northwest and middle white, with *** 136 pieces, making them the closest to modern specifications. During Guangxu and Xuantong years, mahjong spread from coastal areas to inland areas and began to spread nationwide.

Second, the rise of Chengdu Mahjong

Although Chengdu people are famous for playing mahjong, Chengdu is not the birthplace of mahjong. According to historical records, mahjong was first introduced into Chengdu, which was brought in by businessmen from Jiangnan and coastal areas in the late Qing Dynasty. Later, it was gradually familiar and accepted by Chengdu people, forming the custom of playing mahjong. During the Republic of China, Chengdu Mahjong entered the development stage. Not only government officials, military officers, ladies and wives are keen on it, but also ordinary gentleman families and other social classes generally accept this form of entertainment. Subsequently, mahjong entered various casinos opened by warlords, bureaucrats and gang leaders, and gambling prevailed.

The rapid popularization of mahjong in Chengdu is related to the unique living atmosphere. According to historical records, Chengdu has formed a leisurely social atmosphere during the Republic of China. Chengdu citizens give people the impression that they are lazy, content with the status quo, don't ask about state affairs, and even crave pleasure when the country is in danger. It is against the background of national unrest that mahjong spread rapidly in the bottom society, and citizens, teachers, vendors, soldiers and other people began to play mahjong, forming a social activity in the folk sense.

Mahjong in this period was dominated by bamboo dominoes, and the workshops for making mahjong were concentrated in Dyeing Room Street. According to the memories of old craftsmen, the process of making mahjong is very complicated. First, cut the bamboo chips and beef bones into mahjong size, then make a wooden wedge on the bamboo chips and bone chips to make the bone chips convex and the bamboo chips concave, so that they are closely embedded, and then bond them with adhesive. Next, after polishing, carving, coloring and other steps, a mahjong is completed.

At that time, the style of play was basically the same as all over the country, and it was called "Laokan Mahjong" or "Old Mahjong" by Chengdu people. * * There are 144 cards, including 36 stripes, 36 swastikas, 36 bobbins, three arrows (white in the middle) * * 12 cards. The playing rules of Fengpai (southeast and northwest) * are touchable, edible, and bar-usable, and the card counting types are Duanyao, Jupai, Uniform and Mixed Color.

Third, the evolution of rules in recent 40 years.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, mahjong basically disappeared in China, and it only "revived" after the Cultural Revolution. In the early days of reform and opening up, mahjong participants were mainly middle-aged and elderly people who could play mahjong before the Cultural Revolution, and the rules of playing cards continued the traditional "Laokan Mahjong" style. According to some old-timers, playing mahjong at that time, like singing and dancing, was still a "gray" field and could only exist in a hidden state. No one plays mahjong in broad daylight, only secretly in the house at night, with the windows closed tightly, trying not to make a sound, so as not to be "reported" by neighbors.

Although living under the high pressure of politics, mahjong has gradually become popular, showing tenacious vitality. The brand has gradually changed from bamboo-bone mahjong to plastic mahjong. The "National Flower Mahjong" made of FRP (also called Taiwan Province Mahjong) is an economical and practical melamine mahjong. By the end of 1990s, "Machine Mahjong" was introduced into Chengdu and gradually became popular, that is, the now popular automatic mahjong machine, commonly known as "Machine Mahjong". The size of mahjong is getting bigger and bigger. From the bamboo dominoes with the size of knuckles to the mainstream mahjong with 52 mm, the Revolutionary Mahjong Hall took the lead in launching the super mahjong with 54mm, which is popular in Ma You and leads the fashion trend.

At present, the popular drama "A bloody battle to the end" in Chengdu has a gradual formation process. At the beginning, the design and color of mahjong tiles were simplified, and the wind tiles and cards were discarded, leaving only ten thousand tubes and white tiles, *** 120. The rule of counting times has also changed. Someone summed up a formula: "There will be no words in Pingli." "Will" is the 258th will; "Flat" means completely straight, and there can be no bumps or bars; "No word" means no white; "Double breaking" is also called breaking, that is, there is no Yao and Jiu; "Missing" means that one door is missing out of 3,000 doorplates. This is the basic rule of counting times. Every time you encounter an item, you add one. All add up to six times. Add four times and you can cheat. It should be noted that there was an unreasonable regulation at that time: one fired and the other two paid. This punishment of "sitting together" is somewhat unfair to Ma You today. This creates conditions for cheating-the two companies can jointly fire at each other and let the other two lose. This defect makes unfamiliar people afraid to play mahjong together. So in the early 1980s, the rules of mahjong gradually changed into: the bare gun was given in duplicate, and the other two were given in single copy, which was somewhat similar to the current "heavy rain".

In the mid-1990s, Chengdu Mahjong Rules began the second wave of reform. First, mahjong was further "slimmed down", with white hair removed, leaving only 10,000 barrels, *** 108. Second, the so-called "contract system" is changed from "one person fires the gun and three companies pay" to "whoever fires the gun pays, which has nothing to do with the other two companies". The third is not to eat cards. The counting rules are called "flat, broken, short, general and card heart five", where "flat" means that Hu didn't touch the peace bar, "broken" means "broken", Hu didn't 1 and 9, "short" means that one door is missing, "general" means that 258 is a general, and "card heart five" means Hu card five. One of the five conditions is met once, and the maximum is five times. As a typical mahjong style in Chengdu, this rule has been popular for quite some time.

At the end of 1990s, the mahjong rules were further revised, stipulating that you must be "short of doors" to play cards, otherwise it would be regarded as "flower pig" (at that time, the game was called "indefinite cards", and it was not necessary to determine which door was missing during playing cards, as long as you were short of doors when playing cards, which was different from the current "fixed gap" game). The abolition of "258" can only be regarded as a general's rule, which reduces the difficulty of Hu's cards and increases the entertainment; Add "Yao" and so on. At this point, the basic gameplay of Chengdu Mahjong has been formed, with distinctive regional characteristics.

2 1 century, Chengdu mahjong rules were further improved, the most important of which was the invention of "bloody battle to the end". One drawback of the traditional "shirking responsibility" is that when you are a big name, if you have a gun, the game will be over, and the results of your painstaking efforts will be in vain, which will inevitably make you feel sorry. The appearance of "A bloody battle to the end" perfectly solved this problem. One family finished playing cards, and the other three continued to play. In this way, the first player is often not the biggest winner, and the shooter still has a chance to turn over. This highly creative rule fully taps the charm of mahjong and makes people fully experience the fun of "making cards" and "counting cards". The second change is from "indefinite cards" to "fixed cards", which is also called "fixed space". At the beginning of the game, you must determine which door is missing. If you touch this number, you must play, even if you know how to play the key gun. Some people vividly call it "Forever Forward". The birth of this rule has greatly weakened the technicality of mahjong, strengthened its entertainment and met the needs of the general public. "Seven points of luck and three points of skill" is a summary of Chengdu mahjong experience. The third is to increase the "windy and rainy" algorithm and gradually popularize it, that is, "one person orders, three companies give money", and those who order give double copies and the other two give single copies. The fan counting rules have also changed accordingly. As long as you lack a door, you can Hu, and the threshold for Hu cards is greatly reduced. "bloody battle to the end" and "fixed vacancy" are two distinctive features of Chengdu Mahjong, which enjoy a high reputation at home and abroad. I believe that Chengdu people's enthusiasm for mahjong will continue.

International comparison of China's traditional material and cultural heritage.