Mah-Jong, the Game of a Hundred Intelligences: Pung Chow, Also Known as Mah-Diao, Mah-Cheuk, Mah-Juck and Pe-Ling E-Book

Lew Lysle Harr

• Herausgeber: Lew Lysle Harr
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

Mah-Jong, the Game of a Hundred Intelligences: Pung Chow, Also Known as Mah-Diao, Mah-Cheuk, Mah-Juck and Pe-Ling by Lew Lysle Harr, published in 1922. Lew Lysle Harr (1882-1931) author of numerous books in Pung-Chow (Mahjong).The origin of this game is lost in the mist of centuries past. There is, though, an oral tradition to the effect that it was originated in the Court of the King of Wu, now known as Ning-Po, during the year of 472 B.C. to entertain his consort and her court ladies and to help them while away the time which lay heavily on their hands.This was about the time of Confucius. It is known to have been the Royal game, restricted to the use of Emperors and their friends of the Mandarin class for two thousand years. Mahjong is a game commonly played by four players (with some three-player variations found in Korea and Japan).Similar to the Western card game rummy, mahjong is a game of skill, strategy and calculation and involves a certain degree of chance.

Leseprobe

Mah-Jong, the Game of a Hundred Intelligences

Pung Chow, Also Known as Mah-Diao, Mah-Cheuk, Mah-Juck and Pe-Ling

by Lew Lysle Harr

MAH-JONG,

THE GAME OF A HUNDRED

INTELLIGENCES

Also known as

MAH-DIAO

MAH-JONG

MAH-CHEUK

MAH-JUCK

and

PE-LING

By L. L. HARR

HARPER & BROTHERS, Publishers

New York and London

First published in 1922

By L. L. HARR

NOTE

Mr. L. L. Harr's skill in the game of Pung Chow has been acquired through more than twenty years of intimate contact with the business and official circles of cultured Chinese in Canton, Shanghai, Tientsin, Pekin and other centers of China. Mr. Harr has enjoyed more opportunity to mingle in polite Chinese society than any other European or American resident I knew in China.

Mr. Harr, in consequence, was perhaps one of the first foreigners who learned the game from the best players in China. What is more, Mr. Harr's unusually keen appreciation and enthusiasm were largely instrumental in arousing the popularity of this extraordinarily fascinating Chinese game in the Western Hemisphere. To use a familiar American phrase, Mr. Harr was unquestionably one of the pioneers who put "PUNG CHOW" on the map west of Suez.

Mr. Harr has not only brought the game to America, but has written the first authoritative book on "Pung Chow," based on the best modern methods of Chinese play.

J. D. BUSH,

Professor of English Literature,

PekinNationalUniversity,

Pekin, China.

January, 1923.

Score Card

For Hands Played Without a Limit

Winning Hand Bonus Scores

For Mah-Jong20 points

For no sequences in hand or on table210 points

For no other score than Mah-Jong in hand or on table10 points

For winning on a draw from the loose tiles10 points

For drawing the winning piece2 points

For filling in the only place to win2 points

Combination Scores

On Table

(Exposed)In Hand

(Concealed)

For 3 of a kind of twos, threes, fours, fives, sixes, sevens or eights2 points4 points

For 3 of a kind of ones, nines, winds or dragons4 points8 points

For 4 of a kind of twos, threes, fours, fives, sixes, sevens or eights8 points16 points

For 4 of a kind of ones, nines, winds or dragons16 points32 points

For a pair of any dragon or the player's own wind2 points

Doubling Honors

For three (or four) green dragons,double total score once.

For three (or four) red dragons,double total score once.

For three (or four) white dragons,double total score once.

For three (or four) of own wind,double total score once.

For having all one suit except honor pieces,double total score once.

For all one suit,double total score 3 times.

For all honor pieces,double total score 3 times.

For winning on original hand as drawn from the wall,double total score 3 times.

See SCORING VALUES for scoring values when hands are played with a limit.

INTRODUCTION

Out of China has come this stately game with the lure of Oriental mysticism to whet jaded appetites and with possibilities for study that challenge the keenest intelligence.

There is a mysticism about the Oriental and his mode of life that challenges the imagination and induces a curiosity hard to decipher. The dress of the Chinese, their strange customs, their difficult language, and their apparently impenetrable mask-like faces appeal to the fancy and throw a veil of mystery around even the commonplace.

The origin of this game is lost in the mist of centuries past. There is, though, an oral tradition to the effect that it was originated in the Court of the King of Wu, now known as Ning-Po, during the year of 472 B.C. to entertain his consort and her court ladies and to help them while away the time which lay heavily on their hands. This was about the time of Confucius. It is, however, known to have been the Royal game, restricted to the use of Emperors and their friends of the Mandarin class for two thousand years. To them it was known as Pe-Ling (pronounced Bah-Ling) taking its name from the "bird of a hundred intelligences," the lark-like creature sacred in the Chinese faith which now may be seen reproduced on most Chinese tapestries and embroideries. The penalty paid by one of any other class for playing Pe-Ling at that time, was the loss of his head. Later—no one knows just when—the privilege of playing this wonder game was extended to the merchant or middle classes—and when, some 70 years ago—a social uprising threatened, one of the concessions granted to calm the unrest was the universal privilege of playing this game. In this way was caused the confusion of names for the game which exists even to-day in China; for, with the abolishing of Pe-Ling, each province applied their own name and pronunciation to the game, with the result that now we have from twelve to eighteen different names, by which the game is known. A few of these are Ma-Cheuk, Mah-Jong, Mah-Juck, Mah-Diao and Mah-Jongg.

Pung Chow is made to withstand the climatic conditions which soon destroy the article imported under the name of Mah-Jongg and the other corruptions of Mah-Diao, and it is the true and original Chinese game translated by the addition of numerals just enough to be readily understood and not enough to spoil the artistry of the tiles. The addition of numerals has been overdone in the marking of many of the cheaper imported sets, and give the appearance of having had numerals sprinkled on them regardless of where they may land and permitted to stay.

The fundamentals of this game are simple and require only practice to master. The science of Pung Chow must in the greater part be studied out by the individual player and one may spend the rest of his life in attaining to past mastery in its thousand-fold intricacies.

SUMMARY OF THE GAME

Before going thoroughly into the details of the playing of the game, it is better to give a general view of the play and its object.

Pung Chow is played by thoroughly shuffling all of the tiles face down in the middle of the table, and forming them in a double-tiered, hollow square, called the wall. This wall is then broken at some point determined by the dice and each player draws an original hand of 13 tiles. This leaves about two-thirds of the wall intact, and the rest of the play is devoted to drawing and discarding from this remainder of the wall; each player improving and matching his own individual hand until having arranged it into four sets and a pair, some player wins. A set is three of a kind, four of a kind or three in a sequence. Every set has a scoring value, and the players add their scores and settle after every hand. A player may win with a score as low as 22 points or scores may run to 380,928 points. These possibilities will unfold as the following pages on the details of the play are read.