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A short history of mah-jong

Candystand Play free Mah Jongg online at Candystand.com. This ancient Chinese puzzle game never gets old. In this Mah Jongg game you can choose your own Tiles, Board Layout and Theme
Free games Mah-jong Mah-jong is a free solitaire game where the player is challenged to eliminate all pieces from the board. Find matching pairs of images from the end lines of the game pyramid of pieces
Free online Mah-jong Play the best free online Mah-jongg game Classic mah-jong and 12 new style mah-jong games
Mah-jong Solitaire Mah-jong is a free solitaire game where the player is challenged to eliminate all pieces from the board. Find matching pairs of images from the end lines of the game pyramid of pieces
Mah-jong Play Mahjong against other players and free Mahjong Solitaire games online.

History of Mah-jong The history of and useful information about mah-jong.
Mah-jong FAQ's Sloperama.com offers answers to Frequently Asked Questions about the game of mah-jongg (mah jongg, mahjong, mahjongg, mah-jong, mah jong, majan, majiang, majong)
Mah-jong Museum a.k.a. Ma Jong, Mah Jongg, Man Chu, Mah Diao, Ma Chong, Mah Chong, Pung Chow, Ching Chong, Kong Chow, Mah Deuck, Mah Cheuk, Ma Chiang, Pe Ling, Lung Chan, Mah Lowe, Baak Ling, Chinese Game of Four WInds, The Ancient Game of the Mandarins, The Ancient Game of China, Ma Jiang
Mah-jong news  The Independent Internet Mahjong Newspaper
Mah-jong Webring
What is Mah-jong? introduction to mah jong, mah jong for dummies
Wikipedia (explanation of Mah-jong)

 

The game of mah-jong originates from China, but the details are shrouded in myths and it is not clear how far back the origins of the game can be traced. In its modern form the game emerged around the middle of the 19th century, but simpler versions have certainly existed long before that.

In the early 20th century a few games were brought to the west and was played in private circles. While living in China Joseph Park Babcock in 1920 wrote the booklet Rules for Mah-Jongg based on classical Chinese rules, and he included it in mah-jong games which he started to export to the USA. He had arabic numerals engraved on the tiles so they were easier for westerners to play with.

Numerous rules for the game of mah-jong exist: classical Chinese, official international rules (the Chinese competition rules from 1998), classical Japanese, modern Japanese, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Taiwanese, Vietnamese, American, Wright-Patterson, Western Vanilla and surely many more. The rules vary in complexity and the degree to which they favour skill and luck