Chinese pre-classical

Assessment

Confidence

documented a published ruleset or rule description exists and is cited

Evidence

corroborated two or more independent sources agree on the facts that define this variant

Cross-comparison

What each source was read to say, set side by side. The numbers are the sources above.

• [1] listed as 'Chinese Pre-Classical (pre-WWI, source: Mauger 1915)', matching the chart
• [2] the 1915 (Mauger) column differs from 1903 (Li) on two hallmarks: East pays and gets double is NO, and settlement between non-winners is YES. Similarity 6 to Li, 6 to Chinese Classical, 2 to HKOS
• [3] PRIMARY, the set (p. 272): 'ma-tchio-p'ai' has 136 pieces, bone faces dovetailed onto bamboo backs. There are three suits of one to nine, four of each: Tungtze or pingtze 'cakes', Tchantze or saultze 'cords', and Wanza 'myriads'. The aces are special: a decorative circle, a bird for the cords, and the character for myriads. Next come four 'primes spéciales', four of each, shown 'sometimes' as the four directions and 'other times' by the titles duke, marquis, general (or intendant) and minister. Then three 'primes générales', four of each: tsung 'centre' or long 'dragon', fa 'prosperity' or fong 'phoenix', and pae 'white'. Extra blanks are only spares for lost pieces, engraved to match
• [3] PRIMARY, play (p. 273): four players sit in pairs facing, 'as for whist'. A die decides who begins, and that player is East. The pieces are stacked two high in four lines round an empty square. East takes seven doubles (14 pieces), the others 13. East discards at once. Each player in turn draws from the wall or takes the last discard, and discards face down into the square. The game ends when a player completes his hand
• [3] PRIMARY, the hand (p. 274): 'Chaque joueur a treize pièces dans la main ; cela fait quatre séries de trois plus un'. A fourteenth piece matches the odd one or completes a set, and 'complète la « base »'. Sets are sequences of three or three of a kind in one suit. Sequences 'ne donnent cependant en elles-mêmes aucun point'
• [3] PRIMARY, the points table (pp. 272-274). Special primes count only for the player whose seat they belong to: a pair 2; three dealt 8; three drawn 4; four dealt 32; three dealt plus a fourth drawn 16. Three or four of East's own also double his winnings. General primes count for anyone, on the same scale, 'et en plus ils doublent tous les autres points'. Aces and nines count the same, without doubling. Other triplets count 4 if dealt. The base is 10. The 'reste', a single-tile wait, is 2. A one-suit hand is doubled three times. The theoretical maximum is 68 doubled four times = 1,088. Tables usually cap a hand at 300 or 400
• [3] PRIMARY, the worked hands (pp. 275-276). (1) Three sequences, three aces of myriads and a pair of generals completed by a draw: 8 + 2 + base 10 = 20. (2) Pungs of 5 cakes and 3 cords with a two-sided wait: 4 + 4 + 10 = 18, the wait scoring nothing because it 'pouvait être un de deux'. (3) East with three aces, three East specials and a pung: 8 + 8 + 4 + 10 + 2 = 32, doubled for the East special to 64. (4) Three whites dealt, three prosperity drawn: 8 + 4 + 10 + 2 = 24, doubled for each to 96. (5) A thirteen-tile hand in one suit: 20 × 2 × 2 × 2 = 160
• [3] PRIMARY, payment (pp. 276-277): 'Celui des quatre joueurs qui sort le premier est le gagnant ; et les trois autres joueurs doivent lui payer les points gagnés sans aucune déduction.' If the others also scored points, 'ils se paient entre eux les différences'. In Mauger's example, the players on 40, 30 and 20 settle 10, 20 and 10 points among themselves. East is not paid or charged double; only his own special primes double his winnings
• [3] PRIMARY, where it was played (p. 272): the game derives from the 'chung fa p'ai' in the British Museum and at Pennsylvania, and is 'joué partout à Pékin, Shanghai, Suchong, Hankow, en Amérique et en Europe par toutes les classes chinoises instruites'. Mauger had it explained by a friend, and uses 'la terminologie employée dans la province natale de l'ami'
• [4] the published record: Persée gives the article as Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société d'Anthropologie de Paris, VIe série, tome 6, 1915, pp. 238-281. The Depaulis-Tsui chart cites it as pp. 228-81, with the rules on pp. 271-7
• [5] context for the source: Mauger (born Jersey 1867, died 1918) gave the talk to the Société on 18 November 1915, printed in 1917. Depaulis infers from the spellings that the informant spoke Hankou-style Mandarin, 'But the sets described may not necessarily be from there'. The one-of-strings is a darting sparrow, and the 6 of myriads in his figure uses 品 'rank' in place of 万
• [5] the tile pattern and its spread: the court titles for the directions, 龍 and 鳳 for the dragons and the 品 suit are shared with the Sheng Xuanhuai set of c. 1884-92 and with Xu Ke's 1917 account. The Central China sets of 1872-89 have none of them. Stanwick hypothesises a diffusion 'from North to Central China, possibly around the beginning of the 20th century'
• [6] page 10, the matching object: the Noguchi 'court' set in the Chiba Mahjong Museum (1880s by size and shape) has 公 侯 相 將 for the winds, 龍 and 鳳 for 中 and 發, and a 品 suit. Ebashi reads it as a North China, Beijing pattern, not a court set in the literal sense. He argues the 龍鳳 pattern must post-date the 1870s Ningbo 中發白 triad, because 龍鳳白 only makes sense as a three-dragon group once that triad exists
• [7] the Depaulis-Tsui chart scores Mauger 1915 against the Late Qing reference game: same on points first then doubling, a bonus for the win, concealed sets rewarded, self-draw poorly rewarded, no discarder-pays-all, few special hands and no flowers. OPPOSITE on payoffs set before the game, on settlement between non-winners (Mauger has it), and on the dealer paying and receiving double (Mauger has not). Region of origin: 'Hankou?'

Reading it

This node now rests on its primary source. Mauger's 1915 article, read here in the Chine ancienne text edition with Persée's page numbers, gives the whole game. It has a 136-tile set, a wall of four lines, 13 held and 14 to go out, and draw-and-discard with the last discard claimable. There is a points table, five worked hands and a payment example. It is recognisably the Late Qing game: 10 for going out, three of a kind scored, sequences worth nothing, doublings for honour sets and for one suit, all three losers paying the winner.

Three things set it apart, and they are what the node stands for. First, a triplet's value turns on whether it was dealt or drawn (8 against 4 for honours and terminals), not on whether it was exposed. Second, the wind tiles count only for the player whose seat they name, and East's own winds double his winnings, but East is not otherwise paid or charged double. Third, losers settle their differences among themselves after paying the winner, which the Late Qing novels do not show. Sloper's 1915 column and the Depaulis-Tsui chart both record the last two differences, and the text bears them out.

The tile set is its own thread. Mauger's winds may be court titles (duke, marquis, general, minister), his dragons may be 龍 and 鳳, and his figure shows 品 for the myriads suit. That northern pattern is attested earlier in the Sheng Xuanhuai set (c. 1884-92) and in the Noguchi set in Chiba. Stanwick and Ebashi both read it as a North China form that spread south. Where Mauger's game itself was played is less clear: he names Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou and Hankou, and his informant's Mandarin points to Hankou. One small conflict is recorded: the article runs pp. 238-281 in Persée, not the 228-81 the Depaulis-Tsui chart gives.