Modern inventions › Mhing
Mhing
card version
Sources
The documents this entry rests on, as published. Each can be opened and checked; nothing in this part is anybody’s reading of them.
Steve-p.org. "Cards - Mhing (Spear's Games)." cross-check checked 2026-09-18
https://steve-p.org/cards/Mhin.html
AI summary A card collector's description of the Spear's Games 1984 UK edition: a deck based on Chinese money-suited cards, with wild cards, scoring cards and hand-reference tables. Records the original 1982 Suntex International release in Pennsylvania and names Robert Sun as the company's founder.
Only cited here · bibliography #68
Sloper, Tom. "FAQ 2b: Identifying a Mah-Jongg Variant." Sloperama. canonical checked 2026-09-18
https://www.sloperama.com/mjfaq/mjfaq02b.html
chart’s note Tile counts, hand sizes, flower handling and scoring for roughly 50 named variants. Primary source for most leaf nodes in this chart.
Also cited on: Chinese archaic, Late Qing style, Chinese pre-classical, Chinese classical, Shanghai / Hong Kong new style, Hong Kong old style and 44 more · bibliography #1
Wikipedia. "Mhing." cross-check checked 2026-09-18
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mhing
AI summary Dates the card game to a 1982 Suntex publication. The article is an orphan and carries a single-source reliability warning.
Only cited here · bibliography #67
Owl Works, LLC. "The Classic Games of Mhing and Mah Jongg." cross-check checked 2026-09-25
https://owlworksllc.com/game-memories/the-classic-games-of-mhing-and-mah-jongg/
AI summary A player's account of Mhing's rules: a 150-card deck, 13 dealt, draw from the 'well', claim discards for chow or pung, and four sets and a pair to go out. It names Robert Sun as designer.
Only cited here · bibliography #121
Sloper, Tom. "Mah-Jongg Cards." Sloperama. cross-check checked 2026-09-25
https://www.sloperama.com/mjfaq/cards.html
AI summary Describes how the annual American card works as an artefact and how the NMJL and AMJA cards differ in form. Used here only for structure, never for hand content.
Also cited on: AMJA card · bibliography #52
Analysis
Written by an AI model from the sources above. It is a reading of them, not a source in its own right: every figure in it points back to a numbered source, and where the two disagree, the source is right.
Assessment
- Confidence
- catalogued listed in a variant catalogue with tile counts and hand sizes, but no rules text verified
- 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.
| Source | Tiles | Hand | Flowers | Scoring | Payout |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [1] | the Spear's Games 1984 UK edition comprises 158 cards plus a rule leaflet, a scoring pad and six hand-reference tables, with six wild Mhing cards, six double-sided scoring cards and two blanks | — | — | — | — |
- [2] listed as 'Mhing (Suntex)', cross-referenced to Sloperama's Cards/Kards FAQ; added to the variant list on 17 November 2001. Attributing it to the publisher Suntex is more specific than the chart's bare 'card version'
- [3] dates the game to a 1982 publication by Suntex and calls it an abstract family card game based on mahjong. The article is an orphan and carries a single-source reliability warning
- [1] the deck is based on Chinese money-suited cards. Records the original release in the USA in 1982 by Suntex International of Pennsylvania, a company still trading in mathematical education software, and names its founder Robert Sun. Suntex did not operate outside the USA, so the game was licensed abroad, to Spear's Games in the UK
- [4] the rules: a 150-card deck of three suits 1-9 (four of each), winds and dragons (four of each), 8 flowers and 6 wild cards. Wilds stand for 'any card except a Flower card'. Flowers are set aside and replaced, and score a bonus only for the player who goes out. 13 are dealt and the rest form the 'well'. A discard can be claimed out of turn for a chow or a pung, and pung beats chow. A player wins with 'four sets of 3 cards each, plus a pair' and declares 'Mhing'. Only the winner scores, counting 'credits' from a hand chart and converting them to points. It is for 2 to 6 players, and the designer is Robert Sun
- [5] Sloper's cards FAQ: Mhing is 'manufactured by Suntex International Inc., Easton, PA'. The deck 'can be used to play any form of Mah-Jongg'. It has 6 'Mhing' cards and 6 score cards, and the flower cards are not numbered, so an 'own flower' Chinese game would need them marked
Reading it
Well attributed and now described in play. Suntex International of Easton, Pennsylvania published it in 1982, designed by Robert Sun, and Spear's licensed it in the UK in 1984. The card-count caveat resolves. Owl Works gives the playing deck as 150 cards: 108 suit cards, 28 honours, 8 flowers and 6 wilds. Spear's 158 is that deck plus six scoring cards and two blanks. The play is a close card transposition of the mahjong structure, with 13 dealt, chow and pung on discards, pung over chow, and four sets and a pair to go out. It adds wild cards, a 2-6 player count and a published hand chart. That is why it sits among the inventions: a new product built on the game rather than a ruleset descended from one.
In the tree
Descends from Modern inventions, as the source chart draws it.