Joss paper Mahjong

華雅麻將, 144c.
Haoya Majiang ("Luxurious Mahjong")144c.

Now, a set of playing-cards with a difference. This is a mahjong set, purchased in 2018 in Singapore. However, The author remembers such sets being produced around the year 2014, which he subsequently lost.

 Unlike most mahjong sets, this is not intended for the living. It is rather intended for the dead. This majhong set is an example of "Joss paper", paper objects intended to be burnt as offerings to the ancestors and spirits.

Effort has not been spared in the production of such an ephemeral set. Each "tile" is a small box made of folded card. Becuase they are made of printed paper,  the manufacturer can be more creative in designing the tiles.

There are 144 tiles in total, but their distrubution is extremely erratic. A standard set of mahjong tiles has exactly 4 copies of each tile, but in this set, some tiles can have as few as 2 copies and others as many as 6. The exact distribution is as follows:

Rank Suit	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
萬 Myriads	3	6	2	2	4	5	7	4	2
竹 Bamboos	2	5	7	3	4	5	5	2	2
筒 Coins	6	6	4	3	3	3	5	3	4
Other cards
中· Red Dragon	白 White Dragon	發 Green Dragon	東 East	南 South	西 West	北 North	花 Flowers
2	9	5	3	4	3	3	8

The Suit of coins. From Right to left, the 1-9 of coins . The furthest tile on the left is the 白板, Bai ban ( lit "White board")  conventionally known as the White dragon in English. 

 Because the tiles are small boxes of printed paper, the manufacturer can make them much fancier than the ordinary sort. Note the small coloured border surrounding each of the tiles-- Engraving such a border on each tile would be prohibitively expensive. 

The Suit of Bamboos. From Right to left, the 1-9 of bamboos. The 1 of bamboos is a bird.  The furthest tile on the left is the 红中 , Hong Zhong, Literally Red Center, conventionally known as the Red dragon in English. 

The 1 of bamboos is depicted as a scarlet Macaw. Compare this with the much more stylized versions found Here and here and Here. Apart from that, the bamboos look much like those on convntional decks

 The Suit of Myriads. From Right to left, the 1-9 of myriads  
The furthest tile on the left is the 青發, Qing fa, Literally Green prosperity, conventionally known as the green dragon in English. 

Top Row: Flowers (1) : L-R Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter

Middle row - Flowers (2) -- L-R Plum, Orchid, Chrysanthemum, and bamboo

Bottom row: The Winds - L-R East, South, West, North

Most Mahjong sets contain 'Flowers" These are extra tiles, which act as bonuses.The medium of printing offers a further opportunity for elaboration, with gaudy stockart replacing the stylized flowers of ordinary sets. 

Note the fancy rainbow effect on the winds. (bottom row). Most sets of mahjong cards (intended for actual use as opposed to an offering) follow the tiles very closely, even though (as we can see here) it is easy for fancy effects to be made in printing. Perhaps because it is precisely because it is an offering, that the makers can get away with making it so gaudy. 

The above two images show the box the tiles come in , with and without the lid. Like the tiles themselves, the box is made of paper, and intended to be burnt along with the tiles. 

The manufacturer has also provides some paper jetons and a wind indicator, along with a pair of dice (also of paper).

In addition to the mahjong set, a box of playing-cards is provided for the added amusement of the spirits. Alas, the box is empty, and contains no cards. 

From the side, it is easy to see how the tiles are constructed-- Small boxes of paper. You can also see the yellow-coloured backs of the tiles. Prior to the invention of plastic, majhong tiles were made of bone laminated to bamboo. The yellow colour represents the bamboo. Plastic tiles also have this feature-- their backs are of a different colour than their faces. 

状元筹 Zhuang Yuan Chou -- A Chinese dice game

This post is about a rather charming Chinese gambling game, called 状元筹 Zhuangyuan Chou. A rough translation of the name would be "Scholar's lots",

I had seen images of these tallies some years ago. I was intrigued with these strange objects, each inscribed with the name of a class in the Chinese hierarchy of scholar-bureaucrats. What curious game could be played with these things, I wondered.  One day, ( around Chinese new year in 2013, I think) I went to a Mahjongg shop. After shopping for a while, I inquired about a certain "Zhuangyuan" game. Much to my surprise, the proprietor produced this selfsame set of tallies from a shelf. It was the only set left. Despite the rather steep price of $100, I bought the tallies. This was fortunate. The shop closed down a few years later

The apparatus for this game consists of a set of 63 tallies, or jetons and six dice. We shall first describe the tallies:

The largest tally is labelled 状元, Zhuangyuan (A), and is worth 32 points ( The inscription 三十二注, sanshiliu zhu at the foot of the tally means"32 points" in Chinese）.It is yellow in color, and has an inscription in red. This is the only tally with this value. It plays a special role in the game. 

The next largest tallies are labelled 旁眼, Pangyan (B) and 探花 Tanhua (C) Each is worth 16 points. The former is red, the latter a deep maroon. Like the Zhuangyuan tally, at the feet of these tallies is the inscription 十六注 Shiliu Zhu-- 16 points. 

These are followed by four tallies marked 会元, Huiyuan . (D) In real life, the tallies are a fetching neon green in colour. Unfortunately this colour does not show up well in the scan. Each tally is worth 8 points.

Next in line are eight scarlet tallies, labelled 進士Jinshi(E)   These tallies are worth 4 points each. 

Then there are 16 blue tallies, labelled , 举人,Juren (F)　and worth 2 points each.  

Last in line are 32 white tallies, each labelled  秀才Xiucai (G)  and worth one point each

It should be noted that for each halving in the value of the tally, there is a doubling in the number of tallies. The total value of these 63 tallies is 192. 

***

It is honestly quite hard to explain the significance of the ranks to a non-Chinese audience. You must remember that this game is actually about exams. For over a millennia, the Chinese have had an extremely well-developed (and grueling) system of exams, called the Keju. To say this exam played a significant role in Chinese is somewhat of an understatement. For many, it was the only way to get a job in the civil service, and hence respectable society. The exam has even entered popular myth. Indeed, the Chinese even have a god of exams, Wenchang 文昌. 

To get the rank of highest scholar in the country, 状元 ( Zhuang yuan) was an immense honor, an express ticket into the upper class. Even though the exams were abolished in 1905, till this day, Chinese newspaper reports on more mundane exams ( A-Levels, O-Levels, International baccalaureate) still refer to the top scorers as Zhuangyuan

***

 The rules for this game are based on three sources: C.T. Dobree's The gambling games of Malaya and the Chinese Baidu article on the game. (http://baike.baidu.com/view/360732.html).

The game is simple. Between three to eight persons may play. The only equipment required are six dice, a bowl, and the tallies. At each person's turn, the player drops the six dice into a bowl. He notes the combination of numbers the dice have generated. He then takes tallies from the pool, corresponding to the scores shown in the table below. 

Dice combination.	Take tallies worth.
One 4	1
Two 4s	2
Three 4s	16
Four 4s	32
Five 4s	64
Any Four-of-a-kind, except four 4s	4
A pair of 4s, 5s or 6s	16
The numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6	16
“How Tuck” 巧得= Qiao de *	32
Five-of-a-kind	32
Six-of-a-Kind	192 (GAME)
*A four-of-a-kind; with the remaining two dice adding to the same number as the one repeated. E.G [3,3,3,3,2,1], [6,6,6,6,3,3] [2,2,2,2,1,1]  "How Tuck" is the Cantonese pronunciation of 巧得. In Mandarin it is Qiao De. The term means "Chance gain"

The player then takes the requisite number of tallies from the pool. There are a certain number of niceties regarding the game. 

* When four 4s are scored, the player takes the 32-point tally 状元 and the pair of 16-point tallies  旁眼(B) and 探花(C) from their previous owners

* If a player throws a five-of-a-kind, (other than five 4s) he takes the 32-point tally from its previous owner (if any)

The baidu article agrees with Dobree's description, but adds a few more rules. 

* There is another combination, a pair of 1s, 2, or 3s. The Baidu article tells us that this combination wins you the marker labelled 旁眼. This combination is also nicknamed 大马军-- Big cavalier. 

* A pair of 4s, 5s or 6s wins you the marker labelled 探花. This combination is also nicknamed 小马军-- Little cavalier. 

* If a player throws five 4s,  He  takes the 32-point marker from its previous owner, even if the previous owner has scored a four-of-a-kind. This is in contrast to Dobree's rules, where you win 64 points from such a combination. 

Once all the tallies have been used up, the game ends. The number 192 ( the total value of all the tallies)  is averaged between the number of players. Players who score below  the aforementioned average pay to those who score above average. They pay to the winners the difference between their scores and the average,

***

The inscriptions on the tallies are shown below. The text has been transcribed, Top-to bottom, Right-to left. 

On the Zhuangyuan (A) 狀元/ 四紅巧合獨德五子/五紅奪色六子全

On the Pangyan (B)旁眼/ 大小军馬/分双順淂/ 

On the Tanhua (C) 探花/ 大小军馬/分双順淂

 The author has labored to make sense of the tallies, but could not make any sense from them. The text as engraved seems to be a set of rules for the game, specifying what dice combinations are needed to acquire the tally they are written on.

The text uses a lot of variant characters, so for example 淂 instead of 得(both meaning "To get")  and 収 instead of 收 ("To recieve"). In addition, The third character in the  left-hand row of the Zhuangyuan tally is hard to make out, but based on images of similar tallies online, it is probably奪 

If any reader may decypher the tallies, the author will be most delighted 

***

Below are scans from Dobree's orginial work on the game. Of especual note is the photograph depicting the counters from Dobree's day. Clearly the overall shape of the counters has not changed much in the half century since the book was published. The only major difference is the Zhuangyuan tally, which is made of dark-coloured material 

Rummy Tiles

[Rummy Tiles] 104+8 C, Singapore.

In Singapore, mahjong shops sell a kind of gaming-tile. The tiles are called 'Rummy', after the game that they are used to play. However, these cards are quite different from the Rummy tiles that are commonly known in the West.These tiles are in effect a pair of International pattern decks that have been transferred into tiles.

The cards have been fairly faithfully transferred. The pips are fully represented on each card, which have an index in two corners to assist the player. The Double-ended courts are also rendered in detail, with the appropriate index attached to each rank. The ace of Spades is also enlarged, agreeing to custom. 

But the most striking feature of the cards is their colour. Each suit is assigned a colour. Spades are black, Hearts are Red, Clubs are Green and Diamonds are yellow. The tiles are so small [ Around 3.5 by 2.8 cm], the risk of confusion between suits would be higher if only two colours were used. 

Knowledgeable readers might recognize these as the four colours of the German Turnierbild decks, save that clubs and Spades have swapped colours.

Through the four suits, the courts possess an identical design. They are differentiated only by the suit symbol, and the colour of the frame that surrounds the courts.  

The King is clearly inspired by the King of Diamonds in a standard deck. The Jack and Queen are less certain. The Queen might be inspired by Possibly the Q. of Diamonds or Clubs. 

The Suit of Diamonds. The attention to detail in the courts is formidable. The maker has taken care to give the faces and bodies of the courts different colours. 

The Joker depicts the head of a clown. There are Eight jokers in this set, corresponding to four in each deck. 

The tiles are relatively thick, as seen in the picture. 

Their backs are "Plain".By contrast, Most kinds of mahjong Tiles sold have a layer of different-coloured plastic attached to their backs. 

The tiles in their carrying-case. Such cases are also used to store mahjong tiles. The case is made of leather-like plastic. Within this case are stored four smaller "trays" that make the tiles easier to bring out of the case. In between them is an oblong tray, which would be usually filled with jetons. This set lacks the jetons. 

 Note the Eight blank tiles in the left-hand side of the case. These are spares, If a tile is lost, this blank tile can be sent to an engraver to be engraved with a replacement. 

Gaming tiles from Singapore

[Gaming tiles], 32c. Anon. 

The tiles in their box. 

Some years ago, I saw a set of gaming-tiles from a Mahjong shop in Singapore. The tiles were extremely peculiar. The proprietor was ignorant about their function, and the objects themselves seemed very old. I nonetheless bought them, and they have been a mystery ever since. 

The box contained 32 tiles. The design of the tiles resembled the ones used for mahjong, but the similarities ended there. 

The complete deck

The complete 'Deck' contained 32 tiles, engraved on long, thin pieces of plastic. This sort of shape is typically associated with Chinese dominoes. But it had radically different subjects. As mentioned above, it had mahjong-like pips with ranks from 1 to 10, plus three 'Court cards', indexed in large Roman letters. The result is a sort of single-suited deck.

The Pips (1)

There is an unequal number of copies of each subject, as you can see here. There are two copies of the ace, the 2, 3, 4,5, 6, and 7 have three copies each. The 8,9 10 and courts again have two copies. 

The Pips (2)

The 7, 8, 9 and 10.  Up to the 8, the arrangement of pips agrees with those in mahjong tiles. The Nine and 10 diverge.  In mahjong tiles, the pips for the Nine are arranged in 3 rows of three. In this deck, they are arranged 5,4. The Ten is absent in a mahjong deck, so our engraver has arranged it 6,4

Three of the six courts. Note the large roundel that shows their rank. 

What sort of game is played with this deck? We can speculate. Counting was clearly an element in the game. But how the numbers were used is another open question. Why are there some cards with two copies of each, and others with three? A game like black-jack is a likely candidate. But the uneven distribution of cards would make the deck awkward to use for such a game. . There are Seven subjects that have two copies of each card (A, 8,9,10, J,Q,K), and Six subjects that have 3 copies of each (2,3,4,5,6,7)

Rank	Number of copies	Total
Ace, 8, 9, 10 Jack, Queen, King,	2	14 cards.
2,3,4,5,6,7	3	18 cards
Total number in deck -----------------------------------------		32 cards

Another possibility is a 'comparison' game, like Daun Tiga or Koo Kiew. The relative scarcity of high-ranked cards in the deck might make these games more challenging. 

The other three courts. 

The game might also have been played with English playing-cards, as the inclusion of the courts suggests. Three of the courts have a blue "Index", and the other three have this painted in red. Does the difference in coloring mean the color of the cards was significant in the game, or is it merely the maker wanting to introduce variety? 

The tiles. 

I do not think the set is incomplete. The tiles fit the box provided perfectly. The distribution of the ranks seems unlikely to be resulting from chance. But if it is not chance, what is the rationale? We can only speculate.


If any reader has more information on what these tiles are, or what game is played with them, the author will be most grateful.

'Crown" playing cards

' Crown' playing cards. 52c+2

These cards were purchased in Singapore around 2010. They represent the extreme end of price in playing-card manufacture, each deck vending for $1.50 Singapore dollars. Despite ( Or because) of their low cost, they show some interesting features.
 First, they are made of plastic. Granted, this plastic very flimsy, and discolored, but the choice of material is not one would expect from cards thus cheap

The suits of Spades and clubs. The pattern is printed in three colours, for reasons of economy. Note the Queen of spades, whose printing is much lighter than the rest. The Joker is similar to the ones printed by Piatnik 

Hearts and Diamonds. Note the symbol on the K. of Diamond's breast. Might this be the maker's mark?

But, the real curiosity of these decks are their backs. They came in a bewildering variety of shades and varieties. Perhaps restricted by the convention of the faces, the printers decided to exercise their creativity on the other side of the cards. 

. Here are two eye-catching examples. The one on the right strikes me as an unusual choice of design for deck. 

.

Two more examples. The one on the Left is quite literally a "Bicycle" deck. The one on the right was also printed in other colours.