Chinese Games

Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Mahjong, Xiangqi, Pai Gow, Tangram, Liubo, Go Variants, Khanhoo, Banqi, Four Arts of the Chinese Scholar, Jungle, Chinese Origin of Playing Cards, Chinese Yo-Yo, Sic Bo, Giog, Fan-Tan, Luzhanqi, Temari, Pong Hau K'i. Excerpt: Mahjong (Chinese: ; pinyin: má jiàng) is a game for four players that originated in China. A Korean variation allows for three players as well as some variations in Japan and Malaysia. It is known as three player mahjong. By far, the most common form of mahjong is that played by no more nor less than four players. Mahjong involves skill, strategy, and calculation, as well as a certain degree of luck (depending on the variation played, luck can be anything from a minor to a dominant factor in winning). In Asia, mahjong is also popularly played as a gambling game. The stakes can be low, to keep the game interesting and competitive, or can be very high resulting in aggressive gambling and some social problems, as poker can be a friendly game or high stakes competition. Played with the right attitude, it is a very enjoyable and addictive game. The basic mechanics are easier than it may seem at first. The tiles reveal one of the most beautiful games known, and the aesthetics apply not only to the tiles, but to the forming of the wall and laying out the melds (patterns) and flowers and seasons. Learning the subtleties of the game and mastering the many variable and highly different variations can take time. The basic concept in most variations is relatively simple, each player receives thirteen tiles. In turn players draw and discard tiles until they complete a legal hand using the fourteenth drawn tile to form four groups (melds) and a pair (head). There are fairly standard rules about how a piece is drawn, stolen from anothe...