What is the majiang？
2 min readMajiang is a social game of Chinese origin that enjoys worldwide popularity.The English name is simply the transliteration of the Chinese name.It is played with four players.Majiang game pieces（tiles）and scoring rules used in China have slight regional variations.
Tiles maybe are made of bamboo，wood，ivory，bone，or a kind of plastic used in domino games.The game itself bears resemblance to Rummy，a Western card game，but it is much more sophisticated and versatile.It allows for diverse strategies and demands greater concentration.It provides constant new challenges and maintains players’interest even after countless hours of play.Majiang can be played as a social game between friends or in a competitive tournament.It is easy to learn，bu impossible to master it completely.
What is the history of majiang？
The early evolution of majiang is lost to us.The only certain thing that can be said is that it developed from an old Ming-Dynasty domino-type game called madiao which employed 40 cards numbered one to nine plus four flower cards.Tiles replaced cards because the cards tended to get blown away when playing at windy places.During the Qing Dynasty，various different tiles came to be used，and the game was played with 108 pieces.At some later date，as many as 160 tiles were usedto play a variant of the game，but the number was subsequently reduced to make the game more playable.Majiang in its modern form is，in all probability，no more than 150 years old.In the 1920s，the game was introduced to the Western world.
But when it is played in other parts of the world，the rules may differ greatly. Thus players，previously unknown to each other，meet a lengthy discussion of the rules to be used is almost inevitable.The rule variations can be categorized in three major groups:Chinese，Japanese and American，each consisting of matching tiles according to different layouts.
