Mahjong History

One of the myths of the origin of Mahjong as one of many skill games suggests that Confucius, the great Chinese philosopher,
had developed the game in about 500 BC. This assertion is likely to be doubtful. According to this myth,
the appearance of the game in the different Chinese states coincided with Confucius' travels at the
time he was teaching his new belief. The three dragon tiles also agree with the three Cardinal virtues
bequeathed by Confucius.

Also, the myth claims that Confucius was attached to birds, which would explain the name "Mahjong".
However, there is no evidence of Mahjong's existence before the the 19th century, which eliminates
Confucius as a likely inventor.

Many historians believe it was based on a Chinese card game called Mǎdiào (馬弔) (also known as Ma Tiae
or Yèzí (葉子) in the year's 1368 to 1644. This game was played with 40 paper cards similar in appearance
to the cards used in the game Ya Pei. These 40 cards, numbered 1 to 9 in four different suits along with
four extra flower cards, are quite similar to the numbering of Mahjong tiles today. Although Mahjong only
has three suits and, in effect, uses four packs of Ya Pei cards.

There is still argue about who created the game. One theory is that Chinese army officers serving during
the Taiping Rebellion at 1960 created the game to pass the time. Another theory is that a aristocratic
living in the Shanghai area created the game between 1871 and 1874. Others believe that around 1850 in
the city of Níngpō two brothers had created Mahjong from the earlier game of Mǎdiào.

Because of the solid form of the tiles, Mahjong is sometimes classified as a 'dominoes'. However, it is much more similar to western-style card games such as rummy.