Method
How the compendium is built, and the rules it holds itself to.
One source of truth
Every page here and every Markdown file in the repository is generated from the same data in
_dev/data/: the node tree, the bibliography, and the per-variant claims. Nothing is
written twice, so nothing can drift.
Read at source, or not recorded
A claim enters the data only if the source was fetched and read. A search-result summary is a lead, not evidence; a page that could not be fetched is recorded as unreachable. Where a source contradicts itself, both readings are recorded rather than one being picked silently. There is exactly one entry in the compendium not read at source, and it says so.
Two different judgements
Confidence describes the sourcing behind a variant. Evidence describes what happened when sources were set against each other. They are not the same thing, and a variant can be well documented by one witness or thinly documented by several.
How sources are cited
Every variant page carries its own numbered sources at the foot of the page, with the full citation,
what the source was consulted for, and a link to the source itself. Numbering is local to each page,
so [1] on one variant is not [1] on another; each footnote names its entry
in the bibliography, which indexes every source across the whole
compendium. Each footnote also lists the other variants citing the same source, so a source can be
followed sideways through the tree the way lineage is followed downwards.
A source is marked canonical where the chart drew the variant from it, supporting where the chart cites it alongside, and cross-check where it was fetched afterwards to test what the chart claimed.
What is never filed here
Live copyrighted rulesets. The NMJL and AMJA annual cards for any year, Mah Jongg Made Easy, and any variant's in-copyright rulebook. Game mechanics are recorded as facts, exactly as tile counts are for every variant; the text of those works is not reproduced.
Provenance vocabulary
For a collected file, in the ledger table:
| Value | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| primary | The ruleset itself, from the body that issued it |
| facsimile | A scan or verbatim reproduction of a primary source |
| secondary | Someone's description or translation of a ruleset |
| informant | An account of how a game is played, from a player, with no published rules behind it |
| derived | Assembled from other sources, including anything reconstructed here |
| unknown | Origin not established |
For a variant folder, in the README front matter and the root glossary:
| Value | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| documented | A published ruleset or rule description exists and is cited |
| catalogued | Listed in a variant catalogue with tile counts and hand sizes, but no rules text has been verified |
| single-informant | The whole entry rests on one report from one person |
| disputed | The descent shown is contested; the chart drew this link dashed |
| placeholder | No source establishes the descent at all; the parent link is a guess |
| lost | No rules text survives |
These describe the sources, not the game. placeholder means nobody has
established where a game came from, not that the game is doubtful.