Proto-mahjong › Chinese classical › Shanghai / Hong Kong new style › Mainland regionals › Fuzhou style
Fuzhou style
132 tiles
Sources
The documents this entry rests on, as published. Each can be opened and checked; nothing in this part is anybody’s reading of them.
Guide Sloper, Tom. "FAQ 2b: Identifying a Mah-Jongg Variant." Sloperama. canonical checked 2026-09-18
https://www.sloperama.com/mjfaq/mjfaq02b.html
chart’s note Tile counts, hand sizes, flower handling and scoring for roughly 50 named variants. Primary source for most leaf nodes in this chart.
Also cited on: Chinese archaic, Late Qing style, Chinese pre-classical, Chinese classical, Shanghai / Hong Kong new style, Hong Kong old style and 45 more · bibliography #1
Encyclopedia Wikipedia (Chinese). 〈福州麻雀〉 (Fuzhou mahjong). cross-check checked 2026-10-03
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%A6%8F%E5%B7%9E%E9%BA%BB%E9%9B%80
AI summary The Chinese article on Fuzhou mahjong: a sixteen-tile hand, honours replaced as flowers, a wild 'gold' tile, no fan; cites 簡而清's 《開檯》 for the end of the wall.
for this variant Contradicts the detailed Fuzhou entry and matches Sloper's abbreviated one: honours as flowers and a wild tile.
Also cited on: Filipino style, Fujian style · bibliography #222
Commercial Tencent QQ Game. 〈福州麻将〉 game rules, qqgame.qq.com. cross-check checked 2026-10-03
https://qqgame.qq.com/app/gamedetail_152.shtml
AI summary The QQ Game platform's rules for Fuzhou mahjong: all 144 tiles, every honour and flower scored as a flower and replaced, seventeen tiles to the dealer and sixteen to the others, and the gold.
for this variant The game as a large Chinese platform deals it: confirms the 16-tile hand, the honours-as-flowers and the gold.
Only cited here · bibliography #224
Commercial Bianfeng (边锋). 〈福州麻将〉 rules, gameabc.com. cross-check checked 2026-10-03
http://old3w.gameabc.com/gamehome/rule/nmjfz.html
AI summary A second online platform's Fuzhou rules, agreeing with QQ Game, with the scoring of 抢金, 平胡 and the other special wins.
for this variant A second platform, independent of the first, with the same rules.
Only cited here · bibliography #225
Encyclopedia Wikipedia (Chinese). 〈馬祖麻雀〉 (Matsu mahjong). cross-check checked 2026-10-03
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%A6%AC%E7%A5%96%E9%BA%BB%E9%9B%80
AI summary Fuzhou mahjong as played in the Matsu Islands (Lienchiang County, Taiwan): 144 tiles, sixteen-tile hands, the gold, and White standing in for the gold tile's face. Unreferenced.
for this variant The Fuzhou game carried to Matsu, and a use for White that may explain Jesse's 'one honour removed (probably White)'.
Only cited here · bibliography #223
Commercial "麻将来了（QQ麻将）." Tencent app listing, Apple App Store (China). cross-check checked 2026-10-03
https://apps.apple.com/cn/app/id1184823356
AI summary A commercial mahjong app whose listing advertises more than a hundred regional rule sets, naming a sample of them.
for this variant The name players know it by points to the sixteen-tile deal (seventeen to the dealer).
Also cited on: Mainland regionals · bibliography #212
Analysis
Written by an AI model from the sources above. It is a reading of them, not a source in its own right: every figure in it points back to a numbered source, and where the two disagree, the source is right.
Assessment
- Confidence
- catalogued listed in a variant catalogue with tile counts and hand sizes, but no rules text verified
- Evidence
- conflicting sources disagree materially, or one source contradicts itself
Cross-comparison
What each source was read to say, set side by side. The numbers are the sources above.
| Source | Tiles | Hand | Flowers | Scoring | Payout |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [1] | 132; one honour removed (probably White) | 13, out on 14 | none | count the points | winner only |
| [2] | — | 16 (dealer 17) | '东南西北中' all count as flowers and are replaced | no fan: base 3 + golds + flowers + kongs + dealer repeats, times a multiplier for the kind of win (plain 1, self-draw 2, three golds 3, gold pair 4, robbing the gold 5) | on a discard the winner still collects from all three ('unlike other places') |
| [3] | 144: 108 suit tiles, 28 honours and 8 flowers | 16 (dealer 17) | all of 东南西北中发白 and the eight flowers are 'flowers', used only for scoring, and replaced from the tail of the wall | — | — |
| [4] | all tiles (18 stacks a side) | 16 (dealer 17) | East, South, West, North, Red, Green, White and the eight flowers are 'flower tiles', for scoring only | robbing the gold scores 30 times the base; a plain win with no flowers and no kong scores as robbing the gold | — |
| [5] | 144, or without the flowers | 16 (dealer 17) | — | — | — |
- [1] from a newsgroup post by Jesse, May 28 and June 1-2 2003
- [1] CONTRADICTION WITHIN ONE SOURCE: the abbreviated overview describes Fuzhou as using no flower tiles, with honours treated like flowers as in the Filipino game and a Japanese dora-type tile as joker. That description matches the detailed FUJIAN entry, not the detailed Fuzhou entry, which says 132 tiles with one honour removed and no flowers or jokers
- [2] Read at the source (tagged as needing more references). After the flowers are replaced a tile is turned up as 金 (gold), which stands for any tile; three golds win outright (三金倒); 抢金 wins by taking the gold on the first turn. Cites 簡而清, 《開檯》 (ISBN 962-17-4906-9) for the wall ending
- [3] Read at the source. '“金”即是麻将中的“财神”…可以替代任何一张牌': after the flowers are replaced, the first tile turned from the tail is the gold. only the next player in turn may chow; pung beats chow
- [4] Read at the source. Agrees with QQ Game on the deal, the flowers and the gold
- [5] Read at the source (unreferenced). Calls Matsu mahjong 'a variant of Fuzhou mahjong'. White takes the place of the tile turned up as gold but is not itself wild; Red, Green and flowers score as flowers; points come only from those and the manner of winning
- [6] Read at the source. Lists '福州17张' (Fuzhou 17-tile) among its regional styles
Reading it
The contradiction on Sloper's page resolves against the detailed entry. Four independent sources (Chinese Wikipedia, the QQ Game and Bianfeng platforms, and the Matsu article) agree that Fuzhou mahjong deals sixteen tiles (seventeen to the dealer), treats the honours as flowers to be replaced and scored, and turns up a wild 'gold' tile after the flowers are in. That is what Sloper's abbreviated overview says. The detailed entry, from a 2003 newsgroup post by 'Jesse', says 132 tiles, one honour removed, a thirteen-tile hand and no flowers or jokers; no source read describes a Fuzhou game like that. A partial explanation: in the Matsu form White stands in for the tile turned up as gold, which a player might report as White being 'removed'. The node's '132 tiles' detail should be read as Jesse's report, not as Fuzhou practice. The real game is a sixteen-tile game with a wild tile, closer to Taiwanese mahjong in hand size than to Hong Kong.
Looked for, not found
- Law No law bears on the game.
- Historical No history of the Fuzhou rules was found.
- Scholarship No academic study was found.
- Journalism No press account of the rules was found.
- Organisation No association's Fuzhou rules were found.
- Collection No museum or library record bears on it.
Known, not yet read
Sources that look worth having but could not be read for this entry. If you can reach one, it can be read and added. Every variant’s list is gathered on Missing sources.
- Forum 'Jesse'. Posts on Fuzhou style, rec.games.mahjong, 28 May and 1-2 June 2003 — The source of the 132-tile, thirteen-tile account; would show what game he was describing.
Where: Google Groups archive of rec.games.mahjong. Tried: Google Groups refuses automated reads (HTTP 429 earlier in this project). - Guide 簡而清 (Kan Yi-ching). 《開檯》. ISBN 962-17-4906-9 — The one printed source Chinese Wikipedia cites for the Fuzhou rules.
Where: Hong Kong libraries. Tried: Not online.
In the tree
Descends from Mainland regionals, as the source chart draws it.