Mahjong Compendium

Proto-mahjong Chinese classical Shanghai / Hong Kong new style Mainland regionals

Mainland regionals

Descends into

Caveat from the source chart

These eleven nodes stand in for a hundred-plus real variants, most undocumented in English. The group began on a Chinese Classical frame and only later adopted HKOS's simplified scoring, so its placement under Hong Kong old style is a simplification.

Cross-comparison

corroborated — two or more independent sources agree on the facts that define this variant

SourceTilesHandFlowersScoringPayout
[1]136, 14413varies
  • [1] states there are over 100 variants of Mainland Mahjong today, but that as late as 1990 regional variants shared many rules; in the 1990s they began deviating, Sichuan/Chengdu added Bloody rules, some dropped Joys, some removed honours, some built on Old Style and some on an additive New Style. Chinese Classical is said to have been allegedly invented in Ningbo in the 1900s, with later pattern additions referred to as Shanghai New Style

Reading it

The wiki independently confirms both of the chart's caveats about this group: over 100 variants today, and a 1990s divergence in which some built on Old Style and some on an additive New Style. It also dates the Sichuan/Chengdu Bloody rules to the 1990s, matching the chart's separate node.

Sources

  1. Mahjong Wiki. "Mainland Mahjong Overview." mahjong.wikidot.com. canonical checked 2026-09-18

    Cited as the source for individual nodes in the chart's node table. Carries no bibliography or per-claim citations of its own; see the appendix on tracing the wiki.

    http://mahjong.wikidot.com/rules:mainland-mahjong-overview

    Also cited on: Guangdong style, Sichuan bloody rules · bibliography #46

  2. Sloper, Tom. "FAQ 2b: Identifying a Mah-Jongg Variant." Sloperama. supporting

    Tile counts, hand sizes, flower handling and scoring for roughly 50 named variants. Primary source for most leaf nodes in this chart.

    https://www.sloperama.com/mjfaq/mjfaq02b.html

    Also cited on: Chinese archaic, Chinese pre-classical, Chinese classical, Shanghai / Hong Kong new style, Hong Kong old style, Modern HKOS and 43 more · bibliography #1

  3. Mahjong Wiki. "Family Tree and Timeline." mahjong.wikidot.com. supporting

    The decade-by-decade timeline and the branch structure this chart follows, including the caveat that each variant's evolution has been cross-cultural.

    http://mahjong.wikidot.com/

    Also cited on: Chinese classical, Shanghai / Hong Kong new style, Nanyang variants, Korean traditional · bibliography #7

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