Mahjong CompendiumModern HKOS

Proto-mahjong › Chinese classical › Shanghai / Hong Kong new style › Hong Kong old style › Modern HKOS

Modern HKOS

3-faan minimum, 1970s

Sources

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.

  1. Encyclopedia Mahjong Wiki. "Hong Kong Old Style Overview." supporting checked 2026-09-18

    http://mahjong.wikidot.com/rules:hong-kong-old-style-overview

    chart’s note The 1950s simplification, removal of fu, the 1970s 3-3 system, and the late-1980s split into Taiwanese and Guangdong styles.

    for this variant The only source that gives the 1970s, and it gives it for the 3-3 system ('1970s: The 3-3 System is adopted. Hands must be 3 Fan to go out...'), without a citation. No source read on 2026-10-12 supports the date

    Also cited on: Hong Kong old style, Guangdong style, Guangdong MCR / GMCR, Taiwanese style · bibliography #8

  2. Encyclopedia Wikipedia. "Hong Kong Mahjong Scoring Rules." canonical checked 2026-09-18

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_mahjong_scoring_rules

    chart’s note Faan scoring, the common 3-faan minimum and the 13-faan ceiling.

    for this variant The chart's canonical source, rewritten in 2026 around the HKMA rules and Hong Kong press: a 3-faan minimum in most games, a 13-faan absolute limit, full- and half-spicy tables, and both discarder-pays-all and discarder-pays-half with their liabilities. Undated, so it cannot carry the chart's 1970s

    Also cited on: Shanghai / Hong Kong new style, Hong Kong old style · bibliography #18

  3. Encyclopedia Wikipedia. "Scoring in Mahjong." cross-check checked 2026-09-18

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoring_in_Mahjong

    AI summary Comparative scoring across Hong Kong, Chinese Classical and Taiwanese systems, including the range of minimum-point conventions and the Mandarin and Cantonese terms for a scoreless hand.

    for this variant Shows the minimum as a table convention across mahjong generally, anywhere from one to five. Context, not evidence for a date.

    Also cited on: Chinese classical, Taiwanese style, Nanyang variants, Singapore style, Zung Jung, Tui Dao Hu · bibliography #55

  4. Official rules Hong Kong Mahjong Association (香港麻雀協會). "Hong Kong Mahjong (Classical Mahjong)" rulebook, latest version 17 May 2023; Chinese edition 《香港麻雀總例》 / GGHK 《十三張清張麻雀規則》. cross-check checked 2026-09-25

    https://www.hkmahjong.org/rules?lang=en

    AI summary The Association's competition rules for 香港麻雀, 'also called 清章麻雀, 廣東牌 (local name only), Classical Mahjong': 144 or 136 tiles, a 3-faan threshold, faan capped at 10, the discarder paying the whole hand, pao on a fourth meld and on the third dragon set, semi-flush and all triplets 3 faan, flush 7, and a faan-to-score table from 3 faan (32 on a discard, 16 from each on a self-draw) to 10 faan (512).

    for this variant The governing body's 2023 rulebook (English edition): 3-faan threshold, 10-faan cap, discarder pays all, pao on a fourth meld and the third dragon set. The current Chinese 總例 linked from the same rules page (copyright 2025, recorded under hkma-rules-page-zh) keeps all of these and adds flower faan under the flower rule

    Only cited here · bibliography #133

  5. Tournament rules 香港麻雀協會 (Hong Kong Mahjong Association). 《GGHK 麻雀大賽 十三張清張麻雀規則》 (GGHK Mahjong Tournament: 13-tile Clear Chapter Rules), last revised 17 May 2023. 22 pp. cross-check checked 2026-09-28

    https://gghk-assets.oss-cn-shanghai.aliyuncs.com/assets/pdf/GGHK-Classical-Hong-Kong-Mahjong-Rulebook-CN.pdf

    AI summary The Association's rules for the 13-tile game at the GGHK tournament, which also has 16-tile New Chapter and riichi events. The Chinese edition of the Association's rulebook, written for referees and players: procedure, penalties, the faan list and a score table.

    for this variant The tournament edition of the Association's rules, and so the rules a competitor actually plays. Confirms the 3-faan minimum, and adds multiple winners on one discard.

    Only cited here · bibliography #147

  6. Tournament rules 筲箕灣官立中學校友會 (Shau Kei Wan Government Secondary School Alumni Association). 《週年會慶麻雀王比賽章程》 (Anniversary Mahjong King Competition Rules), for the competition of 2 July 2005. 3 pp. cross-check checked 2026-09-28

    http://www.sgssaa.org.hk/download/mj_rule05.pdf

    AI summary A club's rules for a one-day knockout tournament: the format, the playing rules in ten short clauses, and a payment table. A rare dated record of the rules ordinary Hong Kong players used, outside the Association.

    for this variant A dated record of club play from outside the Association: in 2005 a Hong Kong tournament used the 三三制 with no minimum at all. Evidence that the minimum was still not the norm then.

    Only cited here · bibliography #148

  7. Commercial Hong Kong Mahjong app. "Hong Kong Mahjong Rules: Complete Guide to Cantonese Mahjong (2026)." mahjonggame.hk. cross-check checked 2026-09-28

    https://www.mahjonggame.hk/learn/hk-mahjong/rules

    AI summary A mahjong app's rules page for Hong Kong play: tiles, flowers as optional bonuses, a table of common fan values, and the app's own table modes.

    for this variant A commercial app, useful only as a sign of current practice: in 2026 it still offers chicken-hand and 3-faan tables side by side.

    Only cited here · bibliography #149

  8. Scholarship Kwan, Alan Shiu Ho (關兆豪). 《中庸麻雀史觀》 (Zung Jung: a Perspective of Mahjong History). Online book, 2009, zj-mahjong.info. cross-check checked 2026-09-25

    http://www.zj-mahjong.info/book_hk/Table%20of%20Contents.html

    AI summary A history of scoring by the author of Zung Jung. Early classical rules after Hatsuhara Shigeki's 1952 reconstruction; the late classical 'inflation' of hands and base score; Hong Kong Old Style (舊章) derived directly from the late classical game by abolishing fu and adopting discarder-pays-double (出銃么二制); the 二二制 and 三三制, the 勒 multiple-limit system and the rising minimum; and New Chapter (新章) as a later re-addition of hands. Gives no dates for the Hong Kong stages.

    for this variant The best account of why the minimum arose, and the only one to call both the 3-faan minimum and full-pay (全銃) changes of 'recent years' as of 2009, a caution on the chart's 1970s. It ties the multiple-limit system of the 三三制 to Perlmen & Chan's Hong Kong book

    Also cited on: Chinese classical, Shanghai / Hong Kong new style, Hong Kong old style, Guangdong style, Zung Jung · bibliography #132

  9. Official rules Hong Kong Mahjong Association (香港麻雀協會). 「麻雀規則」 (rules page, Chinese version). hkmahjong.org/rules, read 9 October 2026. cross-check checked 2026-10-12

    https://www.hkmahjong.org/rules?lang=zh

    AI summary The Association's index of the rule sets it publishes, with each game's names: 港式台牌 (16-Tile Modern Mahjong), also 港式十六張新章麻雀 and, as a Hong Kong-only name, 台灣牌; 香港麻雀, also 清章麻雀 and, locally, 廣東牌; and riichi. The English version of the same page is the URL already recorded for hkma-2023-hk-rules.

    for this variant The governing body's current Chinese rulebook, independent of the chart: it fixes the 3-faan minimum, the 10-faan cap, the half-spicy table, full-pay and the two pao rules. It says nothing of when any of them arose

    Also cited on: Hong Kong old style, Hong Kong Taiwanese · bibliography #441

  10. Encyclopedia Chinese Wikipedia: 香港麻將 (Hong Kong mahjong), traditional-script edition. cross-check checked 2026-09-25

    https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-tw/%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF%E9%BA%BB%E9%9B%80

    AI summary Traces modern Hong Kong and Guangdong mahjong to the 清章 (Clear Chapter) way of play evolved out of 老章 (Old Chapter), with 新章 (New Chapter) formed by adding hands such as 六獨, 十八番 and 無奇不有; and the older Hong Kong practice of 雞四 (no minimum, four-fan limit), no flowers and the 二二制 before today's 三三制 and three-fan minimum.

    for this variant The mechanism in Hong Kong's own terms (雞四, 二二制, 三三制), undated. Useful for the sequence, not the date.

    Also cited on: Shanghai / Hong Kong new style, Hong Kong old style · bibliography #131

  11. Encyclopedia Chinese Wikipedia: 廣東麻雀籌碼計法 (Chip scoring in Guangdong mahjong). cross-check checked 2026-10-12

    https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BB%A3%E6%9D%B1%E9%BA%BB%E9%9B%80%E7%B1%8C%E7%A2%BC%E8%A8%88%E6%B3%95

    AI summary A short, unreferenced article on how faan become money in Cantonese play: the stake scales 二五雞, 五一 and 一二蚊, the half-pay (半銃制) and full-pay (全銃制) systems, and the 辣辣上 and 半辣上 tables above 4 faan.

    for this variant Names the two payment conventions and the two faan tables in Hong Kong's own terms, matching Kwan and Wikipedia's discarder-pays-half and discarder-pays-all. Unreferenced and undated

    Only cited here · bibliography #503

  12. Journalism 草莓泡芙. 「農曆新年2022｜打麻雀計番計數機！對對糊／清一色／大三元番數一覽」. HK01 (香港01), 1 February 2022 (updated 19 January 2023). cross-check checked 2026-10-12

    https://www.hk01.com/%E9%A3%9F%E7%8E%A9%E8%B2%B7/730031/%E8%BE%B2%E6%9B%86%E6%96%B0%E5%B9%B42022-%E6%89%93%E9%BA%BB%E9%9B%80%E8%A8%88%E7%95%AA%E8%A8%88%E6%95%B8%E6%A9%9F-%E5%B0%8D%E5%B0%8D%E7%B3%8A-%E6%B8%85%E4%B8%80%E8%89%B2-%E5%A4%A7%E4%B8%89%E5%85%83%E7%95%AA%E6%95%B8%E4%B8%80%E8%A6%BD

    AI summary A Hong Kong news site's New Year guide to the faan of Hong Kong mahjong (香港牌/廣東牌): 3 faan to win, chicken hand barred, a top of 8 or 10 faan or none set by the players, the faan of each hand from 1 to the limit, and the flower faan.

    for this variant Hong Kong press, independent of the chart: the 3-faan minimum given as the ordinary rule of 廣東牌 in 2022, with the top left to the table

    Only cited here · bibliography #500

  13. Journalism Mitty. 「麻雀玩法｜如何計番？新手入門玩法：教你香港牌食糊組合+番數計錢」. Cosmopolitan HK, 17 January 2025. cross-check checked 2026-10-12

    https://www.cosmopolitan.com.hk/lifestyle/how-to-play-mahjong

    AI summary A Hong Kong magazine's beginner's guide to Hong Kong mahjong: the 3-faan minimum, an 8- or 10-faan top, the hands by faan, the stake scales 二五雞, 五一 and 一二蚊, and payment with the discarder paying double and the others single. English Wikipedia cites it for the 3-faan minimum.

    for this variant Hong Kong press of 2025 teaching the 3-faan minimum together with the older half-pay convention, so both payment systems are still in use; English Wikipedia's citation for the minimum

    Only cited here · bibliography #501

  14. Journalism 吳美松. 「半世紀麻雀館去江湖味求變 VAR捉老千 推深度遊傳承麻雀文化」. HK01 (香港01), 29 September 2024. cross-check checked 2026-10-12

    https://www.hk01.com/%E7%A4%BE%E5%8D%80%E5%B0%88%E9%A1%8C/1058046/%E5%8D%8A%E4%B8%96%E7%B4%80%E9%BA%BB%E9%9B%80%E9%A4%A8%E5%8E%BB%E6%B1%9F%E6%B9%96%E5%91%B3%E6%B1%82%E8%AE%8A-var%E6%8D%89%E8%80%81%E5%8D%83-%E6%8E%A8%E6%B7%B1%E5%BA%A6%E9%81%8A%E5%82%B3%E6%89%BF%E9%BA%BB%E9%9B%80%E6%96%87%E5%8C%96

    AI summary A feature on 香港蔴雀娛樂公司, a Wan Chai mahjong parlour open since 1969: its staff ranks, the 5% commission on winnings, usual stakes then and now, the old rule boards (舊牌例) kept from its first premises, the first 144 'mahjong school' licences, and the 67 licensed parlours left in March 2024.

    for this variant Press on parlour play with no rule text. Its value is the lead to a parlour's rule boards kept since 1969, the kind of primary record that could date the minimum

    Only cited here · bibliography #502

  15. Commercial Sugarcane Network Technology Co., Ltd. 《香港麻雀13張》, iOS app, version 2.8 (20 October 2022). App Store (Hong Kong) listing, read 12 October 2026. cross-check checked 2026-10-12

    https://apps.apple.com/hk/app/%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF%E9%BA%BB%E9%9B%8013%E5%BC%B5/id1441365547

    AI summary A single-player Hong Kong 13-tile mahjong app whose listing offers a 3-faan or 1-faan minimum and a 13-faan cap; its version history dates the Hong Kong rules with that choice to 19 June 2019.

    for this variant A commercial app, a sign of current practice only: the 3-faan minimum offered beside a 1-faan one

    Only cited here · bibliography #504

  16. Commercial Nix's publishing. 《麻雀 頂硬上!》, iOS app, version 1.2204.1 (4 April 2022). App Store (Hong Kong) listing, read 12 October 2026. cross-check checked 2026-10-12

    https://apps.apple.com/hk/app/%E9%BA%BB%E9%9B%80-%E9%A0%82%E7%A1%AC%E4%B8%8A/id898483870

    AI summary An offline 13-tile Hong Kong-rules mahjong app whose listing names three table modes: any hand (搶食糊), chicken hand allowed (雞糊起糊) and a 3-faan minimum (三番起糊).

    for this variant A second app offering chicken-hand and 3-faan tables side by side, as mahjonggame.hk does

    Only cited here · bibliography #505

  17. Guide Sloper, Tom. "FAQ 17: Hong Kong Mah-Jongg." Sloperama. cross-check checked 2026-09-25

    https://sloperama.com/mjfaq/mjfaq17.html

    AI summary Beginner's guide to the 3-fan Hong Kong game ('no chicken hands allowed'), with reader letters: the 3-fan minimum was the norm of the Yahoo! online room, while in-person tables often play a 1-fan minimum; Sloper's view that the 3-fan minimum reduces the fun and increases draws.

    for this variant A beginner's guide to the 3-fan game, with readers' letters showing the minimum varying from table to table.

    Only cited here · bibliography #134

  18. Encyclopedia Cantonese Wikipedia: 香港麻雀. cross-check checked 2026-09-25

    https://zh-yue.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF%E9%BA%BB%E9%9B%80

    chart’s note Cantonese-language treatment of the Hong Kong game, in the register the wiki appears to draw from.

    for this variant The Cantonese account of the same sequence, with the 二二制 and 三三制 eras named. Undated.

    Also cited on: Hong Kong old style · bibliography #37

  19. Law Office of the Licensing Authority, Home Affairs Department, Hong Kong. Mahjong/Tin Kau Licence: Application Forms and Guide, version 12/2025. cross-check checked 2026-09-28

    https://www.hadla.gov.hk/el/filemanager/common/docs/forms/MJ-TK_Application_Forms_Guide_eng.pdf

    AI summary The licensing office's guide to the mahjong/tin kau licence. It quotes section 22 of the Gambling Ordinance (Cap. 148), under which premises are licensed "for the playing therein of games in which mahjong or tin kau tiles are used", and the licence's prescribed conditions: play only from noon to midnight, no one under 18, no credit, fees and commission posted in English and Chinese, commission capped by the licence, police entry, and monthly accounts.

    for this variant The law under which parlours operate. Recorded here because it prescribes nothing about the game; the minimum is not a legal rule.

    Also cited on: Hong Kong old style · bibliography #143

  20. Journalism 林祖偉. 「香港麻將走向夕陽所揭示的社會現象」. BBC News 中文, 17 February 2018. cross-check checked 2026-10-12

    https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/trad/chinese-news-43043602

    AI summary A report on why fewer people play mahjong in Hong Kong: lack of space, noise, and parlours turning to mainland games. It cites 簡而清's 《開台》 for the view that Hong Kong mahjong comes from Guangdong mahjong and has its own faan-counting rules.

    for this variant Parlour practice in 2018, without rules: the licensed parlours, long the game's main venue, had turned largely to mainland games, so present parlour play is weak evidence for the Hong Kong rules

    Also cited on: Hong Kong old style · bibliography #497

  21. Organisation 香港戒賭中心 (Hong Kong Gamblers Recovery Centre). "History of Gambling in Hong Kong." hkgamblers-recovery.org, about 2011. cross-check checked 2026-10-12

    https://www.hkgamblers-recovery.org/eng/gamble_hongkong.php

    AI summary A gambling-recovery charity's short history of gambling in Hong Kong: the 1871 ban on gaming houses, police licensing of mahjong businesses from 1956 with 144 licences under the English name 'Mahjong School', 66 schools by June 2011, and the lotteries and betting since.

    for this variant Dates the parlour licensing regime to 1956 but says nothing of rules. Licensing cannot have fixed the minimum, and its date does not match the chart's

    Only cited here · bibliography #506

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

    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

AI-generated

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
documented a published ruleset or rule description exists and is cited
Evidence
partial sources agree on some points but disagree or say nothing on others

Cross-comparison

What each source was read to say, set side by side. The numbers are the sources above.

SourceTilesHandFlowersScoringPayout
[1]———no standardised rubric; a popular variation is a minimum of three fan before winning—
[2]———common 3-faan minimum and 13-faan ceiling—
[3]———a winning hand must often reach some point value, anywhere between one and five points, with three being the most common—
[4]144 with flowers, or 1364 melds and a pair; thirteen orphans the only special shapeoptional; no flower faan in the faan list of this English edition (the current Chinese 總例 lists them: see hkma-rules-page-zh, 2026-10-12)3-faan threshold; faan capped at 10; 1 faan: all sequences, closed hand, self-draw, dragon or seat/round wind triplet, all terminals and honours, robbing a kan, after kan, last tile; 3: semi-flush, all triplets, small dragons (5 with the dragon sets); big dragons 8; flush 7; 10 (limit): all honours, small and big winds, four concealed triplets, four quads, all terminals, heaven, earth, thirteen orphans, double kan, nine gatesdiscarder pays the whole hand; self-draw half from each (3 faan: 32 on a discard, 16 x 3 self-drawn); pao on a fourth meld and on the third dragon set
[5]136, plus 8 flowers where the game's rules use them (視乎規則)——三番起糊: a hand needs 3 faan or more to win; faan table 1, 3, 5, 7, 10 (例牌)—
[6]——none (無花)三．三制; 雞糊可食, a chicken hand may win; top 6 faan, 五番辣半, 六番雙辣discarder pays double, self-draw single from each: chicken 2/1, 1 faan 4/2, 2 faan 8/4, 3 faan 16/8, 4 faan 32/16, 5 faan 48/24, 6 faan 64/32
[7]——optional by table'must usually reach a minimum fan (often 3 fan)'; 'exact fan lists and minimum fan rules can differ between groups'—
[2]———3 faan required in most games, other minimums possible; 13 faan the absolute limit, often lowered, typically to 10; full spicy (2 to the power of the faan) and half spicy (doubling every two faan from 4) tables, a 3-faan hand worth 8 points on eitherdiscarder pays all by default, a self-draw paid by all three at 1.5 times the table; discarder-pays-half as a common modification; under discarder-pays-half, liability for the 9-tile and 12-tile pure hand (九張包, 十二張包自摸) and for a fresh tile discarded with 5 or fewer left (五子包生); a false win short of the minimum pays the maximum to all three
[8]———the 二二制 (semi-flush and all triplets 2, flush a 4-faan limit) gave way to the 三三制 (3 and 3, flush about 6); a multiple-limit system (勒), for example 5 faan one limit at 32 chips, 7 faan double, 9 faan triple, after Perlmen & Chan pp. 69-70; the minimum rose from barring chicken hands to 3 faan, mainstream only in recent yearsOld Style paid discarder-pays-double (出銃么二制), the self-drawer collecting double from all three; 'full-pay' (全銃), the discarder paying the whole hand as for a nine-tile flush, spread in recent years under Japanese and Taiwanese influence, and with the 1.5-times self-draw and the self-draw faan it amounts to a 'half' full-pay like Taiwan's
[9]136, or 144 under the flower rule (「花牌」規則)four melds and a pair; thirteen orphans the only special shapeoptional; under the flower rule, 1 faan for each seat flower, 1 for no flowers, 1 for a full set of four, 3 for seven flowers (小花糊)三番起糊, 3 faan or more to win; 10 faan the cap and every limit hand 10; faan table in steps of 1, 3, 5, 7 and 10the discarder pays the whole hand; on the half-spicy table (100/底半辣上) 3 faan is 32 on a discard or 16 from each on a self-draw, up to 512 or 256 x 3 at 10; pao only for a self-draw, the liable player paying all three shares: 十二章包 for feeding the fourth exposed meld, 大三元包 for the third dragon set, only the later pao counting (包後不包先); robbing a kong is paid by the konger as a self-draw
[10]———now usually 3 faan to win and a top of 8 or 10 faan (13 online), by house rule; the minimum began at 1 faan and rose 'gradually' to 2 and 3—
[11]————stake scales 二五雞, 五一 and 一二蚊; half-pay (半銃制): on a self-draw all three pay double, on a discard the discarder pays double and the other two single; full-pay (全銃制): the winner's takings unchanged, the discarder paying them all; above 4 faan either 辣辣上 (doubling each faan) or 半辣上 (x1.5 then x2)
[12]——8 flowers; seat flower or no flowers 1 faan, a full set 2, seven flowers (花糊) 33 faan to win, a chicken hand 0 faan and barred; semi-flush, all triplets and seven flowers 3, small dragons 5, small winds 6, flush 7, big dragons 8; the top set by the players, usually 8 or 10 faan, or none—
[13]———3 faan to win in most play, a hand under 3 faan being a false win; top 8 or 10 faan by agreement, or nonethe stake scales 二五雞, 五一 and 一二蚊 name the chicken-hand amount, each faan doubling; on a self-draw each pays the same, on a discard the discarder pays double and the other two single (3 faan at 一二蚊: $8 each on a self-draw, $16, $4 and $4 on a discard)
[14]————the house takes 5% of winnings; stakes of 100/200 usual now, 300/600 formerly
[15]———a choice of 3-faan or 1-faan minimum, 13-faan cap—
[16]———three modes: any hand (搶食糊), chicken hand allowed (雞糊起糊) and a 3-faan minimum (三番起糊), with unlimited faan—
  • [1] wiki states the 3-fan minimum as a common variation, not a dated reform
  • [3] presents the minimum as a player convention with a range, not as a dated reform
  • [4] The Hong Kong Mahjong Association's competition rulebook (17 May 2023), which names the game 香港麻雀, 'also called 清章麻雀, 廣東牌 (local name only), Classical Mahjong'. The same ruleset appears in Chinese as the GGHK tournament's 十三張清張麻雀規則.
  • [1] Re-read: the page now dates the 3-3 system to the 1970s: 'Hands must be 3 Fan to go out and the value of All Pungs and Half Flush are increased to 3 Fan'. Minimum '0-2, 3 with Flowers'.
  • [8] The minimum arose to make big hands winnable once HKOS had few scoring hands: 'at first chicken hands were not allowed, then it gradually rose higher, until in recent years (近年) three fan has become the mainstream'. Like 'discarder pays all', he counts the 3-fan minimum among the recent changes many players now wrongly take to be the original rules.
  • [10] Gives the mechanism, undated. Older play was 雞四 (chicken hand allowed, a four-fan limit, no flowers, 二二制). Flowers and the 三三制 made one fan nearly automatic and unbalanced the four-fan cap. Pure one suit then became 'double limit', the cap rose to six or eight, and a minimum was added: first one fan, then 'gradually' two and three. Today usually three to win, eight or ten maximum (thirteen online).
  • [17] Teaches the 3-fan game ('no chicken hands allowed'). A reader's letter says the 3-fan minimum was the norm of the Yahoo! online room, 'for very seasoned players', while in-person tables often play from 1 fan. Sloper thinks the 3-fan minimum 'reduces the fun of the game, and increases the number of draw games'.
  • [18] Same account in Cantonese, with headed sections for the 「二二制」年代 and 「三三制」年代: 雞四 and no flowers under the 二二制, then flowers and the 三三制, then minimums of one fan rising 'gradually' to two and three. Calls today's game 'new-school Clear Chapter' (新派清章) because it added the 3-fan minimum, drawing to the end of the wall, and some New Chapter hands such as 十八羅漢. No dates.
  • [5] Read at the source (PDF, 22 pages): the Association's GGHK tournament edition, last revised 17 May 2023. It allows two or three players to win on the same discard (雙響 / 三響), and forbids winning on a tile passed in the same go-round. The tournament runs three games: 13-tile Hong Kong, 16-tile New Chapter (Hong Kong Taiwanese) and riichi
  • [6] Read in the PDF's page images (the text layer is unreadable): a Hong Kong alumni association's tournament of 2 July 2005, played on the 3-3 system with no flowers, the last seven stacks dead, liability for a ninth-tile discard (九章包出沖) and a twelfth-tile self-draw (十二章包自摸), no passing a winning tile, and the thirteen orphans allowed to rob a concealed kong. It has no minimum: 'a chicken hand may win'
  • [7] The app offers both as table modes: 'Chicken hand OK' and a 'Standard Hong Kong rules with 3-faan minimum' mode described as 'faster pace for experienced players'
  • [19] The licence under which parlours, where much of this game is played, operate. It governs hours, age, credit and commission; like every other law read, it prescribes no rules of play, the minimum included
  • [2] Re-read 2026-10-12: the article was rewritten in 2026 and now cites the HKMA rules page, the GGHK rulebook, Cosmopolitan HK (2025), Nicole Wong's Mahjong: House Rules from Across the Asian Diaspora (2025), TileBuddy and a Patreon post by drchanpierre. It calls the typical game 'Hong Kong New Style' and points to the Mahjong Wiki for old-style scoring
  • [8] Chapter 7 re-read for payment on 2026-10-12. His reference list (Appendix F) cites the ninth printing (1988) of 簡而清's 《開檯》, the third impression (1998) of Millington's Complete Book of Mah-jongg and a 1989 printing of Perlmen & Chan
  • [9] The 香港麻雀總例 linked from the Association's Chinese rules page as the rules of 香港麻雀, also called 清章麻雀 and, locally, 廣東牌; read as the text export of the Google Doc, copyright 2025
  • [10] Re-read 2026-10-12, unchanged in substance. The sentence counting the 3-faan minimum, drawing to the end of the wall and some New Chapter hands among the additions that make today's game 'new-school Clear Chapter' is cited to 簡而清, 《開檯》 (博益, 1986)
  • [11] Tagged unreferenced and original research since 2014; it presents full-pay as grown out of half-pay, keeping its amounts
  • [12] A New Year guide by an HK01 writer, published 1 February 2022 and updated 19 January 2023; it says Hong Kong people usually play 香港牌/廣東牌
  • [14] The parlour keeps old 牌例 from its first premises among its photographs and objects; 67 parlours were licensed on 25 March 2024; the first licences were 144, one per tile, under the English name 'mahjong school'
  • [20] Parlours advertise mainland games (跑馬仔, 推倒胡) to mainland visitors; an Ipsos survey found weekly play down from 10% to 6% in five years; it cites 簡而清's 《開台》 for Hong Kong mahjong deriving from Guangdong mahjong with different faan counting
  • [15] Version history: Hong Kong rules with the 1- or 3-faan choice added on 19 June 2019
  • [21] Gaming houses banned from 1871; 144 licences 'because there were total 144 ivory cards', named 'Mahjong School' because gambling was prohibited

Reading it

Sources independent of the chart now document the modern ruleset well. The Hong Kong Mahjong Association's Chinese 總例 (copyright 2025) sets 三番起糊, a 10-faan cap, the 半辣 table, the discarder paying the whole hand, and pao only on self-draws (十二章包, 大三元包). It also lists flower faan. English Wikipedia, rewritten in 2026, gives a 3-faan minimum in most games, a 13-faan absolute limit, and both discarder-pays-all and discarder-pays-half. Hong Kong press (HK01 2022, Cosmopolitan HK 2025) and two apps agree on the minimum and on an 8- or 10-faan top, and Cosmopolitan still teaches discarder-pays-double. Chinese Wikipedia and Kwan call the two conventions 半銃 and 全銃, and Kwan treats full-pay as recent. No source independent of the chart supports the date. Only the Mahjong Wiki says 1970s, and it says so of the 3-3 system. Kwan (2009) says the 3-faan minimum became mainstream 'in recent years', a 2005 tournament allowed chicken hands, and apps still offer chicken-hand and 1-faan tables. Chinese Wikipedia cites 簡而清's 《開檯》 (1986) beside the 3-faan minimum, which would put the minimum before the mid-1980s. Still wanted: 《開檯》, Perlmen & Chan (1979), Millington (1977), and 華僑日報's reports of Hong Kong competitions from 1970 on, whose scans are on the Internet Archive without usable text.

Looked for, not found

  • Historical No text written in the 1970s or 1980s could be read: the 華僑日報 scans on the Internet Archive have unusable OCR, and the period books (《開檯》, Perlmen & Chan, Millington) are print only and listed as wanted
  • Forum Reddit refuses automated readers with 403 and BoardGameGeek with a challenge. The search tool reached no Cantonese forum thread on when the minimum became usual
  • Collection No museum or archive record bears on a scoring rule. The nearest thing is a parlour's old rule boards, which are in private hands (wanted, commercial)

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.

  • Rulebook 簡而清, 《開檯》 (Hong Kong: 博益, 1986; Kwan used the ninth printing, 1988, ISBN 962-17-0088-4) — Chinese Wikipedia cites it for the sentence counting 三番起糊 among the additions that make today's game 新派清章, and Kwan and BBC Chinese cite it as the Hong Kong authority. It would show whether the 3-faan minimum was usual by the mid-1980s
    Where: Print; Hong Kong Public Libraries. Tried: Not online. An Internet Archive search for 簡而清 and 開檯 found nothing (2026-10-12)
  • Rulebook Perlmen, Samuel K. and Mark Kai-Chi Chan, The Chinese Game of Mahjong (Hong Kong: Book Marketing, 1979; ISBN 962-211-0169) — Kwan cites pp. 69-70 (from a 1989 printing) for the multiple-limit system of the 三三制. A 1979 Hong Kong text would test the chart's 1970s directly, for both the 3-3 system and any minimum
    Where: Print. Tried: Internet Archive advanced search found no copy (2026-10-12). The Google Books API answered 429 in earlier passes and was not retried
  • Rulebook Millington, A. D., The Complete Book of Mah-jongg (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1977) — Describes Hong Kong practice of the 1970s; Kwan cites p. 118 on Hong Kong raising the base score. It would show whether a faan minimum was usual then
    Where: Print. Tried: Internet Archive advanced search found no copy (2026-10-12)
  • Journalism Hong Kong Chinese newspapers of the 1970s-80s (for example 華僑日報, 工商日報) — The only way to date the minimum directly. 華僑日報's headlines name a 全港業餘麻雀比賽 (14 October 1970), a 香港麻雀公開賽 (31 October 1970) and 麻雀王大賽 contests in 1980, 1982, 1986 and 1990-91, whose reports may print the rules played
    Where: Internet Archive, 華僑日報 items such as https://archive.org/details/NPWK19701014 and https://archive.org/details/NPWK19701031 (page scans); Hong Kong Public Libraries' Old Hong Kong Newspapers. Tried: Internet Archive headline metadata searched on 2026-10-12, but the OCR text is unusable, so the pages must be read by eye. The Hong Kong Public Libraries site answered with a queue-it JavaScript waiting room (its own gate, 2026-10-12)
  • Journalism South China Morning Post, "Stricter rules for mahjong parlours" — A report on the regulation of parlours, which may say what the licensed parlours played
    Where: https://www.scmp.com/article/35289/stricter-rules-mahjong-parlours. Tried: The site answered 403 with a Cloudflare challenge (its own refusal, 2026-10-12). The Wayback CDX query failed four times on our side: the proxy tunnel closed mid-exchange
  • Commercial 香港蔴雀娛樂公司 (Wan Chai), old rule boards (舊牌例) kept from its first premises, opened 1969 — A licensed parlour's posted house rules from 1969 on are the primary record that could date the 3-faan minimum and the payment system in parlour play
    Where: The parlour on Lockhart Road, Wan Chai; perhaps among the photographs in HK01's feature of 29 September 2024. Tried: HK01's article mentions the boards but does not transcribe them; its photo gallery was not read (2026-10-12)
  • Guide drchanpierre, 「打麻雀的數學原理」 (Patreon, 25 January 2023) and 「香港［麻雀］術語」 — English Wikipedia's source for the full- and half-spicy tables and the 10-faan cap, and a Cantonese glossary of the game's terms
    Where: https://www.patreon.com/posts/da-ma-que-de-shu-77720693 and https://www.patreon.com/posts/xiang-gang-ma-yu-55178803. Tried: Patreon answered 403 (its own refusal, 2026-10-12)

Where it was searched

Every place the search checklist names for this variant’s languages, and what each gave, including nothing. The last full pass was on 2026-10-12.

Names searched: Chinese 香港麻雀, 香港蔴雀, 香港麻將, 香港麻将, 香港牌, 廣東牌, 清章麻雀, 新派清章, 港式麻雀, 十三張麻雀; English Modern HKOS, Hong Kong mahjong, Hong Kong Old Style, HKOS, Classical Mahjong, Cantonese mahjong, ma jeuk.

25 places searched
  • General web search — Standard queries on 2026-10-12: 三番起糊 香港麻雀 歷史 年代; Hong Kong mahjong "3 faan" minimum history mahjong parlour rules; 麻雀 "三番起糊" 七十年代 OR 八十年代 雞糊; 麻雀館 規則 半銃 全銃 包自摸 香港; "全銃" "半銃" 麻雀 香港; 麻雀館 牌照 香港 歷史; a query for theses on Hong Kong parlours; plus one extended query (香港麻雀 起糊 番數 演變 ...). They led to the HK01 articles of 2022 and 2024, the two App Store listings and the HK Gamblers Recovery Centre page, all read. Found but left unread: Tatler Asia guides (hk.asiatatler.com, tatlerasia.com), Honeycombers, the HKTVmall blog, playeahk.com, a PartyPot blog post, Jyut Dictionary entries (三番, 雞糊, 密食當三番), an icm.gov.mo journal PDF, and law summaries from mondaq and altenar. None of them dates the minimum
  • Wikidata — Q18674801 (香港麻雀) has only two sitelinks, zhwiki 香港麻雀 and zh_yuewiki 香港蔴雀. The English 'Hong Kong mahjong scoring rules' is not linked to it. The API answered 429 at first and 200 later (2026-10-12)
  • Wikipedia, in every declared language — Read on 2026-10-12: en 'Hong Kong mahjong scoring rules' (the canonical source, rewritten in 2026), zh 香港麻雀 (re-read), and zh 廣東麻雀籌碼計法 (new). The yue 香港蔴雀 was not re-read, since it was observed on 2026-09-25. The Wikipedia API answered 429 again and again through the pass (shared address), and each read took several retries with pauses
  • The sources' own references, and who cites them — One round. English Wikipedia's references: Cosmopolitan HK 2025 read; drchanpierre's Patreon post answered 403 (wanted); TileBuddy's limit-hands guide (tilebuddy.app/blog/limit-hands-hong-kong-mahjong) found, not read; Nicole Wong, Mahjong: House Rules from Across the Asian Diaspora (Hardie Grant, 2025) is print only. Chinese Wikipedia's references: BBC Chinese 2018 read; 簡而清's 《開檯》 (1986) is print (wanted). Kwan's Appendix F names 《開檯》 (9th printing, 1988), Millington (3rd impression, 1998) and Perlmen & Chan (1989 printing), none online. Leads for a second round, unread: Chinese Wikipedia's external links (godgame.com.tw 13mj rule guide, a 2016 capture; star31.gameone.com, 2010; gouki.150m.com/MJ3.htm, 2013), the photo gallery of HK01's 2024 parlour feature, and the HK Gamblers Recovery Centre's Report/Book pages
  • Internet Archive full-text search — Advanced search (2026-10-12) found no copy of Perlmen & Chan, Millington or 《開檯》. Full-text search for "three faan" and "3 faan" returned OCR noise, plus a figurative 'three-faan hand' in the China Mail of 1924. Chinese queries returned errors. Nine Dragons Software's Hong Kong Mahjong (1991 shareware) holds only an EXE and data files, with no readable rules text. The main find: 15,974 issues of 華僑日報 (identifier NPWK, 1947-1991, 7,091 of them from 1970-89) with searchable headline metadata. Headlines name a 全港業餘麻雀比賽 (14 October 1970), a 香港麻雀公開賽 (31 October 1970), and 麻雀王大賽 contests in 1980, 1982, 1986 and 1990-91. Their OCR text is unusable (simplified-character OCR of vertical traditional type), so the reports are listed as wanted
  • Wayback Machine — The CDX query for the SCMP parlour article failed four times on 2026-10-12. Each connection was reset because the agent proxy's tunnel closed mid-exchange, so the failure was on our side, not a refusal by the archive
  • Google Books — Not searched: its API answered 429 from this environment in earlier passes, and the books that matter (《開檯》, Perlmen & Chan, Millington) are already identified and listed as wanted
  • HathiTrust full-text search — Not searched: full-text search sits behind a Cloudflare challenge, and the books needed are Hong Kong imprints of 1977-1988 still in copyright, unlikely to be in full view
  • WorldCat — Not searched in this lean pass: the print sources are already identified by ISBN, and library holdings would not date the rule
  • Scholarly indexes — Not searched: OpenAlex wants a key (429 in earlier passes). The general web search for theses on Hong Kong parlours or the game's rules found none, and Kwan (2009) remains the only scholarly account
  • YouTube — Not searched: video explainers teach the current game, which is already well documented, and cannot date a change of the 1970s or 1980s
  • English-language forums — Not searched: Reddit answers 403 and BoardGameGeek a Cloudflare challenge. Sloper's reader letters (sloperama-faq-17, already observed) stand in for the English-language forum record
  • Mahjong reference sites — The Mahjong Wiki's Hong Kong Old Style overview was re-read on 2026-10-12 and is unchanged ('1970s: The 3-3 System is adopted. Hands must be 3 Fan to go out...'). The Chinese Mahjong Fandom page on 香港麻雀 answered 403. Sloperama was not re-read, since FAQ 17 is already observed
  • App and platform listings — Read two App Store (Hong Kong) listings: Sugarcane's 香港麻雀13張 (3- or 1-faan minimum, 13-faan cap) and Nix's publishing's 麻雀 頂硬上! (chicken-hand, any-hand and 3-faan modes). Found but unread: 九龍麻雀 正宗港式麻雀 (id1043503026), described as using 全銃制, and the Google Play game linked from English Wikipedia (com.singaporemahjong.hkmahjonggame). mahjonggame.hk was read in an earlier pass
  • Baidu search and Tieba — Not searched directly, since it has no open search API. The general tool's Chinese queries stood in for it and returned no mainland pages. The game is Hong Kong's, and the mainland web is unlikely to date its rules
  • Baidu Baike — Not searched: it answers 403 to automated readers (earlier passes), and Chinese and Cantonese Wikipedia cover the game
  • Chinese Q&A and community sites — Not searched: Zhihu and Xiaohongshu put login walls in front of automated readers. The Cantonese-language Patreon posts by drchanpierre that turned up instead answered 403
  • WeChat public-account articles — Not searched: Sogou has no open API, and Hong Kong writing on this game sits on the open web and in the Hong Kong press, which were searched
  • Bilibili — Not searched: a mainland video site whose Hong Kong-rules explainers teach the current game only
  • Pre-modern and Republican Chinese texts — Not searched: the 3-faan minimum is a late-20th-century development that pre-modern and Republican texts cannot hold
  • Chinese-language scholarship — Not searched in this lean pass: CNKI and Airiti are unlikely to cover Hong Kong parlour rules, and the general web search found no Chinese-language scholarship on them; Kwan (2009) is the scholarly account read
  • Chinese-language newspaper archives — On 2026-10-12 the Hong Kong Public Libraries digital collection answered with a queue-it JavaScript waiting room, the site's own gate. HK01 (2022, 2024), BBC Chinese (2018) and Cosmopolitan HK (2025) were read online. The Internet Archive holds 華僑日報 scans for 1947-1991 with headline metadata but unusable OCR. Their competition reports from 1970 on are wanted. The idiom 密食當三番 turns up in headlines of 1987-1990
  • Statutes published in Chinese — Hong Kong e-Legislation (Cap. 148) returns only a JavaScript shell to plain requests in every URL form tried, .pdf included, and HKLII reset the connection on our side (2026-10-12). The licence guide (had-mjtk-guide) already gives section 22 in both languages
  • English-language newspaper archives — The SCMP article 'Stricter rules for mahjong parlours' answered 403 with a Cloudflare challenge (2026-10-12), and Wayback failed on our side. The archives for other countries do not apply to a Hong Kong game. No English report of the time on the minimum was found
  • Statutes published in English — Read the Home Affairs Department's notice to mahjong/tin kau licensees of 8 August 2019 under the Gambling Ordinance (Cap. 148). It concerns licence condition 8 (staff need prior approval) and special condition (a) (no alterations), with the section 22 offence, and says nothing about rules of play. The e-Legislation text of Cap. 148 could not be read (JavaScript only)

In the tree

Descends from Hong Kong old style, as the source chart draws it.

Caveat from the source chart

The 1970s 3-3 system is asserted by the Mahjong Wiki timeline and carries no citation there.

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