Proto-mahjong › Chinese classical › Shanghai / Hong Kong new style › Mainland regionals › Nanjing style
Nanjing style
dragons as flowers
Cross-comparison
corroborated — two or more independent sources agree on the facts that define this variant
| Source | Tiles | Hand | Flowers | Scoring | Payout |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [1] | 144 | 13, out on 14 | in addition to the regular flowers/seasons, the dragon tiles are treated as flowers | points for flowers, doubled for special ways of going out | winner only |
| [2] | 144, of which TWENTY are flower tiles: four green dragons, four red dragons, four white dragons, the four seasons, and plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum | — | — | flower scoring is the core mechanic, the flower count converted into points at a rate the table sets; kongs come in three kinds, exposed, concealed and flower kong, each scoring differently | a self-drawn win collects from all three opponents, while a player who discards the winning tile pays for one hand only |
- [1] revealed by Shanghai player 'ithinc' on the mahjong newsgroup, 17-18 April 2006
- [2] also called Jinling Mahjong (金陵麻将), popular in the Nanjing area of Jiangsu. Winning hands divide into minor and major; four 'hard flowers', such as red or white dragons, are needed to qualify for a minor hand, and a concealed hand awards additional flowers. A major hand retains the dealership
Reading it
Two independent sources agree, and the second is far richer than the 2006 newsgroup report the node rested on. Both give 144 tiles and dragons treated as flowers; Baidu makes the arithmetic explicit, twenty flower tiles being the twelve dragons plus the eight seasons and plants. Both make flower count the scoring engine. Baidu adds the structure the chart lacks: minor and major hands, four hard flowers to qualify for a minor, a flower kong alongside exposed and concealed kongs, and a major hand retaining the dealership. The local name is Jinling Mahjong.
Sources
Sloper, Tom. "FAQ 2b: Identifying a Mah-Jongg Variant." Sloperama. canonical checked 2026-09-18
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
Baidu Baike: 南京麻将 (Nanjing Mahjong). cross-check checked 2026-09-19
A detailed account of the Nanjing regional variant, also called Jinling Mahjong: its 144-tile set with twenty flower tiles, its flower-based scoring, and its minor and major hand categories.
https://baike.baidu.com/en/item/Nanjing%20Mahjong/29762
Only cited here · bibliography #79