Proto-mahjong

Descends into

• Chinese archaic — c. 1890, Wilkinson
• Late Qing style — c. 1903, Li Boyuan
• Chinese pre-classical — Mauger, 1915
• Chinese classical — 1920s, 144 tiles

Cross-comparison

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

• [1] Sloperama's family tree page gives the Matiao / Khanhoo / dominoes root structure the chart's root node stands for
• [2] Stanwick and Xu's tile-set research on early ma que, underlying the Hua Maque and Wang Maque material
• [2] dates the physical evidence: the ma que pai sets of Carl Himly and George Glover were collected in 1868-1876, 1872-1873 and 1875, and the wind tiles are found in most known ma que pai sets after the 1870s. The game is 麻雀 ma que, literally 'hemp bird' and in bonded form 'sparrow', also known in the Late Qing period as peng hu, 'encountering harmony'
• [3] names the ancestry directly: khanhoo is a non-partnership draw-and-discard Chinese card game, first recorded in the late Ming as a multi-trick-taking game, which 'belongs to the same family as Mahjong'. By the late Qing the rules Wilkinson and Culin recorded had changed from trick-taking to draw-and-discard, a shift attributed to the 18th and 19th centuries when trick-taking gave way to shedding games — mòhú (默和) and pènghú (碰和), which it calls the ancestors of mahjong. Wilkinson had Charles Goodall issue a khanhoo pack with a rules booklet in 1891

Reading it

Well dated, and now with a named mechanism of descent. Stanwick and Xu date surviving ma que pai sets to collections made between 1868 and 1876, with wind tiles in most known sets after the 1870s, which corroborates the chart's c. 1870s by artefacts rather than by rules. Wikipedia's khanhoo article supplies the structural story: the family shifted from trick-taking to draw-and-discard across the 18th and 19th centuries as shedding games — mòhú and pènghú, named there as mahjong's ancestors — displaced the older form. That is what this node stands for. The chart's other claim, that the rules are lost, no source contradicts: what survives from the period is tiles, cards and collectors' notes, not a ruleset.

Sources

1. Sloper, Tom. "The Mah-Jongg Family Tree." Sloperama. supporting checked 2026-09-18

   Illustrated tree; source for the Matiao / Khanhoo / dominoes root structure.

   https://www.sloperama.com/mjfaq/tree.htm

   Also cited on: Chinese archaic · bibliography #2

2. Stanwick, Michael and Hongbing Xu. "Flowers and Kings." themahjongtileset.co.uk. supporting checked 2026-09-18

   Early ma que tile-set research underlying the Hua Maque and Wang Maque material.

   http://www.themahjongtileset.co.uk/tile-set-history/flowers-and-kings-an-hypothesis-of-their-function-in-early-ma-que/

   Also cited on: Late Qing style · bibliography #26

3. Wikipedia. "Khanhoo." cross-check checked 2026-09-19

   The draw-and-discard card game Wilkinson adapted for Western players in 1891, described as belonging to the same family as mahjong, with mòhú and pènghú named as mahjong's ancestors.

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

   Only cited here · bibliography #77

4. Sloper, Tom. "FAQ 11: History of Mah-Jongg." Sloperama. canonical

   Regional branching in the 1930s and 40s; Racster 1924 on Shanghai versus Hong Kong base scores; the author's own note that the tree illustration predates later findings.

   https://www.sloperama.com/mjfaq/mjfaq11f.html

   Also cited on: Chinese classical, Shanghai / Hong Kong new style · bibliography #3