Sichuan bloody rules

Assessment

Confidence

catalogued listed in a variant catalogue with tile counts and hand sizes, but no rules text verified

Evidence

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

Cross-comparison

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

• [6] Morten Andersen, newsgroup November 2007, on Sichuan style as played in Chengdu: kongs score very well; play continues after the first player goes out and does not stop until three players are mahjong or the wall runs out; penalty for holding all three suits at the end
• [1] MIL 'Brief Introduction to Bloody Mahjong' fetched as PDF; blood-battle continuation and missing-suit requirement
• [2] translates the name as Bloody Battle to the End. A chow cannot be called except for a winning hand, which is narrower than a flat no-chow rule
• [3] describes Blood Battle as one of the most widely recognised and adopted mahjong rulesets within China, and states the one-missing-suit requirement
• [4] Read at the source (unreferenced). Calls 血战到底 a feature of the Chengdu rules, 'the representative rules of Sichuan mahjong', and lists four Chengdu forms: standard, with kongs ('rain'), with blood battle, and with both
• [5] Read at the source. 'Popular in the Sichuan and Chongqing regions … particularly prevalent in Chengdu'; core mechanics are lacking a suit and the flower-pig check after a draw; after one player wins 'the remaining players continue playing until three players have won', so 'the player who wins first does not necessarily gain the most profit'
• [7] Read at the source. In Chengdu 'you must lack one suit, and there are only 筒条万'; the common forms are 血战到底, where each player may win once and play ends when three have won or the wall is gone, and 血流成河, where a player may win many times and play ends only with the wall. Describes a Chongqing underwater game of 'blood battle' Chengdu mahjong
• [8] Read in abstract only. A study of mahjong 'at the turn of the twenty-first century' in Chengdu, at four levels: neighbours, the Residential Committee, the municipal government and official media, and the state

Reading it

The best-evidenced node in the mainland group, and now in two languages. English sources (the MIL, MahjongPros, the World Mahjong Tour) and Chinese ones (Chinese Wikipedia, Baidu, Chinese National Geography) agree on 108 suit tiles, a hand short of one suit, play continuing after the first win until three have won or the wall is gone, and a penalty at a draw for a hand still in three suits. Two refinements. Chinese National Geography separates 血战到底 (each player wins once) from 血流成河 (a player may win again and again, play ending only with the wall); the English sources call both 'bloody'. And chows cannot be called from a discard except to complete a win, which is narrower than a flat prohibition. The date is weaker than the rules. Only the wiki puts the Chengdu adoption in the 1990s. Wang Di's study of Chengdu mahjong at the turn of the century is the scholarship that would test it, but only its abstract was readable, and that does not mention the rules.

Looked for, not found

• Law No law bears on the rules; Wang Di (2014) covers the city government's dealings with mahjong, read in abstract only.
• Historical No source dating the first 血战到底 games was found; Chinese searches turn up rules and strategy, not origins.
• Forum Zhihu threads on 血战到底 technique exist but refuse automated reads.
• Collection No museum or library record bears on the bloody rules.

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.

• Scholarship Wang, Di. "Mahjong and Urban Life …" International Journal of Asian Studies 11.2 (2014): 187-210, full text — The academic study of Chengdu mahjong around 2000; may date the bloody rules.
  Where: Cambridge Core (subscription). Tried: Only the abstract is open.
• Scholarship Wang, Di. "The Power of Mahjong." Chapter in The Teahouse under Socialism: The Decline and Renewal of Public Life in Chengdu, 1950-2000. Cornell University Press, 2018 — A book chapter on mahjong in Chengdu teahouses up to 2000, the decade the wiki says the bloody rules took hold.
  Where: De Gruyter / Cornell University Press; Project MUSE. Tried: The De Gruyter page returned nothing to automated reads.
• Guide Novikov, Vitaly. "Sichuan Mahjong? It's that simple!" (SBR_ENG_part_1.pdf), MahjongSoft — An English guide to Sichuan Bloody Rules from the MahjongSoft group.
  Where: https://mahjongsoft.com/files/SBR_ENG_part_1.pdf. Tried: mahjongsoft.com failed TLS by curl and returned 503 by WebFetch earlier in this project.