Taiwanese style

Assessment

Confidence

documented a published ruleset or rule description exists and is cited

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.

• [1] books: Amy Lo, Dragon Chang
• [3] features bonuses for dealers and recurring dealerships, and allows multiple players to win from a single discard. Separately notes that holding all eight flowers and seasons is an automatic win with a payout from all players
• [4] contrasts this explicitly with the exponential doubling used in Hong Kong scoring
• [5] Read in scan, three places (the rules' footnotes and a closing list of local differences): 'In Fukien, where 16 tiles are used by each player, four times are required for each player, with only the Leader taking an additional tile from the wall', and in Fukien 'an Un Kong is allowed to be placed on table with all faces down'. One passage reads '16 tiles ... instead of 18', which is probably the scan's error for 13
• [6] Read at the source (live). Also: declared ready (宣告聽牌) 1 tai, 地聽 4; 平胡 2, with a list of waits that do not count; no chow, pung or open kong from the last three tiles
• [7] Read at the source: competition rules without a tai table. Passing a winning tile (過水) bars winning until the player discards; sixteen tiles are left unplayed at the end of the wall; four kongs or four identical winds discarded in a row do not void the hand; 八仙過海 adds 8 tai but is not a win by itself, and there is no 七搶一; the dealer cannot declare 天聽. Penalties are counted in tai and base (底)
• [16] LAW, read at the source: under Criminal Code art. 266, gambling for money in a public place or a place open to the public is an offence (fine up to NT$50,000); art. 268 makes providing a gambling place for profit an offence (up to three years). Mahjong 'associations' and 'leisure halls' without door control are places open to the public. Playing at home is not a criminal offence, but can be fined under the Social Order Maintenance Act; small stakes 'for temporary amusement' are exempt. Online mahjong gambling is an offence. There is no licence for mahjong premises
• [8] States, without a source, that mahjong came to Taiwan from the mainland 'in the early Republic' and 'slowly evolved from Guangdong's thirteen tiles into Taiwan's sixteen'
• [17] Names the sixteen-tile games as Fuzhou, Taiwanese, Fujian and Hong Kong 16-tile; also Jiangdu (Yangzhou), and formerly Beijing and Tianjin. Its source is Asami Ryō's page on sixteen-tile mahjong, cited through a 2017 Wayback capture
• [18] The page Chinese Wikipedia cites, read through the mirror of Asami Ryō's site. Asami wonders whether the sixteen-tile game reached Taiwan before or during Japanese rule, or with the Nationalists, and reports a Shanghai correspondent's 2009 forum post that sixteen-tile fu-counting mahjong survives at Jiangdu (Yangzhou), now mostly scored by a four-fan limit, and an email citing a 1941 book, 《麻雀研究》, for its having been widespread around Beijing and Tianjin
• [2] Read 2026-10-09. Infobox: dead wall varies, replenishing varies, multiple winners on a discard varies, continuous dealer wins yes, concealed kongs hidden. Walls of 18 stacks two high; three dice. The page gives no date and no history for the style and cites nothing
• [2] The wiki's scoring page, read 2026-10-09. The LA league's 'House Rules' are named but not linked
• [9] Read 2026-10-09. An uncited timeline: New Style in the 1920s-50s, Clear Chapter in the 1950s, the 3-3 system in the 1970s, New Chapter in the early 80s, additive Taiwanese and Guangdong styles in the late 80s. It says nothing of the sixteen-tile hand or of Fujian
• [10] Read through the API on 2026-10-09. Gives the Taiwanese Hokkien name 麻雀 (muâ-tshiok, POJ môa-chhiok). Calls the repeat dealership (連莊拉莊) the essence of the game. Tagged unreferenced and original research since March 2015, with no references to follow
• [11] Read 2026-10-09. Unless agreed beforehand there is no double or triple win on one discard: the player nearest in turn takes it. Sixteen tiles (eight stacks) are left at the end, with local variants; on a draw the dealer continues; strict 過水. Four rounds (一將) take about ninety minutes. Cites one web FAQ (ezhula.com) on 過水
• [12] Read through the API on 2026-10-09. There is no standard ruleset; a ruleset called 台灣新章麻將規則 is one person's creation and has not caught on. Called 台麻 in Japan. A game runs all four winds, sixteen hands; no penalty for a hand not ready at a draw. Unreferenced
• [13] Read 2026-10-09 through the author's RSS feed (the article pages answer 403). Chang writes that, by his own inquiries in Xiamen and Zhangzhou, the sixteen-tile game was brought over from there by Taiwanese ancestors. The 1949 migrants, whose home games were mostly 13-tile, took up the 16-tile game in Taiwan, and Taiwanese businessmen later spread it in the mainland. He was honorary president of 社團法人中華麻將協會 and wrote Wonderful Taiwan Mah Jong (2003)
• [19] LAW, read 2026-10-09. Gambling for property in a public place or a place open to the public is fined up to NT$50,000, and so is gambling by telecommunications or the internet. Stakes of things for temporary amusement are exempt. The article does not name mahjong
• [20] LAW, read 2026-10-09. Gambling for property at a professional gambling place (職業賭博場所) that is not public or open to the public is fined up to NT$9,000. The article does not name mahjong
• [14] Read 2026-10-09. Sixteen tiles (eight stacks) are left unplayed; after a drawn hand the dealer continues. Opens with an unsourced history: mahjong came from the mainland to Taiwan in the early Republic and evolved from Guangdong's 13 tiles into Taiwan's 16, in nearly the same words as GameTower's
• [15] Read 2026-10-09. The writer's grandparents' generation came to Taiwan and played this 13-tile game for decades with colleagues and neighbours. He calls the units 番 rather than 台, plays to the last tile (against the sixteen-tile game's eight stacks left), and says the games most played now are sixteen-tile Taiwanese and Guangdong 13-tile

Reading it

Today's sources agree on what Taiwanese mahjong is. The Mahjong Wiki, Chinese and Japanese Wikipedia, the Chinese Wikibooks rules and FunTown's rules page all give 144 tiles with eight flowers, sixteen in hand and a win on the seventeenth as five sets and a pair, scored in additive tai. The Chinese texts add what the wiki's payout formula leaves out: each win is paid as a base (底) plus so much per tai, by the discarder alone or by all three on a self-draw. They differ on details. Flowers are often dropped in the south. The tai limit is given as 16, 24 or none. Wikibooks says one discard has only one winner unless agreed, against Wikipedia's several. The chart's '1980s' does not hold as a date for the game. It comes from the wiki's uncited Hong Kong timeline, which dates a change of scoring, not the sixteen-tile hand. Tow found sixteen tiles in Fukien in 1924. Chang, author of a 2003 book on Taiwanese mahjong, traces the game to Xiamen and Zhangzhou and says the 1949 migrants took it up in Taiwan. Taiwan's union catalogue lists a Taipei book on sixteen-tile mahjong from 1977. Still wanted: that book, a 1961 Taipei manual, Japanese-era press, and a 2026 history of mahjong in Taiwan.

Looked for, not found

• Official rules No body governs Taiwanese mahjong or issues its rules. Japanese Wikipedia says there is no standard ruleset, and the one so-called 台灣新章麻將規則 is one person's invention. Public mahjong for money is a criminal offence and no licence exists (Criminal Code art. 266)
• Organisation 社團法人中華麻將協會, of which Chang was honorary president, has no website that search found. The 麻將最大黨 political party (2022) appears only in press reports. 'Mahjong associations' in Taipei appear in the press mainly as gambling fronts (鏡週刊 2018)
• Collection NBINet, Taiwan's union library catalogue, was searched on 2026-10-09 through its Primo API; its book records feed the wanted list. No museum or archive record of a Taiwanese tile set was found

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.

• Historical 白中發 (ed.), 《16牌麻將必勝戰法》 (Winning strategy for 16-tile mahjong). Taipei: 新力, 1977 (民66). 219 pp. — The earliest dated Taiwanese book on sixteen-tile play found. It is three years before the chart's 1980s, and its rules would show whether tai and base were already the scoring then
  Where: Taipei Public Library, call no. 998.4 2651; Tunghai University Library, 998.4 2651-01 (as 16牌麻雀必勝戰法). A sequel, 16張絕招麻將必贏 (Chiayi: 綺音, 1981), is at the National Central Library, 998.4 8667-10. Tried: Not online. NBINet records read 2026-10-09 through its Primo API
• Historical 貽香堂主人, 《麻雀戰術研究》 (A study of mahjong tactics). Taipei: 清華, 1961 (民50). 80 pp. — The earliest mahjong book published in Taiwan found in the union catalogue. It would show whether Taipei play in 1961 was 13 or 16 tiles
  Where: National Cheng Kung University Library, call no. 998.4 6290. Tried: Not online. NBINet record read 2026-10-09
• Scholarship 潘八條, 《台灣島的麻將歷史》 (A history of mahjong on the island of Taiwan). Taipei: the author, February 2026. ISBN 978-626-01-5913-9 — The only book-length history of mahjong in Taiwan found. It may answer when and in what form the sixteen-tile game arrived
  Where: Listed in NBINet from the ISBN/CIP service; no library holding yet. Tried: NBINet CIP record read 2026-10-09; a web search for the title found nothing else
• Rulebook Chang, Dragon Shiang-yu (張襄玉). Wonderful Taiwan Mah Jong = 台灣麻雀: Taiwan rules + international rules. Taipei: the author, 2003. 158 pp. ISBN 9574111741 — The 'Dragon Chang' book Sloper lists for this variant: an English rulebook for the Taiwanese game by a player who represented Taiwan in international play
  Where: National Central Library, GV1299.M3 C362; Nantou County Library, 998.4 1101. Tried: Not online. NBINet record read 2026-10-09; the author's own essay is read (chang-2022-mahjong-story)
• Rulebook Amy Lo, The Book of Mahjong: An Illustrated Guide (2001), as listed by Sloper — Sloper names it as a book for this variant
  Where: Print. Tried: Not read; not searched this pass
• Rulebook The Los Angeles Mahjong League's Taiwanese 'House Rules' — The second tai column the Mahjong Wiki prints beside IGS. Its own rules would show where the difference comes from
  Where: Not located. Tried: The wiki's scoring page (read 2026-10-09) names the 'House Rules' but gives no link or publication details
• Guide ezmjtw.tripod.com, 「台灣十六張麻將」 — A Taiwanese player's full rules page for the sixteen-tile game, which search engines still index
  Where: https://ezmjtw.tripod.com/mahjong16-big5.htm. Tried: 2026-10-09: over http the name did not resolve; over https the proxy refused CONNECT; Wayback CDX connections were reset five times. All failures on our side. Earlier: proxy 502 (2026-09-28)
• Journalism 臺灣日日新報 (Taiwan Nichinichi Shinpō), 1920s-1940s: reports of 麻雀 in Taiwan — The only way to see when and in what form mahjong reached Taiwan, and whether it was played with 13 or 16 tiles under Japanese rule. Chang's account would put sixteen-tile play there before 1949
  Where: The 臺灣日日新報 database (subscription; National Taiwan Library and university libraries). Tried: Not freely online; not retried this pass

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 2026-10-09.

Names searched: Chinese 台灣麻將, 臺灣麻將, 台湾麻将, 台灣十六張麻將, 臺灣16張麻將, 十六張麻將, 16張麻將, 台灣麻雀, 麻雀 (Taiwanese Hokkien muâ-tshiok, POJ môa-chhiok); English Taiwanese mahjong, Taiwanese Mahjong, Taiwan mahjong, Taiwan mah jong, Taiwanese 16-tile mahjong, 16-tile mahjong.