Mahjong CompendiumVietnamese classical

Proto-mahjong › Chinese classical › Shanghai / Hong Kong new style › Hong Kong old style › Nanyang variants › Vietnamese classical

Vietnamese classical

160 tiles, 8 jokers

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. Guide Sloper, Tom. "FAQ 2b: Identifying a Mah-Jongg Variant." Sloperama. canonical checked 2026-09-18

    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.

    for this variant The chart's catalogue entry. The Vietnamese rule booklet bears out its 160 tiles and eight jokers, but the 'nineteen ways of going Out' is Sloper's own inference (FAQ 7-EJ), and the Vietnamese rules do not support it.

    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

  2. Encyclopedia Wikipedia. "Mahjong." cross-check checked 2026-09-18

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

    AI summary The main article's regional-variations section, which describes most branches of this tree independently of the chart's own sources.

    for this variant The encyclopedia's summary; agrees on the 160 tiles and the eight jokers.

    Also cited on: Proto-mahjong, Chinese classical, Hong Kong old style, Taiwanese style, Nanyang variants, Singapore style and 10 more · bibliography #54

  3. Encyclopedia Vietnamese Wikipedia: Mạt chược. cross-check checked 2026-10-01

    https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%E1%BA%A1t_ch%C6%B0%E1%BB%A3c

    AI summary The Vietnamese article on mahjong, which describes the Vietnamese game in Vietnamese terms: the 160-tile set with its 'frame' jokers (khung), the play, the penalties, and the named hands with their values in phán and mủn. Tagged as unsourced.

    for this variant The fullest Vietnamese account. Its khung names and colours and its phán-and-mủn scoring agree with the 'Edward' rule booklet read on 2026-10-10, which gives the unsourced article an independent check.

    Also cited on: Vietnamese modern · bibliography #185

  4. Guide McGill Students' Mahjong Club. "A Quick Look at Mahjong around the World: Vietnamese Mahjong." McGill Mahjong (blog), August 2015. cross-check checked 2026-10-01

    http://mcgillmahjong.blogspot.com/2015/08/a-quick-look-at-mahjong-around-world_6.html

    AI summary A student club's summary of the Vietnamese game for players of other styles: the tile set, the jokers, the bonus tiles and what little the author could find on scoring.

    for this variant An outside player's summary, useful for the 176-tile modern set and the bonus-tile rules. Its claim that the scoring is identical to Chinese Classical is contradicted by the phán-and-mủn scoring of the Vietnamese rule booklet, and it is partly dependent on Sloperama.

    Also cited on: Vietnamese modern · bibliography #186

  5. Scholarship Ebashi Takashi (江橋崇). 「（七）中国国外に残る花牌麻雀」 ('Flower-tile mahjong surviving outside China'), in 麻雀牌が語る麻雀の歴史, 五 花牌の盛衰史. Japan Playing Card Museum (日本かるた文化館), 2018-2023. cross-check checked 2026-10-01

    https://japanplayingcardmuseum.com/010-5-mahjong-flowertiles-asiancountries/

    AI summary A one-page Japanese study of the extra flower tiles in Vietnamese, Thai, Malaysian and Singaporean sets, drawn from the sets themselves: which flowers each region's sets carry, and a hypothesis for why the south kept so many.

    for this variant Independent confirmation of the 160 tiles from the sets themselves, and the same reading as Stanwick and Xu: the Vietnamese set keeps older Chinese tiles.

    Also cited on: Nanyang variants, Singapore style, Malaysian 4-player · bibliography #159

  6. Commercial Mahjong Pros. "Beginner's Guide to Southern Vietnamese Mahjong." Mahjong Pros (retailer's blog). cross-check checked 2026-10-01

    https://mahjongpros.com/blogs/how-to-play/beginners-guide-to-vietnamese-mahjong

    AI summary A mahjong-set retailer's rules for the Vietnamese game as played in the South: the 160-tile set and its jokers, the deal, calls in Vietnamese terms, and scoring in phán and mủn with a payment table.

    for this variant A full rules text in English for the 160-tile game, agreeing with Vietnamese Wikipedia on the jokers, the vocabulary and the phán and mủn. A retailer's, not an authority's.

    Also cited on: Vietnamese modern · bibliography #187

  7. Guide Sloper, Tom. "FAQ 7-EJ: Those Mysterious Special Joker Tiles That Come in Some Mah-Jongg Sets." Sloperama. cross-check checked 2026-10-10

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

    AI summary Sloper's FAQ on joker tiles, built from reader correspondence. It reprints his 2001 bulletin-board account of the 160-tile Vietnamese set, giving the eight jokers' Vietnamese names and his own guesses at the rules. It also reprints Michael Stanwick (2012) on Changsha 王麻雀 and Raymond Lee (2016, 2019) on Vietnamese jokers in Hong Kong sets.

    for this variant Shows that the chart's 'nineteen ways of going Out' is Sloper's inference, not a reported rule. Same author as the chart's source, so not independent.

    Also cited on: Vietnamese modern · bibliography #478

  8. Guide Sloper, Tom. "Rules for Mah-Jongg - Vietnamese Style." Word document, Sloperama downloads folder (file dated 24 February 2023). cross-check checked 2026-10-10

    https://sloperama.com/downlode/mahjongg/Vietnamese_Mah-Jongg_Rules.doc

    AI summary Sloper's write-up of the Vietnamese game, based on rules from a Vietnamese-American friend who plays with 176 tiles. It covers the 160 and 176-tile sets, the uses of the jokers and the kings and queens, the No Flowers - No Leaves hand, payment in pha'n and mu'n, and a scoring chart the friend supplied.

    for this variant Sloper's fullest account, from a player of the modern set. It scores ordinary hands in pha'n, which already cuts against the catalogue's 'nineteen ways'. Not independent of the chart's source.

    Also cited on: Vietnamese modern · bibliography #479

  9. Rulebook [Anonymous.] "Bài mạt chược" (the 'Edward' Vietnamese mahjong rules), undated booklet, with English translation and notes by Bridget Young. PDF, Sloperama downloads folder (file dated 20 July 2026). cross-check checked 2026-10-10

    https://sloperama.com/downlode/mahjongg/Vietnamese%20%28Edward%29%20Mahjong%20Translation%20Bridget%20Y.pdf

    AI summary A Vietnamese rule booklet for the 160-tile game, with the translation on the facing column. It covers the eight khung jokers and the flowers, seating, dealing, claiming, the winning hand, payment tables in phán and mủn, and penalties. The translator adds notes, a comparison with the modern game and a reference to Nguyễn Xuân Mai's 1950 guide. Hosted by Sloperama but not written by Sloper.

    for this variant The only Vietnamese rules text read for this node and the strongest evidence here. It confirms the 160 tiles and the eight jokers, and in place of the chart's 'nineteen ways' it scores in phán and mủn. Hosted by Sloperama but not written by Sloper.

    Also cited on: Vietnamese modern · bibliography #480

  10. Encyclopedia Pháp Thí Hội. "Mạt Chược." Từ điển Phật giáo: Chú Thích Phật Học. blog.phapthihoi.org. cross-check checked 2026-10-10

    https://blog.phapthihoi.org/tu-dien-phat-giao/mat-chuoc/

    AI summary A glossary entry in a Vietnamese Buddhist dictionary site. It says Vietnamese sets have 160 tiles against 144-152 in Chinese ones, names the khung jokers and the flower sets, and describes the Vietnamese game as formal and played mostly by the well-off. Undated and unsourced.

    for this variant Independent of the English sources. It agrees on the 160 tiles and the joker names and adds the game's social standing. It may share text with Vietnamese Wikipedia, which limits its weight.

    Only cited here · bibliography #482

  11. Commercial Thế Giới Board Game. "Hướng dẫn chơi mạt chược." 5 April 2024. cross-check checked 2026-10-10

    https://thegioiboardgame.vn/blogs/luat-boardgame/huong-dan-choi-mat-chuoc

    AI summary A Vietnamese board-game retailer's rules page for mạt chược. It covers the 160-tile set, seating, dealing, named winning hands in phán and the scoring levels, and ends with short notes on Chinese and Japanese mahjong. It is muddled in places.

    for this variant A current Vietnamese-language page that keeps the 160 tiles and the phán vocabulary. Little weight on the details.

    Only cited here · bibliography #483

  12. Encyclopedia Chinese Wikipedia: 麻将. cross-check checked 2026-10-10

    https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hans/%E9%BA%BB%E5%B0%86

    AI summary The origin section weighs the Ningbo and Fujian-Guangdong theories and traces each origin legend (Powell 1923, the Taiping hypothesis, the Tianyi Pavilion Chen Yumen account, the 2008 CCTV Harvey diary) to where it first appears.

    for this variant Conflicts with every Vietnamese source on the count and on the kings and queens, which are seat flowers in the Edward booklet and at Sloperama. It also swaps the roles of 總 and 合. Unsourced on these points, so weak.

    Also cited on: Proto-mahjong, Chinese classical, Shanghai / Hong Kong new style, Nanyang variants, Singapore style, Filipino style and 1 more · bibliography #105

  13. Scholarship Stanwick, Michael, and Xu Hongbing. "Flowers and Kings: An Hypothesis of their Function in Early Ma Que." The Playing-Card 37, no. 1 (2008): 29-40. Web edition at The Mahjong Tile Set. cross-check checked 2026-10-01

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

    AI summary Reads the 'inner flower' jokers and 'outer flower' bonus tiles of the earliest sets through Liu Yishu's 1941 description of North China's 花麻雀, and, after Depaulis, matches the Vietnamese 'king' tiles described by Nguyen Xuan Mai (1950) to Changsha 王麻雀.

    for this variant The only scholarly work found on the Vietnamese game, and it gives the jokers a pedigree: Chinese joker games of the late Qing, not Hong Kong old style. The joker names in Vietnamese Wikipedia (Tổng, Thùng, Soọc, Màn; Hoa, Hỷ, Nguyên, Hợp) are the same characters.

    Also cited on: Nanyang variants · bibliography #160

  14. Encyclopedia Wikipedia. "Mahjong tiles." cross-check checked 2026-10-01

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

    AI summary Dates the dragon tiles: whites from replacement tiles, reds circa 1870, greens by 1890, with inner-flower jokers surviving in Vietnam.

    for this variant The encyclopedia's account of the jokers and of the post-1975 sets; draws on Stanwick and Xu, so not independent of them.

    Also cited on: Proto-mahjong, Nanyang variants, Malaysian 4-player, Vietnamese modern · bibliography #102

  15. Law Chính phủ (Government of Vietnam). Nghị định số 282/2025/NĐ-CP ngày 30 tháng 10 năm 2025 quy định xử phạt vi phạm hành chính trong lĩnh vực an ninh, trật tự, an toàn xã hội; phòng, chống tệ nạn xã hội; phòng, chống bạo lực gia đình. Công báo số 1583 + 1584, 17 November 2025. cross-check checked 2026-10-10

    https://congbaocdn.chinhphu.vn/CongBaoCP/VanBan/2025/10/46543/59667-1-20251583-1584282-2025-nd-cp.pdf

    AI summary Vietnam's decree on administrative penalties for public-order offences, in force from 15 December 2025 in place of Decree 144/2021. Article 36 sets the fines for illegal gambling: it lists named card, dice and betting games and adds 'other forms' played for money.

    for this variant The current administrative law that would cover mạt chược played for money, which it reaches only through its catch-all clause. Criminal liability falls under Penal Code art. 321, which was not read.

    Only cited here · bibliography #481

  16. Historical Dennery, Étienne. Asia's Teeming Millions and Its Problems for the West. Translated by John Peile. London: Jonathan Cape, 1931. (French original: Foules d'Asie, 1930.) cross-check checked 2026-10-10

    https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.34213

    AI summary A French political scientist's survey of population and migration in East and Southeast Asia, including the overseas Chinese of Indochina. It describes evening life in Cholon, mah-jong among other things. Read in the Digital Library of India scan on the Internet Archive.

    for this variant A dated outside witness that mahjong was played in Cholon's Chinese quarter around 1930. It says nothing of the set or the rules.

    Only cited here · bibliography #484

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
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.

SourceTilesHandFlowersScoringPayout
[1]16013, out on 14includes flowers/seasons, 8 kings/queens, and 8 jokersbased on the 19 ways of going Outwinner only
[2]160—eight specialised jokers and eight extra flowers——
[3]160: 108 suited (Sách, Vạn, Văn), 28 honours (tài phao), 16 flowers (Mai Lan Cúc Trúc, Xuân Hạ Thu Đông, Tứ Hoàng, Tứ Hậu; sometimes the four arts and four occupations instead of kings and queens), 8 jokers (khung). Sets now commonly carry up to four sets of khung13, dealer 14; four sets (phu) and a pairkhung xanh: Tổng (any tile, flowers included), Thùng (any dots), Soọc (any bamboo), Màn (any characters); khung đỏ: Hoa, Hỷ (any wind), Nguyên (any dragon), Hợp (any suited tile); with two or more khung sets, a nhị khẩu tile standing for hỷ and nguyênpoints in phán; 6 phán make a mủn ('mủn cun', 滿貫); named hands from Xuông (no phán) and Phình (all chows, 1 phán) through Tui Tui (all pungs, 3), Lai Hàng (half flush, 3), Không Hoa (no flowers or jokers, 1 mủn), to Đại Tứ Hỉ (8-10 mủn)self-drawn: all pay ('chung cái'); on a discard the discarder pays the larger share and the other two the smaller; a false win pays its value plus a mủn
[4]160 classical, 176 modern (jokers tripled, each copy framed differently)—kings and queens, flowers and seasons 'almost interchangeable'; bonus tiles may be kept and discarded after the deal, and a waiting player may win on a discarded bonus tile'seems to be identical to Chinese Classical scoring, except only the winner's hand is scored'; a large bonus for a hand with no jokers, bonus or honour tiles—
[5]160, with 24 flowers: seasons, gentlemen, 一皇-四皇 and 一后-四后, 筒索萬総 and 喜元花合————
[6]160: 144, eight Emperors and Empresses, eight jokers13, dealer 14; four melds and a pair; no seven pairs, but thirteen orphansjokers Thùng (dots), Soọc (bamboo), Thay (characters), Tổng (any tile, flowers included), Hỷ (winds), Nguyên (dragons), Hợp (any suited); Emperors (皇) and Empresses (后) numbered 1-4 are flowersphán, and mủn at 6 phán; after a mủn only mủn count for payment; a 'No Flowers, No Leaves' handa discarded flower or joker counts as Tổng and the thrower pays for everyone
[1]160: flowers/seasons, 8 kings/queens and 8 jokers; '160 or more' tiles identifies Vietnamese or perhaps Thai play13, out on 14—based on the 19 ways of going Outonly the winner is paid
[7]160: the 136 basic tiles, 16 flowers numbered 1-4 and 8 special jokers13, out on 14jokers with the Vietnamese names Chuong Bui Van sent in 1998: Tổng (almighty), Soọc (bamboo), Màn (characters) and Thùng (dots) in red characters; Hỷ (winds), Nguyên (dragons), Đại Hoa (double flower) and Hạp (any suit tile) in bluethe 19 ways of going out, which Sloper takes to match the 19 special hands of Chinese Classical and to be required for a winonly the winner is paid; Sloper does not know who pays
[8]160 classic (the 144-tile set plus 8 kings/queens and 8 jokers); 176 modern, with the jokers tripled13, dealer 14; walls of 20 stacks with 160 tileskings and queens used exactly as flowers and numbered by seat; the eight jokers as in FAQ 7-EJ, with a bonus for all four of one colour; a discarded flower counts as the Emperor jokerpha'n, with 6 pha'n to a mu'n; a No Flowers - No Leaves handonly the winner is paid, by all players; East does not pay or collect double; the discarder pays double up to 5 pha'n
[9]160: 8 khung (jokers), 16 hoa (four flower sets numbered 1-4), 28 tài-phao (honours) and 108 suited tiles in Văn, Sách and Vạn13, dealer 14; each player builds 40 tiles into 20 stacks; a win is four groups (phu) and a pair (mắt), with jokers allowed in eitherkhung xanh: Tổng (anything), Thùng (dots), Soọc (bamboo), Màn (characters); khung đỏ: Đại-Hoa (flower joker, which must be set down for 2 phán or discarded), Hỉ (winds), Nguyên (dragons), Hợp (any suited tile). Jokers may be set down for phán or kept in the hand as substitutes, and flowers score 1 phán at their own seatphán, counted in mủn of 6 phán, with payment tables by phán; hands range from a 0-phán 'mosquito' hand through Tui Tui (3 phán) to Đại Tứ Hỉ (4 mủn)cái (double) and con (single) shares, which the translator reads as the discarder paying double; in the last four tiles the discarder alone pays
[10]160 in Vietnamese play, against 144-152 in Chinese sets—khung xanh (Tổng, Thùng, Soọc, Màn) and khung đỏ (Hoa, Hỷ, Nguyên, Hợp), plus Tứ Hoa, Tứ Quý, Tứ Hoàng and Tứ Hậu; Chinese sets have no khung——
[11]160, described as '4 bộ khung' of 40 tiles each, which seems to confuse the joker frames with the 40-tile wall each player builds; 108 suited tiles, honours, 16 flowers (seasons, gentlemen, Tứ Hoàng and Tứ Hậu, or the arts and occupations instead), and blue and red khungeach player arranges 40 tiles in 20 stacks—phán: Ù muỗi with no phán, Ù phình 1, Tui tui 3, Đại Tam Nguyên 9, Thập Tam Thái Bảo 13—
[12]152: the suited and honour tiles plus sixteen restricted jokers, 花元喜合筒索萬總 and 一皇-四皇, 一后-四后—花 adds two fan and is not wild; 元 and 喜 stand for dragons and winds, 合 for honours, 筒索萬 for their own suits and 總 for any suited tile; 皇 and 后 are universal jokers ranked 1-4——
  • [1] no books in English
  • [2] independently gives the same 160-tile total the chart and Sloperama give
  • [3] Read at the source. Says that before 1975 Vietnamese sets had four flower sets and two (blue and red) joker sets, 160 tiles, where Chinese sets have 144 and no jokers; that before 1975 in South Vietnam mahjong was a game of the educated and the rich; and that in Chợ Lớn tiles were engraved by machine. Its hand names are Cantonese readings (Xập Xám Díu 十三幺, mủn cun 滿貫, tui tui 對對, phán 番). The article carries an unsourced warning
  • [4] Read at the source. Says the rules 'seem to not be very easy to find on the internet'; its images are taken from Sloperama. Its list of the four blue jokers (Emperor, Characters, Suited, Flower) does not match its own caption or Vietnamese Wikipedia (all, dots, bamboo, characters)
  • [13] Read at the source. Following Depaulis, matches the extra 'king' tiles of the Vietnamese game described by Nguyen Xuan Mai (Haiphong, 1950), four (花元喜合) or eight (with 筒索萬總), to the inner-flower jokers of Changsha 王麻雀, with one exception (花, used as an outer flower)
  • [5] Read at the source. The kings and queens are 'found nowhere else' and identify a Vietnamese set; the 筒索萬総 and 喜元花合 tiles are shared with Guangdong and Thailand. Explains them as Qing-era equipment preserved after China reformed its own
  • [14] The inner-flower jokers 'disappeared from most of China but are still found in Vietnam'; 'Vietnamese mahjong is related to extinct Chinese variants which used specialized jokers such as "King Mahjong" (王麻雀)'; after 1975 modern sets tripled or quadrupled the eight jokers, each copy framed differently
  • [6] Read at the source. Uses the Vietnamese terms phỗng (pung), khàn (kong), phình (chow), ăn (to claim a chow), ù (win); walls of 20 stacks
  • [1] Re-read 2026-10-10, unchanged. The page's list of variants says the rules are 'briefly given in FAQ 7e', and FAQ 7-EJ shows the 19 ways of going out to be Sloper's inference. The page also shows Raymond Lee's 2016 table of flowers and jokers as an image
  • [7] Sloper's 2001 bulletin-board post, reprinted. The page also reprints Stanwick (2012), who follows Depaulis in linking the jokers to Changsha 王麻雀, and Raymond Lee (2019): the Vietnamese jokers reached Hong Kong, where 皇 replaced 縂 and 將 replaced 花. Sloper's colours are the reverse of the Vietnamese names, where the Tổng set is khung xanh (blue)
  • [8] Sloper's write-up of rules from a Vietnamese-American friend who plays with 176 tiles. It says players in Southern California, Texas and Virginia differ, and Sloper admits he cannot explain the friend's scoring chart
  • [9] An undated Vietnamese booklet, whose scan is named Vietnamese_Edward_Legal.tif, with a facing English translation and notes by Bridget Young. Part of the payment section is covered in the scan. The translator compares the booklet with the modern game and cites Nguyễn Xuân Mai's 1950 book: the dealer still paid double then
  • [15] Article 36 fines illegal gambling 1-2 million đồng for play with the listed games (xóc đĩa, tá lả, tổ tôm, tú lơ khơ, tam cúc, tứ sắc, binh xập xám and others) or in 'other forms' for money. Mạt chược is not named. The decree is dated 30 October 2025, came into force on 15 December 2025 and replaces Decree 144/2021
  • [10] A glossary entry on a Buddhist dictionary site. It gives the name as the Cantonese reading of 麻雀, and says the Vietnamese game is more complex and formal than the Chinese, needs a large table covered in green baize, and was common only among the well-off. Undated and unsourced; parts read close to Vietnamese Wikipedia
  • [11] A Vietnamese board-game retailer's page dated 5 April 2024. It is muddled in places: Mún cun is a one-suit hand of 6 phán, Đại Tứ Hí is 36 phán, and the page ends with Chinese and Japanese variants
  • [12] Read as raw wikitext on 2026-10-10. Its navigation lists 越南麻雀 with sub-variants 越南皇麻雀 and 越南花麻雀; there is no article at 越南麻將
  • [16] Describes Cholon and other overseas Chinese cities in their leisure hours, with cafés and restaurants and 'the rattling of Mah-Jong counters quickly thrown on tables'. Translated from Foules d'Asie (1930)

Reading it

The sources read agree on the label. Sloper's catalogue gives 160 tiles with eight jokers and eight kings and queens. An undated Vietnamese rule booklet, the 'Edward' rules translated by Bridget Young, opens with the same 160: eight khung, sixteen flowers, 28 honours and 108 suited tiles. A Vietnamese glossary and a retailer's guide repeat the 160. The booklet names the blue set Tổng, Thùng, Soọc and Màn (any tile, dots, bamboo, characters) and the red set Đại-Hoa, Hỉ, Nguyên and Hợp (flower, winds, dragons, any suited tile). It deals 13 tiles, 14 to the dealer, from walls of 20 stacks, and scores in phán, six to a mủn. On the translator's reading, the discarder pays the double share. That contradicts the chart's 'scoring based on the 19 ways of going Out', which Sloper's own jokers FAQ shows to be his guess. Chinese Wikipedia disagrees on the set, counting 152 tiles and making the kings and queens wild. Decree 282/2025 fines gambling with listed games and a catch-all, never naming mạt chược. History stays thin: Dennery described mah-jong in Cholon around 1930, and the glossary calls it a game of the well-off. Still wanted are Nguyễn Xuân Mai's 1950 guide, the Penal Code text, and press on Cholon, the north and the years after 1975.

Looked for, not found

  • Official rules No governing body for the Vietnamese game exists or was found. Vietnamese and English web searches (2026-10-10) turned up only an anonymous booklet, a glossary, a retailer's page and Sloperama.
  • Tournament rules No tournament or league for the 160-tile game turned up in Vietnamese or English searches (2026-10-10).
  • Forum English forums cannot be reached (Reddit 403, BoardGameGeek Cloudflare). No Vietnamese forum thread on the khung rules appeared in the web searches of 2026-10-10.
  • Organisation No club or association page for the Vietnamese game was found. Sloper's rules document mentions a Vietnamese-American friend's club without naming it.
  • Collection Not looked for in museum or library catalogues in this lean pass. Ebashi's photographs of Vietnamese sets (already observed) belong to a collector and are not catalogue records.

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 Nguyen Xuan Mai, Le mah-jong: guide complet. Jeu avec les 8 rois supplémentaires. Haiphong: the author, 1950 — The earliest dated rulebook for the Vietnamese game, in French, with the eight 'kings' (jokers). It underlies Depaulis's and Stanwick and Xu's link to Changsha 王麻雀, and Bridget Young's notes to the Edward translation cite it for the payment rule of 1950.
    Where: BnF, National Library of Vietnam, WorldCat. Cited in Stanwick and Xu (2008) and in the Edward translation's notes; the translator may hold a copy.. Tried: Web search found no digitised copy. The BnF catalogue (SRU author search, 2026-10-10) lists other works by a Hanoi author named Nguyễn Xuân Mai (1922-1954) but not this guide. WorldCat was not searched.
  • Journalism 壹週刊 (Next Magazine), 「油尖旺潮玩　至激越南麻雀」, 24 September 2003 — A Hong Kong account of Vietnamese mahjong as played in Hong Kong, cited by Chinese Wikipedia for the joker tiles.
    Where: Wayback capture https://web.archive.org/web/20191116164654/https://hk.lifestyle.appledaily.com/nextplus/magazine/article/20030924/2_3553182/ (as cited by Chinese Wikipedia 麻將牌). Tried: The capture reset the connection twice through the proxy on 2026-10-10, as it did on 2026-10-01. The failure is on this side of the connection, so another network may read it. The publisher's own site is closed.
  • Law Bộ luật Hình sự 2015 (Luật số 100/2015/QH13, sửa đổi, bổ sung 2017), Điều 321: Tội đánh bạc — The criminal article on gambling. It applies to mạt chược played for money above its thresholds, and complements the administrative fines of Decree 282/2025.
    Where: vbpl.vn, thuvienphapluat.vn, vanban.chinhphu.vn, Vietnamese Wikisource (Bộ luật Hình sự 2015, sửa đổi 2017, Phần thứ hai, Chương XXI). Tried: 2026-10-10: thuvienphapluat.vn answered 403 (the site's own refusal); vbpl.vn returned a page drawn by script; vanban.chinhphu.vn and moj.gov.vn reset the connection through the proxy (this side); Wikisource's chapter page transcludes page scans.

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 2026-10-10.

Names searched: Vietnamese mạt chược, mà chược, bài mạt chược, mạt chược Việt Nam; English Vietnamese classical, Vietnamese mahjong, Vietnamese mah-jongg, classic Vietnamese.

19 places searched
  • General web search — Searched 2026-10-10, standard mode: in Vietnamese, 'mạt chược' with khung/Tổng/Thùng/Soọc/Màn, Chợ Lớn, Sài Gòn trước 1975, Hà Nội xưa, sau 1975, phán/mủn and the gambling-law terms; in French, mah-jong with Cholon/Indochine. One extended query in Vietnamese. Results read: the Edward rules translation, the Pháp Thí Hội glossary and the thegioiboardgame guide. Results not used: a Google Docs 'Luật chơi Mạt Chược cơ bản' that is a gambling-site advertisement, hocvienboardgame.vn (Hong Kong rules), and lawnet.vn's English summaries of gambling fines (leads only). Nothing turned up on the game's history in Cholon or the north.
  • Wikidata — Not reached: the Wikidata API answered 429 (rate limit on a shared address) on 2026-10-10, so no item for the Vietnamese game was checked.
  • Wikipedia, in every declared language — Chinese Wikipedia 麻将 read as raw wikitext (index.php action=raw) on 2026-10-10. Its Vietnamese entries give 152 tiles and make the kings and queens wild (observation). There is no zh article at 越南麻將, and the 越南麻雀 links were not followed. Vietnamese Wikipedia Mạt chược was not re-read because the API and action=raw both answered 429 on 2026-10-10; the observation of 2026-10-01 stands. English Mahjong and Mahjong tiles are already observed.
  • The sources' own references, and who cites them — One round. Sloper's FAQ 7-EJ leads to Stanwick's Playing-Card article and Depaulis, both already behind Stanwick and Xu. The Edward translation cites Nguyễn Xuân Mai's 1950 guide (wanted) and an unnamed Vietnamese informant. Chinese Wikipedia 麻将 cites the 2003 Next Magazine piece (wanted). Leads for a second round, unread: Bridget Young herself, who has seen the 1950 guide; the sources of Raymond Lee's 'Current trends' document (Vietnamese and Cantonese Wikipedia, a 2008 Chinese blog); Denis Warner, The Last Confucian (1964), on Saigon-Cholon; and Nicolae Sfetcu, A Gambling Guide ('Vietnamese Mahjong (with 16 different kinds of joker)').
  • Internet Archive full-text search — Full-text searches on 2026-10-10. 'mạt chược': 419 hits, nearly all modern Vietnamese web-novel ebooks, plus a definition in the 2003 Hoàng Phê dictionary, whose text file answered 500. 'mah-jong' AND Cholon: 33 hits; Dennery 1931 was read, while Warner's The Last Confucian (1964) and Opium (1994) are lending-only. 'mah-jong' AND Annamites: 28 passing mentions. 'Vietnamese mahjong': Sfetcu's A Gambling Guide (lead). 'ma-chuoc' returned only Vietnamese homographs.
  • Wayback Machine — The capture of the 2003 Next Magazine article (20191116164654, hk.lifestyle.appledaily.com) reset the connection twice through the proxy on 2026-10-10 (curl error 35), as it did on 2026-10-01. The failure is on this side of the connection.
  • Google Books — Not searched: its API answered 429 in earlier passes, and this lean pass spent its queries on Vietnamese sources.
  • HathiTrust full-text search — Not searched: full-text search is behind a Cloudflare challenge.
  • WorldCat — Not searched by hand. Instead the BnF catalogue (SRU) was queried on 2026-10-10 for the author Nguyễn Xuân Mai: it lists a Hanoi author of that name (publications 1922-1954, editor of Sỏ Học tuần báo from 1930) but not the 1950 mah-jong guide. A title search for 'mah-jong' showed nothing Vietnamese.
  • Scholarly indexes — A Crossref query for 'Vietnamese mahjong' on 2026-10-10 found nothing on the Vietnamese game. OpenAlex wants a key. The scholarship remains Stanwick and Xu (2008) and Ebashi, already observed.
  • YouTube — Not searched in this lean pass. Vietnamese how-to videos would be the place to check current table practice with the khung.
  • English-language forums — Not searched: Reddit answers 403 and BoardGameGeek a Cloudflare challenge.
  • Mahjong reference sites — Sloperama read on 2026-10-10: FAQ 2b, FAQ 7-EJ (jokers), the 'Rules for Mah-Jongg - Vietnamese Style' document and the downloads folder index. The folder also holds the Edward translation (read), its source scan Vietnamese_Edward_Legal.tif, and Raymond Lee's 'Current trends in Vietnamese and Japanese tiles' (read; not observed here). Lee's document gives Classic Vietnamese as 136 + 16 flowers + 8 special jokers = 160 and modern sets of up to 188 tiles, and bears mostly on vietnamese-modern. FAQ 7E-F (flowers) has Lee's translation of Ebashi on the 花合喜元/総萬筒索 jokers. The Mahjong Wiki's site search returned no result list (it is drawn by script).
  • App and platform listings — Not searched: none of the sources read names an app or platform for the 160-tile Vietnamese game.
  • English-language newspaper archives — Not searched: a Vietnamese game, and NewspaperSG returns an empty page to automated readers. The English-language colonial and wartime mentions found through ia-texts are passing ones.
  • Statutes published in English — Not searched: Vietnamese law is published in Vietnamese and is read under law-vi. lawnet.vn's English summaries of gambling fines appeared in the web search as leads only.
  • Vietnamese web — Searched through the general web search in Vietnamese (Cốc Cốc not used), including queries restricted to VnExpress, Tuổi Trẻ, Thanh Niên, Dân trí, NLĐ, SGGP and PLO, on 2026-10-10. Read: the Pháp Thí Hội glossary and the thegioiboardgame guide. The press pieces found were fetched and none describes the Vietnamese game: VnExpress (2016) and Tuổi Trẻ on the Đại Thế Giới casino in Chợ Lớn, Dân trí (2014) on Chinese party members banned from mahjong, and VnExpress on 200 years of Chinese in Saigon. SGGP's 'Độc đáo triển lãm trò chơi dân gian châu Á' reset the connection. No Vietnamese press account of the game's history was found.
  • Vietnamese statutes — Read Decree 282/2025/NĐ-CP in the Công báo PDF on 2026-10-10. It replaced Decree 144/2021 from 15 December 2025, and its Article 36 fines gambling with listed games and 'other forms' without naming mạt chược. Penal Code 2015 art. 321 could not be read: thuvienphapluat.vn answered 403, vbpl.vn served a page drawn by script, vanban.chinhphu.vn and moj.gov.vn reset through the proxy, and Vietnamese Wikisource's chapter page transcludes page scans.
  • French-language archives — Gallica's SRU search answered with a Cloudflare challenge on 2026-10-10; RetroNews was not tried. The French colonial press on mah-jong in Cholon and Tonkin remains unsearched. The only French-language text on the game known so far is Nguyễn Xuân Mai's 1950 guide (wanted).

In the tree

Descends from Nanyang variants, as the source chart draws it.

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