During the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty, there was a young man in Chang'an City whose parents both died. His family was very poor and no one named him. People only knew his surname was Ma, so they all called him Xiao Mazi. Xiao Mazi is smart and hard-working, and he is extremely competitive.
One day, on the streets of Chang'an City, when a general who went on an expedition returned to the court after a victory, the general was clad in red and decorated, riding a tall horse slowly forward, and he was very proud.
People watched from both sides of the street, all with envious eyes. Xiao Mazi was among them. He looked at the majestic general from all sides, turned around and said to his companions: "I will also be a general in the future, and I will be so majestic!"
After listening, the companions , everyone burst out laughing, and taunted him: "A thousand armies are easy to get, but a general is hard to find. What kind of person is he? You, a poor boy who can't even eat, still want to compete with others? It's really disrespectful." You have to judge yourself!"
After hearing this, Xiao Mazi walked away silently without saying a word. From that day on, he got up early in the morning and practiced martial arts in the dark. When his companions saw that he really wanted to be a general, they nicknamed him "Mahjong". Later, people called him smoothly, and the nickname "Little Mazi" was forgotten.
But soon, Mahjong couldn't practice martial arts anymore, because he only practiced martial arts and didn't work, and he didn't even have to eat. Little Mazi had no choice, because he was too hungry to play with the gun and stick, so he had to work first to earn money for food. Fortunately, he has a unique skill in twisting hemp rope. He can twist the hemp rope quickly and well, so many people ask him to work.
As soon as people saw Mahjong, they all called him: "Hey! Mahjong, come to my house to twist the hemp rope today." "Mahjong, come to my house tomorrow to twist the hemp rope." In this way, Mahjong gave the owner today Twist the hemp rope, and then twist the hemp rope for the Xi family tomorrow.
Because he was playing mahjong all day long and had no free time anymore, he simply gave up practicing martial arts. Mahjong went to the market to start a business of selling hemp ropes, but he secretly swore in his heart: "If I can't be a general, I must at least be a rich man!"
From then on, Mahjong often kept a pair of long and short ropes with him. The fine linen ropes vary. When he earns a copper, he strings the copper coins together with the fine linen rope. Mahjong chants every day: "One copper, two coppers, three coppers..."
After Mahjong has accumulated 9 coppers, he will use a thin hemp rope to make a circle, and then he will Hang the hemp rope with copper coins around your waist and call it "one piece". When Mahjong collected 9 more hemp ropes with copper coins on them, they were collectively called "Ten Thousand".
Mahjong also prepared 4 whiteboard boxes. After he had saved up "90,000", he planned to put all the coins into the 4 boxes, and then he could take the money back home to retire.
After going through a lot of hardships and traveling all over the north and south of the Yangtze River, Mahjong finally accumulated four large boxes of copper coins. At this time, Mahjong's friends advised him: "You have experienced so many springs, summers, autumns and winters, and now your temples are gray. In order to make money these years, you have traveled all over the southeast and northwest, and you have suffered from wind, frost, rain and snow. It’s time to stop thinking about getting rich and take care of your health and go home to enjoy the happiness.” After hearing this, Mahjong felt that it made sense and decided to go home. So Mahjong returned to his hometown with the money. He used the money to build a house, marry a wife, and began to live a stable and prosperous life. Within two years, his wife gave birth to a son to Mahjong, who he named "Hongzhong".
Because people envied Mahjong’s old life and admired his hard-working entrepreneurial spirit, in order to commemorate Mahjong and to motivate themselves, they carved Mahjong’s life experiences on small wooden boards.
People carved "tongzi", "wanzi", "tiaozi", "southeast and northwest", "facai", "whiteboard" and "hongzhong" on small wooden boards, and also used the name of mahjong. He named it "Mahjong Tiles", and "Mahjong Tiles" soon became popular among the people.
Later, people added various flower cards, and the entire deck totaled 144 cards. People also use a square table to determine the four directions of east, west, north, and south, and then four people sit together. According to a season, there are 13 weeks, so each person has 13 cards.
Of course, this story is just a funny story about mahjong.
In fact, Mahjong originated in my country. It was originally a game only for the royal family and princes and nobles. Its history can be traced back to thousands of years ago. It was only during the long-term historical evolution that it gradually spread from the palace to the people.
In the mahjong industry, it is generally believed that the prototype of mahjong tiles was the horse tags and playing cards that were popular in the late Ming Dynasty. Through continuous development and evolution, the later mahjong tiles were formed. However, entertainment games such as horse tag and cards are inextricably linked to the oldest gambling game in our country’s history. Later popular games such as Go, chess, and mahjong were all developed and evolved on the basis of ancient games.
When did the ancient Bo opera begin? It is difficult to tell the exact date. However, according to "Historical Records" and other relevant written records, the origin of gambling was at least before the Shang Dynasty.
The earliest gambling game in my country is called "Liubo", which has 6 chopsticks and 12 chess pieces. The chopsticks are a long bamboo product, which is equivalent to the dice used in playing mahjong tiles later.
The game is played as follows: two people sit opposite each other, the board has 12 lanes, and there is water in the middle. People put six rectangular black and white chess pieces on the chessboard, and placed two fish in the water. Both sides of the game take turns rolling dice, and people decide the number of steps the chess piece will take based on the size of the dice thrown.
When the chess pieces reach the end, people will put the chess pieces up and become Xiaoqi. If the chess piece becomes a chess piece, it can "lead the fish" into the water to gain an advantage. The person who gets 6 chips in the end is the winner. The pieces that do not become "Xiao" are called "Scatter" pieces. "Xiao" chess can attack the opponent's pieces and give up the opportunity to walk, but "scatter" chess cannot.
After the Han and Wei dynasties, gambling games underwent fundamental changes. The chess pieces in gambling broke away from the dice and began to become independent and develop in the direction of chess, and gradually evolved into a new game.
The dice in gambling were changed to five wooden dices, and this method of play also independently became a new gambling tool called "桗PU". Ai Pu determines the outcome by throwing points.
According to legend, the dice made by Cao Zhi, the son of Cao Cao, the great hero of the Three Kingdoms period, were made of jade. Later, they were made of bones, and the five dice were changed to two. It was also stipulated that the dice must be cubes. The 6 sides of the dice are engraved with numbers, ranging from 1 to 6. So people at that time also called the dice "double six".
During the Tang Dynasty, dice also became an independent gambling tool, and the number of dice changed from two to six.
It is said that Emperor Ming of Tang Dynasty and Concubine Yang Guifei once played dice for entertainment. At that time, Tang Minghuang's dice-throwing situation was not going well. He could only turn defeat into victory by making two of the six dice appear with the number "four" at the same time.
So Tang Minghuang threw the dice while shouting: "Heavy four, heavy four!" As a result, when the dice stopped, there were exactly two 4 points. Emperor Tang Ming was extremely happy and ordered Gao Lishi to paint the 4 o'clock on the dice and the opposite point red. From then on, the 1 o'clock and 4 o'clock on the dice were red, while the other four sides were black.
Since the Tang Dynasty, the game method using 6 dice was called "dice grid" at that time. The game equipment evolved on the basis of the "dice grid" is the dominoes produced during the Xuanhe period of Emperor Huizong of Song Dynasty.
Dominos are made of ivory or elephant bone. People changed the cube of the dice into a rectangular parallelepiped, and changed the six-sided dots of the dice into one dotted side. There are 21 colors of dominoes, and each color is composed of the points of two dice. Therefore, the maximum number of points in the domino is 12 points, and the minimum number is two points. There are two or one piece of each color, totaling 32 pieces.
In the middle of the Tang Dynasty, after the early "dice grid" appeared, another game called "Yi Zi Opera" appeared.
There are different opinions about the origin of "Yiye Opera". It is said by the ancients that "leaf opera" was made by women using green leaves.
This statement seems far-fetched. In fact, the "leaf opera" as it was called at that time was not a mature game. It is just a piece of paper used to record the winning and losing values ??when people play "dice grid".
This view is proved by the "Guitian Lu" written by Ouyang Xiu, a litterateur in the Song Dynasty:
The books collected by the Tang Dynasty were all made into scrolls, with leaves behind them. Write it. The dice grid is for inspection, so it is also written on leaves, which is why it is named after you.
"Yiye Opera" is a leaf-shaped card game popular in the Tang Dynasty of my country. In fact, "leaf play" is just a piece of paper. It is just a piece of paper that records numerical values. However, we can regard it as the originator of mahjong tiles.
In the Tang Dynasty, there was another card game called "Youxianghe", which was roughly the same as "Yi Zixi" and was also considered the originator of Mahjong. It has been circulated among Chinese people for thousands of years, but it is rarely known because people who play it gather in a corner of the countryside.
There are only points on the cards of "You Xianghe". The points are in two colors: red and black. There are 52 cards in each deck. There are four people in a group. One person sits on the bank and each plays the card. However, the playing style of "You Xianghe" is very different from the later mahjong tiles, and its gameplay is quite complicated.
Playing cards like "You Xianghe" probably only appeared among Chinese people in the early Tang Dynasty. Later, they migrated to Jingchu, Wuyue and other places along with the dignitaries in the Yellow River Basin, and its appearance has milestone.
This "You Xianghe" card game uses different combinations of points to enrich the content of the gambling game and make the gameplay more diverse. According to preliminary research, it may be the prototype of modern mahjong.
Because the different combinations and arrangement designs of the "You Xianghe" card game reflect the wisdom of the Chinese nation, and at the same time provide a lot of experience that can be used for reference in the arrangement and combination of mahjong tiles.
Mahjong