Sichuan mahjong is not "mahjong with some rules removed". It is a distinct local game with its own logic, its own etiquette and its own temperament — and knowing that makes the rules much easier to remember.
Mahjong 麻将 emerged in China in the 19th century and spread outward from the Yangtze delta. The tile set was standardised into roughly its modern 136-tile form in the 1920s, and regional families diverged from there — Cantonese mahjong kept a large fan system, Japanese riichi added its own scoring and a formal league structure, and Sichuan mahjong went the other way entirely.
Where most variants added tiles and bonus patterns over time, Sichuan mahjong subtracted:
| Sichuan 川麻 | Most other variants | |
|---|---|---|
| Deck | 108 tiles — three suits only | 136+ tiles including winds and dragons |
| Honour tiles | None at all | Winds 東南西北, dragons 中發白 |
| Claiming a discard | Pong, kong, win only | Also chow (吃) to complete a run |
| Winning a suit | You must discard a whole suit (定缺) | No such rule |
| After a win | The round keeps going (血战到底) | The hand ends on the first win |
| Winners per round | Up to three | Usually one |
Sichuan mahjong is played above all in Sichuan province — Chengdu is its spiritual home, and the game is inseparable from the city's teahouse culture 茶馆. Tables sit in teahouses all day; people play for hours, in conversation, with the tiles clacking and the discards being called out loud.
That setting explains the design. Teahouse play rewards speed and punishes ceremony:
Sichuan mahjong is direct and unforgiving about inefficiency. There is no safe, patient "wait and see" mode: if you do not clear your missing suit and climb toward 下叫 (ready) quickly, the round will simply end around you and you will pay the penalties. Locals describe the style as fast, blunt and unsentimental — and the rules genuinely encode that.
| Variant | Chinese | How it differs |
|---|---|---|
| Battle to the end | 血战到底 | The standard modern game, and what this site teaches: winners drop out, up to three win, then penalties if the wall runs dry. |
| Blood flows like a river | 血流成河 | The extreme version — after you win you keep playing and can win again and again in the same round. Scores get very large, rounds get long, and the whole feel changes. |
| Chengdu / Chongqing house rules | 成都 / 重庆麻将 | Small differences in fan values, kong payments and how strictly the missing suit is policed. This is why every table argues about numbers before it starts. |
If you sit down at a real table, the first thing you will hear is a negotiation about exactly these values. See Scoring for the preset this site uses and how to read it as one choice among several.
碰 pèng — pong · 杠 gàng — kong · 胡 hú — win · 自摸 zì mō — self-drawn win · 定缺 dìng quē — declare missing suit · 幺鸡 yāo jī — the 1 of bamboo. The full list is in the glossary.
Sichuan mahjong is usually played socially, in teahouses and at home, sometimes for very small stakes — it is a social ritual as much as a competition. Gambling is strictly regulated in mainland China, and none of the tools on this site involve money: the scoring engine exists so you can learn the arithmetic of a hand and see why a win is worth what it is worth. Play it as a game of skill and shape, which is what it is.