Chop Suey Club

Why is the One Bamboo a bird when every other bamboo tile is just a stack of sticks?

There are actually multiple theories. The most practical one: if the one bamboo looked like one plain vertical line, cheaters could draw an extra line and turn it into a two bamboo. Making it visually distinct was an anti-counterfeiting measure built directly into the tile design.

But there’s also a folk theory about mayflies, and a separate one about the word “mahjong” itself meaning sparrow in Cantonese.

No single definitive answer after 700 years. Which honestly makes it the most interesting tile in the whole set.

(For why the three suits exist at all, see my last reel on Dots, Bamboos and Characters.)

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📖 Mahjong for Dummies — link in bio.

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#麻将

Do you know your mahjong symbols? 🀄️ Let’s begin with the suits.

The three suits in mahjong are a complete Ming Dynasty currency system hidden in plain sight. Dots are coins. Bamboos are strings of a thousand coins. Characters are ten thousand strings.

And the human figures on the original cards? Those came from the Water Margin 水浒传, one of China’s four great classical novels. The character suit is literally a crime syndicate’s bounty list.

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📖 Mahjong for Dummies — link in bio.

#麻将

The ancestor of mahjong is a card game called MaDiao 马吊. The paper cards evolved into bone & bamboo tiles.

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#麻将

Most people think mahjong is one game. It’s actually 50+❣️🀄️

In my book Mahjong for Dummies, I cover 7 of the most distinctive styles. Each one has rules and tiles that don’t exist in any other variants.

This is the series where I break all of it down — the history, the design, the variants, and everything you didn’t know you didn’t know.

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📖 Mahjong for Dummies — link in bio

#麻将

🀄️✨Mahjong for Dummies March Women’s History Month Specials‼️
💖March 8 - Amazon Kindle One-Day Only Sale $2.99
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If you haven’t picked up a copy, now it’s the time 🤗🀄️✨ This book covers 7 essential mahjong variants, step-by-step instructions guiding your play.