Mahjong tiles explained: a visual guide

Mahjong tiles, at a glance.

A mahjong tile tells you its family first, then its identity. Circles, Bamboo and Characters are numbered suits, each running from 1 to 9. Winds and Dragons are honours: they have names, but no numerical rank. Flowers and Seasons are a separate group whose role depends on the rules you play.

You do not need to read Chinese to start. Learn the three suits, recognise the seven honour faces, and use the reference below for the rest. The porcelain artwork is the same set used at our playing table; select any face to see its name in English, Cantonese, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese.

Explore every tile face.

Choose a family to narrow the collection, then select a tile. The gallery shows one of each face, not every copy in a full set. Names follow our game; local tables may use other names for the same tile.

The three suits: look for number and pattern.

Circles / Dots · 筒

Count the circles, not the colours. The 1 of Circles is often an elaborate medallion; it is still a numbered tile. A blue circle and a green circle within a design do not represent separate suits. Dots and Circles are English names for the same family.

Bamboo / Bams · 索 / 條

Most Bamboo tiles show small bamboo-like sticks. The bird is the exception to learn first: in this set it is 1 Bamboo, not a Flower. Eight Bamboo can look like two angular shapes; follow the eight individual sticks. Mandarin speakers may call this suit tiáo (條 / 条), while Cantonese players commonly say sok (索).

Characters / Craks · 萬 / 万

Read the upper character as the number; the lower 萬 identifies the suit. The sequence is 一 二 三 四 五 六 七 八 九. Decorative lettering can change the shape, as with the 伍 used for five in our artwork. The tile is still 5 Characters. Memorising these nine ranks is enough to recognise the whole suit.

Winds, Dragons and bonus tiles.

The four Winds are East 東, South 南, West 西 and North 北. The three Dragons are Red 中, Green 發 and White 白板. Our White Dragon has a blue frame; other sets may leave its face blank. A blank-looking tile is not automatically a spare: check whether it belongs to the set’s four White Dragons.

Honours do not form numerical runs. East–South–West is not a sequence, and Red–Green–White is not a sequence either. Matching honours can form a pair, triplet or quad where the rules allow. A Wind can also describe your seat or the round; that role may affect scoring without changing the tile’s identity.

Many 144-tile sets add four Flowers and four Seasons, often numbered 1–4 within each group. Their pictures vary. In our LRC game, the two groups are labelled Red Flowers and Blue Flowers; use those game labels and the printed number rather than guessing a plant from its illustration. These eight bonus tiles are revealed and replaced, and stay outside the ordinary winning-hand structure.

Compare Common Ground’s illustrated tile reference.

Why 34, 136 and 144 can all be correct.

These numbers answer different questions. There are 34 ordinary tile types: 27 numbered faces, four Winds and three Dragons. Four copies of each make 136 physical tiles. Add eight distinct bonus tiles and the set contains 144 tiles, showing 42 different faces.

Do not confuse the set with your hand. In Taiwanese play you ordinarily hold 16 structural tiles between turns and complete a regular hand with 17. Hong Kong and four-player riichi ordinarily use 13 and 14. A declared kong contains four physical tiles but occupies one set, so raw tile counts can be higher; bonus flowers are separate again.

Compare the rule sets before choosing a tile set.

Recognise a useful shape.

Try reading the examples aloud. “Four, five, six of Circles” is a sequence in one suit. “Three Red Dragons” is a triplet. “Two North Winds” is a pair. One Circle, two Bamboo and three Characters do not make a sequence, even though their numbers run in order.

Recognition is the first skill; choosing what to keep is the next. When you can name each tile in your hand, look for neighbours in the same suit and exact duplicates. Then check the chosen rules before assuming a shape is a legal win. Our guided Taiwanese lesson gives you a small decision at a time, with teaching hints available.

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