Chinese Mahjong Tiles: Suits, Honors, and Bonuses
Meet the 144 tiles used in Chinese Mahjong and learn to recognize each suit and honor.
The Tile Set
A complete Chinese Mahjong set contains 144 tiles. Once you learn the three basic categories—suits, honors, and bonuses—you can recognize every tile on the table in minutes.
The Three Suits
Most tiles belong to one of three numbered suits. Each suit has tiles numbered 1 through 9, and there are four copies of every tile, giving 36 tiles per suit.
- Bamboo (also called "bams" or "sticks") is usually green. The 1 of bamboo is traditionally drawn as a bird, while the others show bamboo stalks.
- Characters (or "wans" / "craks") show Chinese numerals above the character 萬 (wàn, meaning ten thousand). The 1 of characters is therefore "one ten-thousand."
- Dots (or "circles") show round dots, like the pips on dice. They are the easiest suit for many beginners to read at a glance.
Together the three suits form the backbone of the game. Sequences like 2-3-4 of bamboo and triplets like three 6s of characters are built from these tiles.
The Honor Tiles
Honor tiles are not numbered. There are two kinds: winds and dragons.
- Winds: East, South, West, and North. Like suit tiles, each wind comes in four copies.
- Dragons: White, Green, and Red. These also have four copies each.
In many rule sets, winds carry extra scoring weight: your seat wind and the prevailing wind can turn a simple triplet into a valuable set. Dragons are often worth points simply because they are dragons, so experienced players watch them carefully.
The Bonus Tiles
The last eight tiles are the bonuses. Unlike suit and honor tiles, each bonus tile is unique—there is only one copy of each:
- Four Flowers: usually numbered 1 to 4.
- Four Seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter.
When a player draws a bonus tile, it is usually declared immediately, set aside, and replaced with another tile from the back of the wall. Bonus tiles do not form melds, but they add extra points to a winning hand.
A Little History
Mahjong developed in China during the late 19th century, though its roots reach back to older Chinese card and domino games. Some scholars trace its numbered suits and honor tiles to Ming-era money-suited cards, where circles, strings of coins, and myriads represented currency. The wind and dragon tiles carry symbolic weight too: the four winds reflect directions and cosmic order, while the dragons echo ideas of prosperity and vitality that appear throughout Chinese art. Today the game has spread across the world, with regional rule sets from Hong Kong to Japan to the United States, but the 144-tile set remains recognizably Chinese at heart.