Mahjong Tiles Explained: Suits, Winds, Dragons and Flowers

By Nesim Razon, independent Android developer

A full Mahjong set looks like a wall of unfamiliar pictures at first. Once you know the families, though, the tiles sort themselves out quickly. This guide names every family, explains which tiles match in Mahjong Solitaire and gives you tricks for telling similar tiles apart.

The big picture: 144 tiles in families

A traditional set has 144 tiles. Most of them come in fours: four identical copies of each picture. Only the flowers and seasons are different, because each of those eight tiles has its own picture. The families are the three suits, the four winds, the three dragons and the bonus tiles (flowers and seasons).

Here is the count: three suits with nine numbers and four copies each make 108 tiles, the winds make 16, the dragons make 12 and the bonus tiles make 8. Add them up and you get 144.

The three suits: circles, bamboo and characters

The suits are the numbered tiles, one to nine in each suit. You tell the suit from the pictures and the number from how many symbols you see or, on the character suit, which written number sits on top.

• Circles (also called dots or coins): round discs. A 5 has five discs, a 9 has nine. Count them, the colours help.
• Bamboo: green sticks, except that the 1 is usually drawn as a bird, often a sparrow or a similar small bird, rather than a single stick. Do not look for one stick on that tile.
• Characters: each tile shows a written number in Chinese script with another symbol below. The top symbol tells you the number. Learn the first few and the rest follow.

Winds and dragons

The four winds are East, South, West and North, each shown by a single written character. The three dragons are red, green and white. The red and green dragons carry a coloured character, while the white dragon is usually a blank tile with a simple frame or even nothing at all.

In Mahjong Solitaire there is no special rule for these tiles. A wind matches the same wind, and a dragon matches the same dragon. They are simply extra pictures that you need to recognise.

Flowers and seasons

The bonus tiles are four flowers and four seasons. Each of the eight has its own picture, and they are usually numbered one to four.

• In the real game they are special tiles that give you points or an extra draw.
• In Mahjong Solitaire they are the one exception to the identical-pair rule.
• In Tilelings, any flower matches any other flower, and any season matches any other season. A flower does not match a season.

That exception matters. If you only look for twins, you will think a flower is lonely when its partner is a different-looking flower.

Which tiles match in Mahjong Solitaire

A pair is two free tiles of the same kind. For the suits, winds and dragons that means the same picture. For the bonus tiles it means the same family. In Tilelings every board uses four copies of each of the 34 normal tiles, plus four flowers and four seasons, and the game checks matches by family, which is why the flowers pair up with each other.

• Circle 3 with circle 3: match.
• Bamboo 7 with another bamboo 7: match.
• East wind with East wind: match. East with South: no.
• Red dragon with red dragon: match. Red with green: no.
• Flower with any other flower, season with any other season: match.

Tips for telling tiles apart

• Sort by colour first: green for bamboo and the green dragon, red for the red dragon and many circles, blue and black for characters and circles. Narrow down before you read details.
• Count carefully on the high numbers. Eight and nine look alike in circles and bamboo. Count the rows rather than every symbol.
• Look at the corners. Many sets print a small index number in the corner of the tile, which helps when you are tired.
• Find the tiles with only four copies and track them. If three of the four are gone, the last one has no partner and the board can get stuck.

Classic tiles or cute tiles in Tilelings

Tilelings lets you choose between classic Mahjong tiles and a cute set with 36 characters, such as aliens, blocks, animals and weather. The rules do not change: the cute set uses exactly the same matching families as the classic set, so a cute character matches its twin and the special bonus families work the same way.

If the classic pictures are hard to read at first, the cute set is a gentle way to learn, because every character is a different shape and colour. Switching back to classic later is a good test of what you have learned.

Easy-to-confuse tiles

• Red dragon and character tiles: both use red ink, but in most sets the dragon is a single large character, while a character tile has a number on top and a second symbol below.
• Winds and dragons: the four winds are plain dark characters, while the red and green dragons are coloured. Look at the colour before you read the shape.
• Bamboo 1 and a normal bamboo tile: the bird is easy to miss if you are scanning for sticks. Remember it as the odd one in the suit.
• The white dragon and a blank space: the white dragon is a real tile with a frame, so it is not an empty gap in the layout.
• Flowers and seasons: both are decorative, but they do not match each other. If your pair does not clear, check which family each tile belongs to.

A simple way to practise

Pick one family per session. In your first game, play only for the circles: every time you tap a tile, say its number out loud and count the discs. In the next game, do the same with bamboo, then with characters. After a few rounds, the winds and dragons will feel like old friends, because there are only seven of them.

Use hints when you are unsure, and watch which tiles the hint highlights. A hint is a quick lesson in what the game considers a pair, which is especially useful for flowers and seasons. After a week of short daily games, most players read the classic tiles at a glance.