Mahjong

Mahjong (麻將; also 麻雀, “sparrows”) is a Chinese draw-and-discard game usually played by four players with a set of 144 tiles. It developed in China in the late Qing period (19th century), evolving from earlier Chinese card games that used money-suited “pai”, with tile suits that echo older currency imagery (dots/coins, bamboo/strings, characters/myriads). Popularised internationally in the early 20th century, Mahjong sits at the crossroads of playing-card history and tile games, preserving card-style suits and honours in a durable, domino-like format.