Basic rules
The 108 tiles
Sichuan mahjong uses only characters, dots and bamboo — four of each tile, 108 in all.
Three suits
Sichuan mahjong has only suit tiles, in three suits numbered 1 to 9:
- Characters (萬): marked one to nine 萬.
- Dots (筒): circles.
- Bamboo (條): bamboo sticks; the 1 is usually drawn as a bird.
There are 4 of each tile, so 3 suits × 9 × 4 = 108 tiles.
No honors, no flowers
Unlike Taiwanese, Cantonese or Japanese mahjong, Sichuan drops the winds, dragons and flowers. That means:
- No wind fan — seats only decide whose turn it is.
- Fewer tiles and faster hands: 13 tiles each, 14 for the dealer.
- Each suit has only 36 tiles, so one-suit hands are much easier than elsewhere — and worth a lot.
How tiles are written in this guide
The guide writes tiles as “numbers + letter”: m is characters, p is dots, s is bamboo. For example 234m is 2-3-4 of characters and 55p is a pair of 5 dots.
Terminals and 2-5-8
Two groups of tiles come up in the fan list:
- Terminals: the 1 and 9 of each suit, such as . “Terminals in every set” needs one in every set.
- 2-5-8: the 2, 5 and 8 of each suit, such as . “All 2-5-8 pungs” needs every set to be one of these.
Fan details are in Fan.
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