Four color cards

Four color cards (Chinese: 四色牌; pinyin: Sì Sè Pái) is a game of the rummy family of card games, with a relatively long history in southern China. In Vietnam the equivalent game is known as tứ sắc (Sino-Vietnamese pronunciation of 四色).
The game is similar to various Chinese draw-and-discard card games played since the 18th century. The deck for this particular game originated in the 19th century based on Xiangqi pieces on which the names of said pieces are printed on the cards.
Chess cards clearly are more recent than money-suited and domino Chinese playing cards. Classical Chinese encyclopedias seem to ignore them. Stewart Culin observes: “These [cards derived from Tseung k'i=Xiangqi] seem to be peculiar to the Southern and Southeastern provinces, notably Fuhkien [Fujian] and Kwangtung [Guangdong].” It was also confirmed by the German sinologist Karl Himly, who said these chess cards were specific to Fujian. Indeed, all recorded games come from southeastern China, and chess cards seem particularly linked to Hokkien speakers.
The cards were typically used by the lower class to play gambling games, and were intended to be easy and cheap to make because, as gambling was illegal in China, there was a need for cards that could be easily hidden or disposed of. The cards might have appeared after the ban on playing cards in the Great Qing Legal Code of 1740. Due to the Chinese Revolution and the fact that the game was typically enjoyed by lower classes, written rules for the game were difficult to find. Therefore, the rules may vary depending on the region and household.
A standard deck consists of 112 cards (or tiles), divided into four color suits, each with 28 cards. The cards are printed with one of characters from the seven Chinese chess pieces; each character is repeated four times within a suit, similar to Mahjong.
Some sets include five Joker cards. Designs may vary; the center of the cards may be printed with decorations, which do not affect gameplay.
There are slight regional variations in the characters used for the cards. In many sets, the red and orange/yellow suit will follow the character conventions used for red Xiangqi pieces, while the white and green/blue suit will follow the character conventions used for black Xiangqi pieces. In Hong Kong sets, a common set of characters adopted from both black and red Xiangqi pieces is used for all four suits.
The objective of this game is very similar to mahjong, which is to achieve a winning hand consisting of multiple melds, as detailed below. Each player has 20 cards at the start of the game, and a winning hand has 21 cards. Each winning hand must have an odd number of points, which can be used as a rough guide for players to check in case they are short of cards or have extra cards.
The standard variation of the game is played by four players, although it can be played with two or three. If there are more than four players, an extra card set is added for each additional player. For example, for five players, one deck (112 cards) would be supplemented by an extra card set (28 cards), for 140 cards in total.
For the first game, a dealer is chosen by an arbitrary method. A typical method is for everyone to draw randomly one card from a face down pile to compare ranks, with the highest rank being the dealer. For subsequent games, the winner of the previous game will be the dealer, and the player across from the winner will do the job of shuffling cards to set up the draw pile.
The dealer is in charge of handing out cards. Typically, they would take six cards first, then go counterclockwise around the table, giving five cards at a time to each player until they each have a hand of 20 cards (or 21 in the dealer's case). The dealer has an extra card because they must begin play by throwing out the first card.
The remaining cards are collected and placed in a stack at a central location and becomes the Draw Pile. Future draws are always taken from the top of the Draw Pile, if playing with cards.
Typically, a player holds their cards facing them, arranged in a fan and concealed from the other players. Inexperienced players and children may be allowed to put their cards face down on the table. For example, some players could take melds that were created by the initial deal, which they do not plan to touch, and put them in one big facedown stack next to them.
If a player was dealt a Quadruple meld (four cards of the same color and rank) in their initial hand, they must reveal the quadruple. If a player is in possession of a Triple meld in their starting hand (three cards of the same color and rank), they must indicate it with a marker but are not required to reveal the triple. Common markers are stones or coins. According to some rules, when a player is dealt a triple in their initial hand, they may not split the triple during play (i.e., use one or two cards from the dealt triple to meld with a taken card).
A player who does not have at least one of the following melds is deemed to have a very weak hand. They are entitled to declare a Mulligan, making the current round void, and a new round begins with a new deal of cards.
For the version of the game using tiles, shuffling, the initial draw, and the Draw Pile are built in a manner similar to Mahjong. All players participate in shuffling the tiles together, then building them into 4 walls of 28 face-down tiles each, stacked in twos. The dealer starts by taking 4 tiles initially from one of the walls, then the players proceed in anti-clockwise order by taking 4 tiles each from where the previous player left off; after each player has 20 tiles, the dealer takes one more tile as they must discard a tile to start play.
The Draw Pile of tiles continues from the point where the initial draw ended.
Most turns consist of taking a card, then melding (if possible), then discarding one card so that each player maintains 20 cards in their hand, unless they have taken the card they need to win, in which case the round ends.
As noted earlier, the dealer starts with 21 cards, so they start play by discarding one of the cards in their hand. Each player maintains their own Discard Pile, positioned on their right so the following player (in anti-clockwise order) can take the discarded card in their turn from the prior player, if desired.
Each player after the dealer's initial discard starts off their turn by taking a new card in one of three ways:
In general, if the card that was discarded by the previous player to end their turn is not needed by the following player for a meld, that following player will draw a new card instead. Regardless of the method in which the card is taken, it is moved into the player's display area and remains face-up for the rest of the game.
After the taken card is moved, face-up, into the display area, the player may expose cards from their hand to form a meld with the card that was just taken. They may bring out from zero to three cards, as long as exactly one meld is created that includes the card that was just taken. The player cannot use cards that are not in their hand to meld. Specifically, they cannot use cards from exposed melds that are already face-up in the display area, but they can break up or use hidden melds in their hand.
The newly created meld is left exposed (face-up) on the table alongside previously created melds.
Winning condition: If, after a meld, a player's hand (all the concealed cards held by the player) consists completely of melds or is empty, the player can declare that they have won, and expose the remaining cards in their hand to demonstrate all of their exposed and concealed cards are part of a meld. The current game is then over and the hand is scored.
After the meld is created, whether from an eaten discarded card or a drawn card, the player may then discard any card they wish from their hand. It is laid face-up on their right hand side so that all players can see it. This becomes that player's discard pile.
If the player decided not to or was unable to meld a drawn card, they must discard the draw. Again, a discard would not be eaten unless it can be made into a meld, so any single card is only discarded once during gameplay.
In practice, Generals are never discarded, because an individual General is a one-card meld that gives 1 point. It is reasonable to impose a rule that Generals cannot be discarded.
If, after a discard, a player's hand consists completely of melds or is empty, the player has NOT won, since they have only 20 cards. That player still needs another meld to win.
After the Discard, the next player sitting to the right of the previous player begins their turn. Subsequent turns continue to proceed anti-clockwise around the table.
This is the basic sequence of play, which continues until one player wins.
A card-stealing mechanic can disrupt the normal anti-clockwise sequence of turns: specifically, at any time, any player may steal a card that was just exposed through a draw or discard even if it is not the stealing player's turn, provided certain conditions are met.
The turn immediately shifts to the player who had stolen the card, who then treats the situation as if they had just taken a card: they are required to meld the stolen card and then complete their turn by discarding a card from their hand. Melds formed with stolen cards must be exposed and displayed face up on the table, as with any other meld formed during gameplay, and the game continues with the stealing player discarding a card. Play then proceeds to the right of that stealing player, as normal. As a consequence of this, players in between may lose their turn, and the player who drew a card may even lose the chance to meld their own draw.
Multiple players may have a reason to steal the same card that was just exposed by a draw or discard. When this occurs, a lower numbered situation takes priority over a higher numbered one:
A player may not steal a card out-of-sequence for the other melds (the one-card General meld; the three-card Command or Field group melds; or the Triple Color [soldier] or Complete Color [soldier] group melds) unless it is for a win.
This means that a player who draws a General card has to take the card into their Display Area and discard another card from their hand; they are prohibited from discarding the drawn General card. As an exception, if another player has a triple of the said General card in hand and wishes to make a Quad to get more points, the drawn General may be stolen. However, because a General is inherently worth a point on its own, some variations of the rules do not allow stealing a General under any circumstances, even if a player is completing a Quad, unless it is for an immediate win.
Players are expected to call out drawn cards and discards as soon as they are exposed. It is considered poor etiquette to: