Evening star., 1924-09-28

Shanghai, thfna, Tor the colOf1ul ana MS
toricai facts woven in the story, reveal
ing the romantic history OF the oriental
game Of nah jOngg.
IN using the less familiar spelling
OF the name of the game that
has become so popular in the
i United States within the last two
or three years it is not intende ed
TO add another name to the number
which have already been given it
both in China and in the United
States by advertisers and players
alike. 1t is simply an attempt to ap-
ply well known system Of Roman
ization to the name of the game as
it is pronounced in Mandarin, the Of
fetal language of China
This system was introduced by Sir
Thomas Wade, the noted British sin
ologue, and has by general usage be-
come the standard among English
speaking students of the Chinese Ian
guage. The chang should not be
pronounced "chee-ang," but should be
more nearly "dj-iang," with a drop
of the voice. or terminal sound.
OF the other names by which the
game has been called. numbers of
which have appeared in print, the
Cantonese "cheunk," pronounced more
or less as "juck," with the final *"
very HsHIly tne ANlHSpO
pronunciation, in which the whole
name is changed to something more
or less approximated by mo jia,"
and the Shanghai, which Is nearly
'mojiang," are more used in China.
At present In China there is in ex-
istence the card game which is the
direct antecedent Of ma chang. This
is called shut hu'' and has a clear
and shining record Of about IA CEN
turies, dating from Tang dynasty
(61S-904 ADJ.
the same material as the ordinary
States and the method of play is very
similar to that ma chang. The cards
are numbered from one to nine; there
are four of each number and three
varieties, just as the so-called "bam-
boos," Circles and "characters' of
ma chang, with the addition of three
honor suits" which approximate the
dragons" in ma chang.
The game is played with three
four players, one must "cut in" with
each round" The system of play
is. with slight variations, the same
as Ma Chang. the object being to
fill the hand with threes. fours and
series just as in Ma Chang
At it's inception the game was
called Yeh Tzu Hsi (playing of
leaves). but some time during the
Sung or Ming dynastes the name was
changed to Ma Tiao. During the
reign of the Emperor T"ien Chi of the
Ming dynasty, between 1921 and
1923 A. D., the game of Ma Tiao be-
came very popular, especially among
the officers of the Emperor's guard
At the time of Ch'ien Lung I736 to
1875 A. d., of the Ching dynasty,
because it so happened that the num-
ber of the cards exactly corresponded
with the number of the heroes in a
famous Chinese novel which was
written during the Ming dynasty by
renowned scholar of Shantung, the
name was changed to Shut Hu," and
SO remains to the present day.
This novel was based on the his
torical fact that during the Sung
dynasty a certain Sung Chang
gathered together a band of robbers,
36 in number. and made his head
quarters very near the mountain
which was the lair Of the Lin Cheng
bandits of 1923, in a place called
Liang Shan Po, which is situated on
river. hence the novel was called
Shut Hu" or river bank"
Some time during the Ching
dynasty u644-1s11) three more cards,
called. respectively, Lao Chin, Hung
Jen and Pal Hua, were added. These
cards correspond to what are known
as the dragons in the modern game
of Ma Chang.
The story goes that Lao Chin was
a bandit, q sort of Chinese Robin
Hood, who delighted in taking money
from the rich and giving it to the
poor and unfortunate. Lao Chin,
having been captured. was being sent
in the care OF Hung Jen to the
capital to be put to death. For
tunately. however. Lao Chin found
that Hung Jen was amenable to rea-
son. and he promptly Joined partner
ship with the bandit and formed a
group or society called the Pal Hua-
The addition Of these IL cards, four
cards for each of the three men. in
| creased the total number to 100.
We now come to the development
| of the present game OF Ma Chiang.
The devoteea Of Shut Hu. Of course.
were oonstantiy annoyed by the fact
that the cards quickly wore out, be-