Designing the Four Seas Mahjong Basic Edition

Four Seas Mahjong is a hand-building ruleset developed from Zung Jung and inspired by the philosophy of hand-building, as introduced in Four Seas Mahjong (Basic Edition): Recreational Hand-Building Rules.

Given the tension between accessibility and depth, Four Seas was designed from the outset with an easy-to-learn Basic Edition, a Standard Edition focused on hand-building, and an Intermediate Edition connecting the two. The Basic Edition primarily addresses beginners who understand mahjong's basic rules and players of regional variants. By introducing scoring patterns that have largely faded from many mainland Chinese regional rules, it aims to let these players experience the pleasure of hand-building.

Easy to learn

Since beginners are the main audience, the Basic Edition—also called the Casual or Simplified Edition—should contain as few patterns as possible and the simplest winning requirements, making it easy to remember and master. Chinese Official Mahjong's many patterns and high minimum score are its greatest obstacles to wider adoption. Riichi and Zung Jung have simple winning requirements, but each still has more than forty patterns. Four Seas Basic has only fourteen tile-structure patterns and six chance-based patterns. Even removing the chance-based patterns would have little effect on the experience of playing Four Seas.

Four Seas Mahjong Basic Edition 3.1

Group	Category / subcategory	Pattern	Points
Suit	—	Mixed One-Suit	30
Suit	—	Pure One-Suit	60
Hand structure	—	All Sequences	5
Hand structure	—	All Triplets	30
Hand structure	—	Seven Pairs	60
Rank	—	All Simples	5
Rank	—	Outside Hands	30
Pungs and kongs	—	One Quad	10
Honors	—	Value Honor	10
One suit	Matching chows	Two Identical Sequences	10
One suit	Consecutive chows	Half Straight	5
One suit	Consecutive chows	Pure Straight	40
Three suits	—	Two Similar Sequences	5
Three suits	—	Three Similar Sequences	30
Chance	Turn circumstances	Last Tile Draw	20
Chance	Turn circumstances	Last Tile Claim	20
Chance	Kong circumstances	Robbing a Kong	20
Chance	Kong circumstances	Win On Kong	20

Winning requirement	Self-draw	Discard win
Beginner	5	5
Standard	10	10

Four Seas payment system; hand score H, payment threshold 25

Outcome	Winner	Discarder	Each other player
Self-draw	+6H	—	−2H (all three opponents)
Discard win, H ≤ 25	+4H	−2H	−H
Discard win, H > 25	+4H	−(4H − 50)	−25

The fourteen tile-structure patterns fall into eight categories in the classification chart. Patterns in a category share the same structural justification: Mixed One-Suit and Pure One-Suit, or Two Similar Sequences and Three Similar Sequences, are lower and higher patterns in the same family. All Sequences, All Triplets, and Seven Pairs are mutually exclusive. Thus, players actually need to remember only eight pattern families. The Chinese mnemonic “平断杠、喜六番、一对幺、三龙般” helps players remember all the patterns, reducing the biggest barrier to learning hand-building mahjong. Its shorthand evokes all sequences, all simples, kongs, similar sequences, half straights, value honors, one-suit hands, triplets, outside hands, three-suit sequences, straights, and identical sequences.

The minimum score for winning is another major obstacle. A beginner who has just learned to complete four melds and a pair cannot realistically be expected to make main-route patterns such as Pure Straight or All Triplets every time. Such a requirement would merely prevent beginners from winning and drive them away. Four Seas Basic includes All Sequences and All Simples, the two easiest and most common whole-hand patterns; Two Similar Sequences and Half Straight, two simple combinations of two chows; and kongs and Value Honor, two traditional single-meld patterns. Any one of these six small patterns qualifies for a win, making entry considerably easier even than riichi or Zung Jung.

As players become more familiar with the patterns, the minimum can be raised to ten points. This increases the skill component, introduces combining patterns to qualify, and gives larger hands more opportunities, taking a further step toward hand-building. Yet the Basic Edition's threshold remains modest. Any two of All Sequences, All Simples, Two Similar Sequences, and Half Straight readily reach ten points. A kong or Value Honor, which depend more on the initial tiles, already scores ten and qualifies on its own. Moreover, players with different skills and experience can use different minimum scores in the same game, each building to their own requirement. This makes it easier for experienced players to introduce beginners.

Regional mahjong

China's largest mahjong-playing population plays regional variants, with simple rules and gambling as the source of enjoyment. As Hand-Building Mahjong: Origins and Improvements argued, hand-building mahjong is inherently different from gambling mahjong. Regional players are therefore another audience for Four Seas Basic: the aim is to attract them to the pleasure of building hands.

Regional rules also differ greatly. Even a major variant such as Sichuan mahjong has differences of detail between cities. When players from different regions meet, they first have to debate which rules to use. Everyone naturally prefers and identifies with familiar rules, making agreement difficult. Even a reluctant compromise can leave players dissatisfied. Young players from different places, such as university students, may instead choose Japanese riichi's standardized rules. Riichi is easy to start, has a complete system, and offers competitive play. Taken as a whole, no Chinese regional ruleset, Chinese Official Mahjong, or Zung Jung can compete with it. Hence discussions such as Japanese Mahjong Is Rising: Where Does Chinese Mahjong Go from Here? With its simple rules, Four Seas Basic could become a shared means of interaction among regional players, if it earns their acceptance.

This requires understanding the patterns shared by regional rules and finding the broadest common ground. When encountering a new ruleset, people first notice differences from their own, especially omissions. A player whose local rules include Pure Straight may react, “It doesn't even have Pure Straight?” and instinctively resist. By contrast, adding Three Similar Sequences to a tradition that lacks it can create novelty and interest. Therefore, new rules should cover as many commonly shared regional patterns as possible. I made an incomplete survey of the pattern lists of eighteen regional variants:

Pattern	Number of regional rules
Pure One-Suit	14
All Triplets	13
Win On Kong	12
Kong	11
Seven Pairs	10
Blessing of Heaven	10
Last Tile Draw	9
Blessing of Earth	9
Robbing a Kong	8
Mixed One-Suit	6
All Sequences	5
Pure Straight	5
Value Honor	4
Thirteen Orphans	4
All Honors	4
Big Three Dragons	2
Little Four Winds	2
Big Four Winds	2
Two Identical Sequences	1
Last Tile Claim	1

The most widespread main-route patterns are Pure and Mixed One-Suit, All Triplets, and Pure Straight. The other two main routes, Outside Hands and Three Similar Sequences, have largely disappeared. Unexpectedly, Seven Pairs is very widespread, so I added it to the Basic Edition even though it was not originally planned. Similarly, heavenly and earthly wins and the four chance-based patterns summarized by “海河金花” are unexpectedly common. These are Last Tile Draw, Last Tile Claim, Robbing a Kong, and Win On Kong. Although such patterns cannot be deliberately built, including them helps make the Basic Edition familiar and easier to promote.

The philosophy of hand-building

Four Seas was designed around hand-building. Although the Basic Edition is simplified, it should still embody that philosophy and remain as consistent and connected as possible with the full rules.

Hand-building is commonly understood as constructing beautiful, large hands, a definition based on the result. But it is also a process: moving from small patterns to large ones. Building Big Three Dragons necessarily passes through Little Three Dragons; building Pure Straight first produces a Half Straight. Rather than say we are building the two large patterns Big Three Dragons and Pure Straight, we can say we are pursuing the dragon-pung and same-suit consecutive-chow families. A family contains a large pattern with the greatest beauty, such as Big Three Dragons; intermediate patterns with less difficulty and beauty, such as Little Three Dragons and Two Dragon Pungs; and smaller patterns, such as a Dragon Pung. Their structural justification is shared, and building the large pattern necessarily passes through smaller and intermediate ones.

A Historical View of Zung Jung Mahjong considers the justification for Mixed Double Chow and Double Pung insufficient, selecting only Pure Double Chow—the most beautiful of the two-meld patterns. This judges individual patterns in isolation and is rather subjective. A more reasonable standard would select patterns according to the aesthetic value of an entire family. Two Similar Sequences and Three Similar Sequences belong to the same family. If the latter meets the aesthetic standard, both can be included as a family. The smaller pattern, with less beauty and difficulty, can simply receive fewer points.

The value of including small patterns such as Two Similar Sequences and Half Straight in Four Seas Basic is that they give beginners a path into hand-building. These two-meld patterns occur frequently and are easy to construct, learn, and master. Once players understand them, they can naturally accept and attempt the three-meld patterns Three Similar Sequences and Pure Straight, which share the same underlying justification.

Four Seas Basic includes the six main families summarized by “一对幺、三龙般”: one-suit hands, All Triplets and Seven Pairs, Outside Hands, Three Similar Sequences, Pure Straight, and Two Identical Sequences. These correspond to the five main routes proposed in A Historical View of Zung Jung Mahjong and by K-shen, plus the difficult two-meld identical-chow pattern. These six families have the strongest historical foundations, structural justification, and prevalence. Together with kongs and Value Honor, the Basic Edition's fourteen tile-structure patterns already cover more than seventy percent of Zung Jung winning patterns. They can demonstrate the appeal of hand-building, introduce its pleasures, and prepare players to explore the Intermediate Edition's wider range of more beautiful patterns.

Additional rules

The core of mahjong rules is what constitutes a win, how it is scored, and how points are transferred. Other provisions, such as playing a half or full game and ranking players across a competition, are additional, non-core rules that can be chosen according to circumstances. The simplified Four Seas rules recommend several such provisions as consistent with hand-building. No dealer continuation, no multiple winners on one discard, and immediately revealing concealed kongs are widely used across competitive rules.

Classical mahjong has a dead wall; modern rules differ on whether to retain it. The offense-oriented Chinese Official rules do not, while the defense-oriented riichi rules do. Without a dead wall, drawing to the very end makes the final turns precisely calculable. Highly skilled players can determine everyone's remaining tiles and those left in the wall. Although Four Seas does not inspect hands for readiness at an exhaustive draw, retaining a dead wall preserves uncertainty and gives players with poor hands hope. They need not merely watch an opponent complete a large hand with near certainty, which adds value to defense.

The same-turn passing prohibition is also a defensive rule, and a fundamental one: an opponent's discarded tile should remain safe within the turn cycle. There is no reason to win on this copy after declining an earlier identical one. Chinese Official Mahjong cannot impose this prohibition because it includes patterns such as Last Tile, Fully Concealed Hand, and Chicken Hand. Zung Jung instead uses same-tile discard liability exemption, which has not gained broad acceptance, illustrating the reasonableness of the passing prohibition. A player who strategically declines a win is thereby recognizing that other players may defensively follow with the same tile.

Mahjong defines success through winning hands, so its rules should encourage active offense and reasonable defense. Too many prohibitions suppress attack; too few neglect defense. In these rules, the dead wall and passing prohibition strengthen defense and improve competitive play.