The basics

The tiles

Characters, dots, bamboo, honours and eight flowers: what each of the 144 tiles is and how to read it.

On this page

Suits: characters, dots and bamboo
Honours: winds and dragons
Flowers
How many tiles

Suits: characters, dots and bamboo

There are three suits, each numbered 1 to 9, with four copies of every tile.

Characters: a number on top and the character 萬 below

Dots: the number of circles is the value

Bamboo: the number of sticks is the value; the 1 is usually a bird

The 1s and 9s are “terminals” — they matter for Thirteen Orphans and the terminal hands.

Honours: winds and dragons

Honour tiles can’t form runs — only pungs, kongs or the pair.

Winds: East, South, West, North

Dragons: Red, Green, White

A pung of any dragon is worth 1 fan. A pung of your seat wind or of the current round wind is also worth 1 fan.

Flowers

There are eight flowers, one of each. When you draw one, lay it out and draw a replacement from the end of the wall; flowers never stay in your hand.

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter (seasons) and Plum, Orchid, Bamboo, Chrysanthemum

Flowers belong to seats: Spring and Plum are East; Summer and Orchid are South; Autumn and Bamboo are West; Winter and Chrysanthemum are North. Your own seat’s flower is worth 1 fan each; a full set of four is 2 fan; no flowers at all is also 1 fan.

How many tiles

Kind	Copies	Total
Characters, dots, bamboo (1–9)	4	108
Winds	4	16
Dragons	4	12
Flowers	1	8

144 tiles in all. Everyone starts with 13 tiles, the dealer with 14. Next: Winning hands.