A (mostly) early history of mahjong video

[dwillems]

Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H6Pa_yI ... re=related

Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evfRucgJ ... re=related

Part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25tIiiop ... re=related

[chalwa]

Very interesting film. It\'s the first time I met with interpretation that circles symbolise shotgun bullets that were used to shoot sparrows XD I have heard before that circles tiles came from some chinese coins, or are the cutted bamboo seen from above. And problably there are many more teories XD

[deJENNerate]

Right, the one I heard was that the dots were single coins, the bams were strings of coins (100 i think?) and the craks were 10,000. So far that makes the most sense to me but I\'ll definitely take a look at this video~

[Bunta]

Yeah, i never heard that too, but i guess there are a lot more opinions. Once i read in a chinese mahjong forum a discussion about the meanings of the tiles. Have to see if i can find it again. Was very intesting but i cant remember what exactly they said.
If i find it i post it here!

[Tom Sloper]

One problem with that video: it says Mr. Noguchi (pres. of Takeshobo) has an 1861 diary that belonged to Harvey, and it discusses some things in the diary.

I asked Mr. Noguchi, and he says he has no such diary.
So the question is, where is this diary? Maybe in the museum in Ningbo... Next task is to contact that museum, see if they have it.

[Tom Sloper]

Very interesting film. It\'s the first time I met with interpretation that circles symbolise shotgun bullets that were used to shoot sparrows

The "talking heads" in that video are not aware of the ongoing discussions among non-Chinese mahjong scholars on the mahjong newsgroup, who\'ve done serious research into the actual written record (which those talking heads haven\'t read either).
That said, I need to watch the video again.

[deJENNerate]

Hey David,

This is great. how did you embed the video?

NEVERMIND~

Was having problems with Japaense youtube

got it now!

[deJENNerate]

I personally prefer the history in Tom\'s book (The Red Dragon and the West Wind).

I think the rice guards theory is a bit far-fetched :S

I know that the \"gambling\" aspect is controversial and especially with CO rules, but maybe that\'s one reason that I\'ve been so turned off to the CO rules. Although I think people can choose if they want to wager on the game or not, it bothers me so much when people claim that mahjong should NOT be gambled on ever and it should only be competition...blah,blah,blah.

I personally love to bet money on the game :P

If you don\'t, then good for you! Play how you want to play.
;)

[Benjamin]

I know that the "gambling" aspect is controversial and especially with CO rules, but maybe that\'s one reason that I\'ve been so turned off to the CO rules.

I dont like to gamble so much myself, but criticizing other Mahjong variants for not being "gamble-free" as opposed to CO seems pretty ridiculous to me. There\'s so much variance in that game that sometimes I feel all you can do with it is gamble.

And yes, Im speaking as someone who has generally been benefited by that variance :P

[Tom Sloper]

If given my druthers, I\'d prefer to play without money being involved. But when most people I play with insist on the money thing, well, that\'s the price of admission, so I pay it (and sometimes I don\'t have to pay).

[wyce]

wow, cool video! thanks for the post