Rule presets

Chinese Classical

These rules represent the classical Chinese Mah Jong as it was played by experts and intellectually oriented players in the second decade of the 20th century. The classical rules are considered by many as the "true" form of Mah Jong: a balanced result of a development that lasted several decades and during which the rules and scoring reached their perfection, and also, a form of Mah Jong that is pure of additions of the later versions, which sometimes make the game unnecessarily complex or over-emphasize the element of luck (and accordingly, gambling aspects of the game).

However, the classical rules are seldom used in China of today (few are even aware of this playing style), and the modern Chinese variations, mostly developed outside of mainland China, where Mah Jong was suppressed for decades, have abandoned many features of the classical game, e.g., point scoring for basic sets, the payoff scheme where East receives and pays double, payments between the losers, etc. The modern rules have also introduced a number of new scoring patterns and a payoff scheme which rewards a player for going out on a self-drawn tile (the winner's scores are doubled in this case), and penalizes a player who discards the winning tile (though not as radically as in the Japanese rules where the discarder pays for all losers – in Chinese modern rules discarder just pays twice as much as the other losers). 

The traditionalists may oppose and consider these changes as a degradation of the game, but they often fail to see that modern Chinese rules are flexible enough for varying playing styles. E.g., the pattern-centered New Style rules can be used for both gambling purposes and for intellectually challenging games, while the old-style rules (Hong Kong Mah Jong rules in Four Winds) are very simple and close to the classical rules in spirit, and are well suited even for novice players – the rules and scoring are actually simpler than Chinese classical. As the payoff scheme in modern Chinese Mah Jong does not reward East (but rather going out self-drawn), and penalizes mildly the discarder (and thus discourages irresponsible discarding), many have argued that the changes in modern Mah Jong have actually improved the classical game.

Paradoxically the classical Chinese rules continue to have adherents in the Western world, mainly in European countries, where the classical rules are still often included in the Mah Jong tile sets that can be bought from stores and Chinese shops. These rules (embodied in Four Winds as European Classical rule preset), however, represent the Shanghai or Cantonese popular forms of Mah Jong, where scoring is slightly simplified. They are well suited to learning the game, but miss some of the details of Chinese Classical rules, which make the game more interesting and challenging.

The most distinctive features of the Chinese Classical rules are listed below (note that many of these features appear individually in national European versions, but often slightly modified):

• The winner gets 10 points, instead of 20 points.
• Flowers and Seasons are used, but they score less than in other versions close to the classical rules (these bonus tiles are not later additions to the game, but an essential part of the original tile set; obviously they were omitted from the later versions because of abuse in scoring – e.g., in some rules a player would receive double for each Flower and Season). 
• The Dead Wall is exhaustible (rather than replenishing as in most modern Asian and European versions) and consists of 16, not 14 tiles. Note that French and Italian rules use an exhaustible Dead Wall, but it consists of 14 or 20 tiles, not 16. Also, in the Chinese classical rules the supplement tiles for Flowers and Seasons are not taken from the Dead Wall, but from the open end of the Wall.
• The Limit is set at 1,000 points (as in British, French and Italian rules), rather than 500 pts used in later versions of the classical game.
• Kong declarations are allowed only after a drawn tile (i.e., a player is not allowed to declare Kong after having claimed another player's discard for a Pung or Chow – note that the Kong declaration is allowed if the claimed tile was used for completing a Kong, since in this case the last tile – the supplement tile – is drawn from the Wall or Dead Wall). This rule is still used in the French rules.
• Concealed and claimed Kongs are considered as concealed triplets in patterns like Three concealed triplets, Fully concealed hand and Hidden Treasure. Note that e.g. in Japanese Mah Jong only concealed Kongs are interpreted as concealed triplets. On the other hand, the Dutch rules accept all Kongs (also the ones that have been promoted  to Kongs by adding a self-drawn tile to an already melded Pung) as concealed triplets. This interpretation is common also in modern Chinese Mah Jong.
• Instead of rewarding the winner for going out on a one-chance Chow, the classical rules give an extra 2 points for going out on a one-chance hand (i.e., on a hand which can be completed with only one kind of a tile; multiple-chance hands are allowed, as well, if the tiles for other chances have already been played). This pattern is used also in Dutch rules (while Italian rules reward 1 double for Last-chance-hand).
• The rules acknowledge few patterns which are often excluded from later versions, e.g. Three concealed triplets and Ready on first turn. (The Dutch version acknowledges the former pattern, but interprets all Kongs as concealed triplets; British rules acknowledge Ready on first turn).
• A total of 19 Limit hands are acknowledged. These include hands like Fully Concealed Suit Hand , Squirming Snake and Dealer's Consecutive Wins (13 won deals), which are often omitted in other rules considered as classical.
• Going out on a Honor or Terminal pair pays 4 points (completing the hand with a pair of Simples pays 2 points). This extra bonus for going out out on a Terminal or Honor pair is seldom acknowledged in any other rules.

Related topics:
Overview
Classification of rules
Alan's Zung Jung
American Classical
American Modern
Australian
British Official
Chinese New Style
Chinese Official
Chinese Transitional
Dutch League rules
EMA Riichi Rules
European Classical
French
German
Hong Kong Mah Jong
Internet Mahjong Server
Italian Official
Japanese Classical
Japanese Modern
Japanese Transitional
Korean Style
Mahjong Masters Million
Taiwanese 16-Tile Mah Jong
Wilmington Advanced 12-Tile rules
WMPA Rules
Comparison table