Four Winds Rule Collection – Chinese New Style

5. Scoring

5.1 Displaying the hands

The modern Chinese rules allow payments to the winner only: there are no payments between the losers. Accordingly, only the winner must display his hand after a deal is over.

The winner is responsible of arranging his hand in a way that makes it clear which sets it is composed of, melded sets placed above the sets in the hand. The winner should mark the winning tile by placing it at right angles to the others (or slightly apart from the rest of the hand).

If a concealed portion of the hand can be arranged in more than one way, a player is free to arrange it in a way that results in the best scores. E.g., if a player is calling with Bamboo 2-2-3-3-4 and any pair, and the winning tile is Bamboo 4 (either self-drawn or discard), a player is free to arrange his hand so that the winning tile is considered to complete a Pung of Bamboo 2, rather than a Chow 2-3-4 (both arrangements are possible but the previous would pay extra faans if the remaining two sets were triplets, as well).

5.2 Calculating the value of hands

In modern Chinese Mah Jong the only scoring unit is faan (a regulated multiplier, instead of a double, which is always applied linearly) – the point unit is abandoned. Accordingly the scoring is performed by first summing up the faans earned by different patterns found in the hand, and then using a specific settling table to determine the final point score of the hand.

5.2.1 Faans for the winner

The winner receives faans for the following basic sets:

Set	Score
Pung of Dragons	1 faan
Kong of Dragons	1 faan
Pung of player’s Own Wind	1 faan
Kong of player’s Own Wind	1 faan
Pung of the Wind of the Round	1 faan
Kong of the Wind of the Round	1 faan

If Flowers and Seasons are used, the winner receives bonus faans for the following Flowers and Seasons:

In addition, the winner receives faans for the following hands:

Pattern	Score
Same Chow from all suits (Three sisters, jap. san shoku do jun)	3 faan
Two identical Chows (Sister Chows, ch. ton ryan shun, jap. ippei ko)	2 faan
Two identical Chows twice (a.k.a. Big seven pairs, 2 Lions Hug)	9 faan
123789 of the same suit (Old and young)	1 faan
3 Chows of 1 suit, step 3  (Clear dragon, ch. ii chii ton kan, jap. ikkitsuu kan, itsuu)	3 faan
Triplets 1 and 9 of the same suit (Old and young)	1 faan
Little Three Dragons (jap. sho san gen)	6 faan
Exposed hand (waiting with a single tile for the tile completing the pair) Note: Implies One-chance hand and Out on a pair.	2 faan
Concealed hand (discarded last tile) (Ch., Jap. men zen chin) Note: All Kongs are allowed as concealed sets.	1 faan
Fully concealed hand (Ch. men zen tsuu mo, Jap. men zen tsumo) Note: No Kongs are allowed as concealed sets (instead, a concealed hand with Kongs + self-drawn winning tile pays 1 faan for Concealed hand and 1 for Self-drawn last tile). Implies Self-drawn last tile if scoring specified with the same unit. Always implies Concealed hand.	3 faan
Chow hand (a regular hand with no Pungs or Kongs) Note: The hand may contain no traditional scoring pairs (i.e., the pair must not be of player's own Wind or Wind of the Round).	1 faan
Pung hand (a regular hand with no Chows) (Jap. toi toi ho)	3 faan
All Simples (Ch. tan yao chuu, Jap. tan yao)	1 faan
Terminal or Honor in each set (Jap. chan tao, chan tai yao)	2 faan
Terminal in each set (Jap. jun chan)	3 faan
All Terminals and Honors (Ch., Jap. hon rao to) Note: Does not imply scoring for Pung hand.	6 faan
All suits, Dragons and Winds (one set of each) (Five doors)	3 faan
Two suits only (One suit less)	1 faan
One suit and Honors (Mixed hand, Ch. hon ii so, Jap. hon itsu)	3 faan
One suit only (Clear hand, Ch. chin ii so, Jap. chin itsu)	9 faan
Four same in two sets (Four-in-one small) The hand contains the same tile in a Pung and a Chow.	1 faan
Four same in three sets (Four-in-one medium) The hand contains the same tile in two Chows and a pair.	1 faan
Four same in four sets (Four-in-one big) The hand contains the same tile in four Chows.	1 faan

Finally, the winner can earn bonus faans for the following special ways of going out:

Note: The pattern selection presented here is just a suggestion. Several other patterns are available in Chinese New Style. For more information on typical patterns used in Asian modern Mah Jong, check the Four Winds rule presets Chinese Official and Wilmington Advanced 12-Tile Rules, and the equivalent scoring pages (Chow patterns, Pung patterns, Miscellaneous patterns, Hands, Winning patterns).

5.2.2 Limit hands

In addition, the winner can get directly the limit points or few extra faans for the following special hands (note that % of Limit values are exclusive so no other points are added):

Limit or Special Hand	Description	Score
Four Kongs (Fourfold Plenty, 18 Buddhas)	Hand containing any four Kongs, concealed or melded.	1600% of Limit
Hidden Treasure (Buried Treasure)	Four concealed triplets and a pair. Note: The hand can go out on a discard (when completing the pair), and it may contain any kinds of Kongs.	1600% of Limit
Three Great Scholars (Big Three Dragons)	Pung or Kong with all three Dragons, any Chow, Pung or Kong, and any pair. May all be melded. Note: Implies scoring for all Dragons.	9 faan
Little Four Winds (Little Four Joys)	Pung or Kong of three Winds, a pair of the fourth, and any other set completing the hand. May be all melded. Note: Does not imply doubles for any special winds, and does not imply One suit with Honors.	12 faan
Big Four Winds (Big Four Joys, Four Big Blessings)	Pung or Kong of each Wind, and any pair. May all be melded.	1600% of Limit
All Honors (All Symbols)	Four Pungs or Kongs and a pair of Dragons and Winds. May all be melded.	1600 % of Limit
All Terminals (Heads and Tails)	Four Pungs or Kongs and a pair of 1’s or 9’s. May all be melded.	1600% of Limit
Nine Gates (Nine United Sons, Nine Sacred Lamps of Lotus)	Three 1’s, a sequence of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and three 9’s, all of the same suit, and any other tile of the same suit completing the hand. The hand must be concealed (the winning tile can be a discard). No Kongs are allowed in this hand. Note: This hand is traditionally considered the most perfect hand possible. This is a regular hand which can go out on any of the nine suit tiles.	1600% of Limit
Thirteen Orphans (Thirteen Unique Wonders, Thirteen Grades of Imperial Treasure)	One of each Dragon and Wind, 1 and 9 of each suit and 14th tile forming a pair with any of these. The hand must be concealed (the winning tile can be a discard).	1600% of Limit
Heavenly Hand	East declares ‘Out’ with the dealt hand (after supplement tiles, if any)	1600% of Limit
Earthly Hand	Non-dealer goes out on dealer’s first discard.	1600% of Limit
Kong on Kong	Player goes out on the supplement tile received after the second declaration of Kong on the same turn.	6 faan

Note: It is more common to specify scoring for limit hands in terms of laaks (e.g., 5 laaks means that the Limit is doubled four times, which is the same as 1600% of the Limit). Also, many players specify scoring for all patterns, including the so called "limit hands" in faans, in which case scores for other patterns are not ignored. The result is often the same, disregarding the used method: a hand scores the maximum points specified by the settling table (using the % of Limit or laak unit is just simpler as there is no need to count scores for other patterns or consult the settling table).

5.3 Calculating the total score

The modern Chinese Mah Jong uses a faan-laak scoring system, according to which the final score of the hand is determined by first adding up the faans for the composing parts of the hand and then checking the final point score by using a look-up table. E.g., let us assume that the winner is North on the South round and that he goes out on the following hand (claiming the East wind from East):

The winner gets the following faans for his hand:

Note: If Flowers and Seasons are used and the rules apply a minimum point requirement on a winning hand, it is common that the faans for these bonus tiles are not included in the minimum point count but are added to the final score only if the hand meets the minimum point requirement without the extra faans earned by the bonus tiles.

Figure 3. Settling table used in Chinese New Style Mah Jong with limit points set to 64 points. The first laak (the Limit) is paid for hands worth 6 faans, the second laak (the Limit doubled once) for hands worth 9  faans, the third laak (the Limit doubled twice) for hands worth 12 faans, the fourth laak (the Limit doubled three times) for hands worth 15  faans and the fifth laak (the Limit doubled four times) for hands worth 20 faans or more. Notice that individual final scores are specified at increments of 10 points for intermediate faans. The table is called "6-9-12 System". Another popular variation in the New Style is the "5-8-11 System".

5.4 Limit

In games where the final score is specified using a settling table, the limit is used as a unit to specify the final scores. In the rules described here the Limit is 64 points, but the actual highest final score is specified by a settling table according to which a hand worth 20 faans or more pays 1,024 points (i.e., 5 laaks, meaning the Limit doubled four times, or 1600% of the Limit).

It is important to understand that in this scoring system the Limit is not used as a point cutter but simply as a scoring unit.

5.5 Scoring accessories

A sheet of paper and a pencil is sufficient for keeping the scores, but normally Mah Jong sets come with counters or chips, valued at 500 points (marked either with 6 red and 6 black dots or more commonly, with 5 red dots), 100 points (marked either with 2 red dots, or more commonly with 1 red dot), 10 points (marked either with 8 black dots or more commonly, with 10 black dots) and 2 points (marked either with 1 red and 3 black dots or more commonly, with 2 black dots). If scoring accessories are used, players naturally exchange them at the time of payments.

Related topics:
Introduction
Tiles
Preliminaries
Playing
Miscellaneous
Payments