Pung Chow Part 1

Pung Chow.

by Lew Lysle Harr.

NOTE

Mr. L. L. Harr's skill in the game of Pung Chow has been acquired through more than twenty years of intimate contact with the business and official circles of cultured Chinese in Canton, Shanghai, Tientsin, Pekin and other centers of China. Mr. Harr has enjoyed more opportunity to mingle in polite Chinese society than any other European or American resident I knew in China.

Mr. Harr, in consequence, was perhaps one of the first foreigners who learned the game from the best players in China. What is more, Mr.

Harr's unusually keen appreciation and enthusiasm were largely instrumental in arousing the popularity of this extraordinarily fascinating Chinese game in the Western Hemisphere. To use a familiar American phrase, Mr. Harr was unquestionably one of the pioneers who put "PUNG CHOW" on the map west of Suez.

Mr. Harr has not only brought the game to America, but has written the first authoritative book on "Pung Chow," based on the best modern methods of Chinese play.

J. D. BUSH, Professor of English Literature, Pekin National University, Pekin, China.

January, 1923.

INTRODUCTION

Out of China has come this stately game with the lure of Oriental mysticism to whet jaded appet.i.tes and with possibilities for study that challenge the keenest intelligence.

There is a mysticism about the Oriental and his mode of life that challenges the imagination and induces a curiosity hard to decipher. The dress of the Chinese, their strange customs, their difficult language, and their apparently impenetrable mask-like faces appeal to the fancy and throw a veil of mystery around even the commonplace.

The origin of this game is lost in the mist of centuries past. There is, though, an oral tradition to the effect that it was originated in the Court of the King of Wu, now known as Ning-Po, during the year of 472 B.C. to entertain his consort and her court ladies and to help them while away the time which lay heavily on their hands. This was about the time of Confucius. It is, however, known to have been the Royal game, restricted to the use of Emperors and their friends of the Mandarin cla.s.s for two thousand years. To them it was known as Pe-Ling (p.r.o.nounced Bah-Ling) taking its name from the "bird of a hundred intelligences," the lark-like creature sacred in the Chinese faith which now may be seen reproduced on most Chinese tapestries and embroideries.

The penalty paid by one of any other cla.s.s for playing Pe-Ling at that time, was the loss of his head. Later--no one knows just when--the privilege of playing this wonder game was extended to the merchant or middle cla.s.ses--and when, some 70 years ago--a social uprising threatened, one of the concessions granted to calm the unrest was the universal privilege of playing this game. In this way was caused the confusion of names for the game which exists even to-day in China; for, with the abolishing of Pe-Ling, each province applied their own name and p.r.o.nunciation to the game, with the result that now we have from twelve to eighteen different names, by which the game is known. A few of these are Ma-Cheuk, Mah-Jong, Mah-Juck, Mah-Diao and Mah-Jongg.

Pung Chow is made to withstand the climatic conditions which soon destroy the article imported under the name of Mah-Jongg and the other corruptions of Mah-Diao, and it is the true and original Chinese game translated by the addition of numerals just enough to be readily understood and not enough to spoil the artistry of the tiles. The addition of numerals has been overdone in the marking of many of the cheaper imported sets, and give the appearance of having had numerals sprinkled on them regardless of where they may land and permitted to stay.

The fundamentals of this game are simple and require only practice to master. The science of Pung Chow must in the greater part be studied out by the individual player and one may spend the rest of his life in attaining to past mastery in its thousand-fold intricacies.

SUMMARY OF THE GAME

Before going thoroughly into the details of the playing of the game, it is better to give a general view of the play and its object.

Pung Chow is played by thoroughly shuffling all of the tiles face down in the middle of the table, and forming them in a double-tiered, hollow square, called the wall. This wall is then broken at some point determined by the dice and each player draws an original hand of 13 tiles. This leaves about two-thirds of the wall intact, and the rest of the play is devoted to drawing and discarding from this remainder of the wall; each player improving and matching his own individual hand until having arranged it into four sets and a pair, some player wins. A set is three of a kind, four of a kind or three in a sequence. Every set has a scoring value, and the players add their scores and settle after every hand. A player may win with a score as low as 22 points or scores may run to 380,928 points. These possibilities will unfold as the following pages on the details of the play are read.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration No. 1. The thirty-four different tiles and the counters]

DESCRIPTION OF TILES

The game is played with 136 tiles, which are divided into four distinct and separate suits. These four suits are called the _Bamboo_, _Dot_, _Character_ and _Honor Suits_.

The first three of these suits score equally and are arranged in the same manner, that is, there are 36 tiles in each, numbering from one to nine, and there are four tiles of each numeral.

The fourth suit, known as the honor suit, is divided into three parts: the _Dragons_, the _Winds_ and the _Mandarins_. Of the _Dragons_, there are four apiece of three different kinds, the Red, Green and White Dragons. The _Winds_ are North, South, East and West with four tiles alike for each. The _Mandarins_ (also called _Seasons_, and _Flowers_), are 8 in number, and as they are only used in limit hands, will be discussed later.

From Ill.u.s.tration No. 2 a player will see that there are four of every different tile in the set, and that there are 34 different tiles.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration No. 2--The complete set of tiles]

PROCEDURE OF PLAY

A. EAST WIND.

Position of the players for the first game is determined by a throw of the dice; all players throw once, the one throwing the highest number becoming first _East Wind_. In the event of a tie, players tieing throw again. The player sitting opposite _East Wind_ will be known as _West Wind_, to the right of _East Wind_ as _South Wind_, and the left of _East Wind_, as _North Wind_. The dice need only be thrown to determine _East Wind_ for the first game of an evening's play, for if the player representing _East Wind_ wins, or if the game is a draw, he remains _East Wind_. If he loses, the player to his right becomes _East Wind_, he in turn becoming _North Wind_.

_East Wind_ is sometimes called _Banker_, for he must pay double stakes when he loses, and wins double stakes when he wins.

B. BUILDING AND BREAKING THE WALL.

Before building the wall the tiles must all be turned face down on the table and thoroughly shuffled. Then each player proceeds to build one side of the wall by taking 34 of the tiles at random, and arranging them side by side in a row 17 tiles long and 2 tiers high.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration No. 4.]

Each player then moves his side of the wall forward, the four sides forming a hollow square. This represents a Chinese wall or fort common in the protection of cities.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration No. 5.]

To find the point at which the wall is to be broken, _East Wind_ always throws the dice. The number thrown will indicate the player who is to break the wall. The player is found by _East Wind_ counting around the table to the right, starting with himself as "one," until he reaches the number thrown which will designate the player to break the wall.

In this ill.u.s.tration, if _East Wind_ threw a "7," starting with himself as one, _South_ would be 2, _West_ 3, _North_ 4, _East_ 5, _South_ 6, and _West_ 7, designating _West_ as the player to break the wall.

The player who has been designated to break the wall then throws the dice to determine the exact tile at which he shall break the wall, adding this throw to _East Wind_. This sum will indicate the tile at which the wall is to be broken, the player to break the wall counting the sum off from the right end of his own side, i.e., if 14 is the sum of the two throws, the wall will be broken by lifting out the 14th tile from the right with the one under it and placing both on the top of the wall to the right of where it was broken. These two are called loose tiles and they mark the end of the wall.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration No. 7. _East Wind_ threw "7" indicating _West Wind_ as the wall-breaker. _West Wind_ then threw "7" designating the 14th tile from the right end of his side of the wall, as the exact spot where the wall was to be broken. The loose tiles are shown in correct position.]