Taiwanese 16-Tile Mahjong Rules

Overview

Taiwanese 16-tile Mahjong is a four-player mahjong game played with 144 tiles, including 8 Flowers. Each player holds 16 tiles and players take turns drawing and discarding; using Chows, Pungs, Kongs and their own draws, a player who completes five melds plus a pair wins, and payments are counted in "tai" according to the hand and how it was won.

• Players: Four per table.
• Tiles: 144 tiles, including 8 Flowers.
• Goal: Complete a hand of "five melds + one pair" (17 tiles) to win, scoring as many tai as you can, while avoiding dealing in.
• Hand: Everything from the deal until someone wins or the hand ends in an exhaustive draw and is settled is one "hand". An exhaustive draw also counts as a hand, scoring 0.

These rules follow the Douque (鬥雀) platform's four-player mahjong rules, which differ from common house rules and association tournament rules in a few places. Please note these on your first game:

1. When three players can win on the same tile, it is a "triple win on one discard (一砲三響)" and all three win. When two players can win at the same time, only one wins (intercepted win, 攔胡): counting in turn order from the discarder, the first of them to be reached wins.
2. When your hand is ready, you may Declare Ready (嗆聽) for 1 extra tai; declaring within the first eight discards of the hand is "MIGI", worth 8 tai. After declaring, you can no longer change your hand.
3. You cannot make an Exposed Kong on a tile discarded by the previous player.
4. A concealed hand that wins on another player's discard does not score All Chows (平胡).
5. No Last Tile Claim (河底撈魚), no Half Melded (半求) and no Eye Tiles (眼牌); the dealer streak is capped at 18.

Tiles and Dealing

Tile Set

What a Winning Hand Looks Like

• Five melds + one pair, 17 tiles in all. A meld is a Chow (three consecutive tiles of the same suit; only Characters, Dots and Bamboo can form one), a Pung (three identical tiles) or a Kong (four identical tiles, counted as one meld).
• Flowers do not count toward the 17 tiles, and neither does the fourth tile of a Kong.
• There are no special hands such as Seven Pairs or Thirteen Orphans. The only wins that do not require a 17-tile hand are the two Flower wins: Eight Immortals and Seven Robs One (see "Special Rules and Rulings").
• There is no minimum tai requirement; you can win as soon as your hand is complete.

Dealing and Flower Replacement

• Each player is dealt 16 tiles; the dealer gets one extra, 17 in total, and discards first.
• Players who are dealt Flowers expose them in turn, starting with the dealer, and draw replacements from the back end of the wall. Only after everyone has finished the first pass is a second pass made for replacements that are themselves Flowers.
• When you draw a Flower during play, it is always exposed at once and replaced; there is no choice. If the replacement is another Flower, it keeps replacing.
• The last 16 tiles of the wall are never drawn. If a player needs to draw, or to draw a replacement for a Flower or Kong, and no drawable tiles remain, the hand ends in an exhaustive draw. Replacements come from the tail end of the wall, but each one still uses up one drawable tile (what is kept back is a count of tiles).

Seat Winds and Seat Flowers

Seat winds are determined by whose section of the wall is broken (開門) for each hand, not by who the dealer is: the player whose wall is broken is East, and the others follow in order. Each seat wind has two matching "Seat Flower (正花)":

• In the first hand of a match, the wall is broken from the dealer's own section, so the dealer is East.
• From the second hand on (including hands where the dealer keeps the deal), the dealer rolls three dice, and the total decides whose wall section is broken; the dealer is not necessarily East.

How to Play

1. Turn order: Counterclockwise. After you discard, the next player to act is your next player; only your next player can Chow your discard.
2. On your turn: Draw one tile, then choose one of the following:
   • Discard a tile;
   • Self-drawn win (the tile you drew completes your hand);
   • Concealed Kong (you hold four identical tiles) or Added Kong (you already have an exposed Pung and hold the fourth tile); after a Kong, draw a replacement from the back end of the wall and continue your turn;
   • Declare Ready (declare that your hand is ready and discard a tile; see below).
3. When another player discards, you may:
   • Win: the tile completes your hand;
   • Pung: you hold two identical tiles; you can Pung a discard from any player;
   • Exposed Kong: you hold three identical tiles; you can only Kong a discard from your next player or the player opposite, not from your previous player;
   • Chow: you can only Chow a discard from your previous player, forming a Chow with two tiles from your hand;
   • Pass: take nothing.
4. Priority when several players want the same tile: Win > Pung, Kong > Chow.
5. After a Chow or Pung you must discard; you cannot immediately make a Concealed or Added Kong. After an Exposed Kong, you first draw a replacement tile, then continue as a normal turn.
6. End of a hand: Someone wins (self-drawn, on a discard, by Robbing the Kong, or with a Flower win), or the hand ends in an exhaustive draw.
7. Dealer and prevailing wind:
   • If the dealer wins or the hand is an exhaustive draw, the dealer keeps the deal and the dealer streak goes up by 1.
   • Otherwise the deal passes to the next player and the dealer streak resets to zero.
   • When several settlements happen at once (such as a triple win on one discard), the dealer keeps the deal as long as the dealer has a net gain for the hand.
   • The dealer streak is capped at 18: the hand at streak 18 is played as usual (dealer bonus of 37 tai), but afterwards the deal passes even if the dealer would otherwise keep it.
   • When each of the four players has dealt once, that is one "round"; the prevailing wind goes East, South, West, North in order. Four rounds make one full cycle (將).

Declare Ready and MIGI (Declaring a Ready Hand)

• If the MIGI conditions are met when you declare, it is MIGI; otherwise it is Declare Ready. The two are never scored together.
• You may Declare Ready even with exposed Chows or Pungs.
• After declaring, if you draw the fourth tile of a Pung you have already exposed, an Added Kong is always made automatically (an Added Kong does not change your wait; if that tile is also your winning tile you may choose to win first, and the Kong is made only if you don't; no Kong on the turn you draw the last drawable tile); if you draw a tile that would allow a Concealed Kong, it is not Konged but discarded directly.
• Declaring Ready only adds tai when you win. When someone else wins, you do not pay extra for having declared. These rules have no Eye Tiles.

Tai Table

When you win, add up every item that applies; that total is the tai for the hand. All items can be combined, except combinations the "Notes" column says are not scored.

All Honors Combinations

When All Honors occurs together with Little/Big Three Dragons or Little/Big Four Winds, the two are added together minus 4 tai and shown as a single item:

Five Concealed Pungs is not part of this merging; when it applies, add 8 tai separately.

When a Hand Can Be Split More Than One Way

If the same hand can be split into different meld combinations, it is scored using the split that gives the most tai.

Items Not Used

Last Tile Claim (河底撈魚; winning on the last discard is allowed but earns no extra tai), Half Melded (半求), Eye Tiles (眼牌), Heavenly Ready, Earthly Ready, Sixteen Unrelated (十六不搭), Ligu (哩咕), Four Winds Discarded in a Row (四風連打), Flower-and-Honor Bonus (見花見字), Minimum Tai to Win (幾台起胡), Liability Payment (包牌), Tai Cap (滿台封頂), Three-Tile Exchange (換三張), Dice Bonus Tai (骰規台) and similar items are not used in these rules.

Legal Moves and Fouls

The following actions are not legal and may not be made:

Skipped Win (過水)

• Choosing not to win when you can is a Skipped win. This includes: not winning on a tile another player discards (or Added-Kongs); choosing to Chow, Pung or Kong instead of winning; not self-drawing a win on a tile you draw; and drawing a winning tile as the replacement after an Exposed Kong (you cannot self-draw on it, so you go straight into a Skipped win).
• While under a Skipped win, you cannot win on any tile, not even by self-draw. However, you can still make an Exposed Kong when another player discards your winning tile.
• When it is lifted depends on whether the tile is one of your winning tiles:

• Giving up a self-drawn win after Declaring Ready also puts you under a Skipped win; if you then draw the fourth tile of an exposed Pung, the automatic Added Kong is still made (the Added Kong tile is a winning tile, so it is not lifted).
• A player who declared MIGI cannot skip a win; they always win on a winning tile.
• Flower wins (Eight Immortals, Seven Robs One) are not affected by a Skipped win, and giving up a Flower win does not put you under one.

Scoring

How Each Payment Is Calculated

For each win, every paying player pays the winner separately:

Payment = base 300 + tai × 100

When scoring in tai, divide amounts by 100: the base is 3 tai, and each tai is 1 tai, so

Tai paid by each payer = 3 + tai

Dealer Tai Only Applies Between the Dealer and the Other Party

Dealer tai = 1 + 2 × dealer streak.

Your Score per Hand

Your score for a hand = the tai you received in all settlements of that hand − the tai you paid. The four players' scores always add up to 0. An exhaustive draw scores 0.

Scoring Examples

Example 1: A non-dealer self-draws. You are a non-dealer and win by concealed self-draw: Concealed Hand 1 + Self-drawn 1 + Fully Concealed 1 = 3 tai. The dealer has kept the deal twice (dealer tai = 1 + 2 × 2 = 5 tai).

You score +23 tai for this hand; the dealer −11 tai, and the other two players −6 tai each.

Example 2: Dealing in to the dealer. The dealer has kept the deal once, and your discard lets the dealer win with All Chows, 2 tai. Dealer tai = 1 + 2 × 1 = 3 tai, for 5 tai in total. You pay 3 (base) + 5 = 8 tai and score −8 tai for the hand; the other two players score 0.

Example 3: The dealer self-draws. The dealer (no streak) wins by concealed self-draw: Concealed Hand 1 + Self-drawn 1 + Fully Concealed 1 + Dealer 1 = 4 tai. Each of the other three pays 3 + 4 = 7 tai, and the dealer scores +21 tai.

Special Rules and Rulings

Multiple Players Winning on the Same Tile

• If two players can win on the same tile: only one of them wins (intercepted win). Counting counterclockwise from the discarder, the first of them to be reached wins.
• If three players can win: it is a triple win on one discard, and all three win. The discarder pays three shares, each based on that winner's own tai.
• The same rules apply to Robbing the Kong.

Kongs

• The "no self-draw" restriction after an Exposed Kong is lifted if you then make a Concealed or Added Kong; that replacement can be a self-drawn win and scores Out with Replacement Tile. Otherwise it lasts until you discard a tile.
• After drawing the last drawable tile, you cannot make a Concealed or Added Kong (a player who has Declared Ready does not Kong automatically either); you can only self-draw a win or discard a tile. If no one wins on that discard, the hand is an exhaustive draw.
• Any player's Concealed, Added or Exposed Kong counts as "someone has made a Kong", which rules out a later Human Hand, Earthly Hand or MIGI.

Flowers and Flower Wins

• Eight Immortals (8 tai): A player who collects all 8 Flowers may declare it on their own turn; each of the other three players pays one share. A player may choose not to. After declining, you can still declare it on a later turn; if you later self-draw a win, the Eight Immortals settlement is added, but if you later win on another player's tile it is not. You can still declare it on the turn you draw the last drawable tile.
• Seven Robs One (8 tai) has two cases, which differ in whether you draw the replacement or rob the Flower first:
  1. You draw your 7th Flower, and the 8th is already in front of another player: You first draw your replacement as usual, then rob their Flower.
  2. You already have 7 Flowers, and another player exposes the 8th: You rob it first, then draw a replacement.
• When Seven Robs One is made, the robbed Flower moves in front of the robbing player (who now has 8 Flowers), and the robbed player alone pays 8 tai (plus any applicable dealer tai).
• You may choose not to rob; play then continues as usual (giving up a Flower win does not put you under a Skipped win).
• A Flower win and a regular win are scored as two separate settlements:
  • If the replacement tile drawn by the robbing player completes their hand, a separate regular win is scored, with Out with Replacement Tile; if it does not, only the Seven Robs One settlement is scored.
  • Who pays the second settlement depends on the case above: in case 1 it is a self-drawn win, paid by all three; in case 2 the robbed player dealt in and pays alone (Self-drawn not scored).
  • Seat Flower and Flower Kong for the second settlement depend on how many Flowers you held at the moment you drew the replacement: in case 1 the replacement comes before the rob, so 7 Flowers count; in case 2 it comes after the rob, so 8 Flowers count.
  • If you already have all 8 Flowers and self-draw a win, there is one settlement for Eight Immortals and one for the self-drawn hand, both paid by all three (with 8 Flowers counted); if the replacement tile for the 8th Flower is what completes the hand, the second settlement also scores Out with Replacement Tile.
  • A Flower win that occurs when a player who just made an Exposed Kong draws a Flower as their replacement, or that occurs during a Skipped win, is scored as the Flower win settlement only.
  • Dealer tai is calculated separately for each settlement; the dealer streak still goes up by only 1.
• When no drawable tiles remain in the wall (no replacement can be drawn), Seven Robs One is not available.
• Flower wins on the deal: If a player completes Eight Immortals or Seven Robs One during Flower replacement at the start of the hand, the win is declared directly; it cannot be declined. When this coincides with a Heavenly Hand:

• Flower wins are not affected by a Skipped win, nor by the "no self-draw on an Exposed Kong replacement" restriction.
• If you draw a Flower and the wall has no tiles left to replace it: the hand ends in an exhaustive draw.

Heavenly Hand, Earthly Hand, Human Hand

• All three require that "no one at the table has made any Chow, Pung or Kong (including Concealed and Added Kongs) so far", and that the winner has not yet discarded or made a Kong.
• Heavenly Hand is for the dealer only; Earthly Hand and Human Hand are for non-dealers only. Only one of the three can be scored; they are never combined.
• The "first draw" for an Earthly Hand includes a tile drawn as a Flower replacement.
• They can combine with a Flower win, counted on the second (regular) settlement: if a non-dealer completes Eight Immortals or Seven Robs One (case 1) with their first draw and the replacement wins, the second settlement scores Earthly Hand; if a non-dealer gets Seven Robs One passively (case 2) before having drawn, and the replacement wins, the second settlement scores Human Hand.

What Counts as All Chows

• In the Douque rules, "a Chow wait with a pair, waiting on more than one tile" and "a two-sided wait" mean the same thing: the winning tile must complete a Chow, and that partial sequence must originally have been waiting on two tiles.
• Example: with 2-2-2-3-4-5-6 Characters + 1 to 9 Dots in hand, winning on a 1, 4 or 7 Character counts as All Chows; winning on a 3 or 6 Character uses that tile as the pair and does not count.
• All Chows is not scored with a concealed hand, with Flowers, or on a self-drawn win.

What Counts as a Concealed Pung

• A Concealed Kong counts as a concealed Pung.
• A Pung completed with another player's discard is not a concealed Pung; one completed by self-draw is.

Dealer Streak

• After an exhaustive draw, the dealer keeps the deal.
• The dealer streak is capped at 18: the hand at streak 18 is played as usual, and then the deal passes.

Rules basis: the Douque platform's four-player mahjong rules.