Taiwanese 16-Tile Mahjong
The mahjong played in Taiwan. It uses all 144 tiles, flowers and seasons included. Each player holds 16 tiles and goes out with five sets and a pair, one set more than in Hong Kong mahjong. Scoring is in tai, and a hand is worth the sum of its patterns.
These rules and values follow Mahjong Time’s Taiwanese Mahjong Rules and Taiwanese Mahjong Scoring. Where another source differs, both readings are recorded.
Taiwanese Mahjong — table layout
The Deal
A game is ordinarily 16 hands: each player deals at least once in each of the four wind rounds. The dealer keeps the deal after winning and after a drawn hand, so a game may run longer.
The last 16 tiles of the wall are the dead wall. Replacement tiles for kongs, flowers and seasons come from it, and it is kept at 16 by taking tiles from the end of the live wall. Each player is dealt 16 tiles and the dealer 17. Flowers and seasons are laid face up as they come and replaced at once.
Play and Claims
The dealer discards first; play passes to the right. A discard may be claimed:
- to win, by any player. If several can win on it, they all win.
- for a kong or a pung, by any player.
- for a chow, only by the next player in turn.
A win beats a kong, a kong beats a pung, and a pung beats a chow. If the live wall runs out, the hand is drawn.
A winning hand is five sets (chows, pungs or kongs) and a pair, 17 tiles, or the irregular seven pairs and a triplet: seven pairs (identical pairs allowed) and a triplet not melded before going out.
Ready on the original hand. A player whose dealt 16 tiles already wait may declare it with their first discard, throwing the tile just drawn (the dealer may throw any tile). The hand is then locked, and winning with it scores 15 tai.
Scoring
The winner scores the total of these patterns. Where patterns are graded (for example two, three, four or five concealed triplets), only the highest counts. A pattern that implies another includes it.
| Flowers and seasons | Tai |
|---|---|
| Each flower or season | 1 |
| No flowers or seasons | 1 |
| All eight flowers and seasons: a winning hand by itself | 30 |
| Seven flowers and seasons, robbing the eighth when another player draws it: a winning hand by itself | 20 |
| The hand | Tai |
|---|---|
| Pung or kong of honours (dragons or any wind), each | 1 |
| Melded kong, each | 1 |
| Concealed kong, each | 2 |
| 1-2-3, 4-5-6 and 7-8-9 of one suit (10 if all concealed) | 5 |
| Two / three / four / five concealed triplets (concealed kongs count) | 2 / 5 / 15 / 40 |
| Little three dragons (two dragon sets and a dragon pair) | 15 |
| Little three winds (two wind sets and a wind pair) | 5 |
| Big three winds (three wind sets) | 15 |
| Exposed hand: every set melded, out on the pair | 10 |
| Concealed hand, won on a discard | 1 |
| Fully concealed hand, self-drawn | 3 |
| Chow hand (no pungs or kongs) | 3 |
| Chow hand with no honours and no flowers | 10 |
| Pung hand (no chows) | 10 |
| No honours | 1 |
| No flowers and no honours | 3 |
| One suit and honours | 10 |
| One suit only | 40 |
| Going out | Tai |
|---|---|
| Winning | 2 |
| Self-drawn last tile | 1 |
| Out on a one-chance chow (an edge or middle wait) | 1 |
| Out on a pair | 1 |
| Out on the last tile of the wall | 1 |
| Out by robbing a kong (counts as a discard) | 1 |
| Out on the last discard | 1 |
| Early winning, 6 to 9 discards made | 5 |
| Early winning, 5 or fewer discards made | 10 |
| Ready on the original hand | 15 |
| Limit hands, added to the rest | Tai |
|---|---|
| Three Great Scholars (big three dragons) | 30 |
| Little four winds | 30 |
| Big four winds | 40 |
| Seven pairs and a triplet | 30 |
| Heavenly Hand: the dealer wins on the dealt hand | 40 |
| Earthly Hand: another player wins on the dealer’s first discard | 40 |
There is normally no limit. Players may agree on one, such as 40 tai.
Paying
- Self-drawn: each of the other three pays the winner the hand’s tai.
- On a discard: the discarder alone pays, just for themself. Each winner on the same discard is paid in full.
- Losers do not pay each other.
Two optional bonuses may be agreed before play. A dealer’s bonus: extra tai on any hand the dealer wins, which the dealer pays when discarding the winning tile. A continued-deal bonus: 2 tai for the dealer’s first continued deal, 4 for the second, 6 for the third, paid the same way.
Attribution
Rules and scoring from Mahjong Time, Taiwanese Mahjong Rules and Taiwanese Mahjong Scoring (mahjongtime.com, © Mahjong Time), restated here in our own words. Rack It! Mahjong, Jesse Hagy, How to Play Taiwanese Mahjong: Your Comprehensive Guide to the 16-Tile Hand (22 August 2025), is recorded where it differs.