Julian Bradfield <jcb@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:<e6cvfdkncoo.fsf@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>...
> Notes on Tam Wing Kwong, "The Game of Sparrow as played in China".
Thank you very much, Julian, for making this extremely interesting
manual available to us!
Of course it would be a dream to have the first 1922 edition but this
one is really great.
About the title and the name(s) of the game.
It is surprising to see it spelled, in Chinese, ma3 ['horse'] + jiang4
['general']
Here it is the first sinogram which is strange, not the second one.
Unfortunately we are not sure if this spelling was in the 1922
edition: the Introduction you quote just says "the Game of Sparrow or
Maa Jerg or Maa Jong"...
As for the second sinogram -- jiang4 ['general'], the 2nd part of the
modern name of the game -- it seems this name was in competition with
'ma qiao' / 'ma que' since the early years of the 20th century.
Some Western authors of the 1920's did write 'matchang' or 'machiang'
which certainly mirrored some Chinese variant pronunciation.
For example, one K.T. Liou, a French-speaking Chinese, published an
article about Mahjong in "La Chine" (Peking), 1921, calling the game
'matchang' (= /matshang/) The very title reads: "Le jeu de matchang :
son origine, ses regles, ses combinaisons" (The game of 'matchang':
its origin, its rules, its combinations). In this, K.T. Liou explains
that 'matchang' means "pierrot" (a kind of sparrow), "according to the
only available translation here [in Peking]."
Another good witness is J. B. Powell, whose article in 'The China
Weekly Review' of 1923 (http://www.mahjongmuseum.com/lage0923.htm)
is
entitled "Mah chang : the game and its history".
Ma chiang was certainly already popular by 1924 as is evidenced by:
- G. Boulon, Standard rules and instructions for the Chinese game of
ma chiang (sparrow), New York, 1924
- International Ma Chiang Players' Association, The laws of ma chiang
as adopted by the International Ma Chiang Players' Association, New
York, 1924
- E.S. Warren, The game of ma chiang, New York, 1924
etc.
So this is a good indication that, besides 'ma qiao' / 'maque', there
was in another Chinese name which sounded like /ma-tsh(i)ang/.
In 1919 the Japanese writer Kobai Inoue wrote the name of the game
using the 2 sinograms that romanise as 'ma qiao', but he
transliterated them in Japanese katakana as "MO CHAN". In a further
book related to Mahjong (published in 1924) he uses two alternative
katakana spellings: "MO JIYA, MO CHIYA" on one hand (= '''ma qiao' as
pronounced in Shanghai)and "MA CHIYAN" (= Chinese ''ma jiang'!) on the
other. (Information kindly sent by TakashiEbashi)
A still earlier occurrence of 'ma jiang' may be found in an English
trademark that was registered in the UK by Robert D. Mansfield in 1912
with this comment: "The word is Chinese and means 'Sparrow'."
Mansfield, who was working in China, knew what it was about... (Found
in "Foster on Mah Jong" and researched by Michael Stanwick and
myself.)
>The book proper starts:
>The Game of Sparrow or Maa Jerg ?? [ma2que4], or Maa Jong ??
[ma3jiang4], is played ...
(...)
> I don't know the author's Cantonese romanization system,
>but I don't know any system in which ? [jiang4] is written
>"Jong" - and given the author's transcription "Jerg" for ?
>[que4], I would have expected "Jerng". Can a Cantonese
>speaker help me here?
Cofa Tsui made this comment:
>>The author is obviously Cantonese speaking, therefore "Jerg"
>>for ? [que4] is correct. "Jerng" (or "Jeung") for ? is more correct
>>in Cantonese. "Jong" is an phonetic transcription that does
>>not represent the correct sound of the word in Cantonese.
In the jyutping spelling system Maa Jerg would now romanise as "maa4
zoek3".
Normally Mandarin "ma3jiang4" would romanise as "maa5 zoeng1". But
"Jong" is strange indeed. Perhaps it was influenced by Babcock's
"Mah-Jongg" or it is a pronounciation in another Chinese language like
Hakka or Hokkien...
>Appendix B is the promised history of "maa jong", explaining
>his strange version of the name. He says his aim is to dispel
>the nonsense written by Americans claiming that Mah-Jong
>dates from Confucian times; en route, we get an explanation
>of his curious name of the game.
>
>At about the fall of the Tang Dynasty, gamblers used to settle
>up points won or lost between them by means of maas (?
>[ma3] meaning horses) which were of paper or wood made
>to represent the numbers 1 to 9 and also 10 and multiples
>thereof, the last of which were indicated by pictures of
>horses, lions, elephants and rhinoceroses.
This seems highly imaginative!
>This is new to me, but I don't know the prehistory of Mah-Jong
>at all well - is this part of the standard account? Anyway, he says
> that these cards combined with dominoes to produce "Maa Due
>([ma3diao4])".
>Now I quote again:
>
>In the Ming Dynasty, the game developed to what was then
>called Muoh Hwo cards [mo4 huo2/he2 pai2 (*)] which also
>had in the set maans, cashes and sogs.
We have met these 'mo he (hu) pai' already many times. Thanks to Cofa
and to further research we know a card game called "Mo Hu" ('he',
actually pronounced 'hu') using 60 cards with combinations was played
in early Qing times (17th-18th C.) and was later succeeded by "Peng
Hu" with 120 or even 150 cards.
>Players later added to the set 3 kinds of Aces on which
>were printed flowers called Hwas ([hua1pai2], Flower cards),
This is absolutely new to me! It is the most intriguing part of this
historical account.
Julian, are the sinograms hua1pai2 printed in the text?
In Himly's minute description of his own set (dated around 1870),
'hua' tiles are mentioned (with a special character), one in each
suit.
>and others added four more kinds "Teens, Deis, Yuns
>and Hwos" called Jongs ([jiang4] Generals).
I am trying to work out what these names mean. "Hwo" apparently is for
Mandarin he2/hu. But what can be "Teens, Deis, Yuns"??
Cofa would you have idea?
>At this stage, the game was given the name of Hwa Jong
>(flowers and generals).
Never heard of that. None of my sources, like Xu Ke (1917), mentions
these "generals".
>He then asserts that Maa Jong is an amalgamation of Maa Due (ma-diao)
>and Hwa Jong.
This reminds of "hua he" (Flower Harmony") dominoes.
Very exciting.
Cheers,
Thierry
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