Popular Mahjongg Catch Phrases

You may have heard a snatch of conversation that went something like this: "How many children are there in your family?" "Three." "How lucky you are, how many are boys?" "Oh, they're a color flush of girls."

"A color flush" is a mahjongg term which means that your entire hand of 17 tiles all belong to the same suit, for example they're all tiles with the "ten-thousand" character. So it's used to describe things that are all the same.

Someone who's already doing well and has yet another stroke of good fortune is described as "drawing the winner on top of a ‘kang'," the mahjongg player's favorite occurrence. This is when a player waiting for his last tile first draws one which allows him to make up a set of four (a 'kang') and when according to the rules he draws a second tile, it allows him to win the round. So he has two lucky breaks in a row.

Why do we say "picking the moon from the bottom of the sea" to describe an inconceivable stroke of good luck? This is another mahjongg term, meaning when a player wins against fantastic odds by picking the winning tile himself from the last tile in the wall.

What about "triple grand flush"? This is when you have a hand with three tiles each of the green dragon, red dragon and white suits, which are extremely difficult to make up into full sets of four. If you do manage to make them up it's a "triple grand flush," which is used to describe the height of satisfaction.

Towards the dose of a banquet the host will call out: "Clear doors, everybody!" when he wants everyone to drink up and finish their wine. In mahjongg, "clear doors" is when all the players are able to make up complete sets using tiles they have drawn from the wall themselves, leaving the table clear in front of their hands.

A "full string" indicates the highest number of points. Before a game of mahjongg the four players will agree on the number of points needed to win, say 20, and the first player who achieves it wins a "full string."

When all the family are gathered together at Chinese New Year, chatting and laughing round the fire, maybe that's another kind of "full string"!

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"Triple grand flush" means a hand with three tiles each from the green dragon, red dragon and white suits.

"Four great blessings" means a Mahjongg hand with three tiles of each of the four winds.

"Four great blessings" means a Mahjongg hand with three tiles of each of the four winds.