Zung Jung Mahjong Scoring System
中庸麻雀計分法
Selection Criteria for the Patterns

(English version)

Alan Kwan

The set of patterns adopted by Zung Jung are largely based on that of Modern Japanese mahjong. But the ultimate decision of which patterns to adopt is not just arbitrary personal preference, but rather, the selection process follows a set of objective criteria:

1. Traditional Patterns: Patterns traditionally and widely adopted by major existing scoring systems, such as the One-Suit patterns, "All Sequences", "All Triplets" etc. are mostly adopted obligatorily.
2. Coherence and Consistency of the Hand: The patterns should reward hands which demonstrate extra coherence and consistency, such as "Pure One-Suit", "All Triplets", "Two Identical Sequences", "Three Similar Sequences" etc. Patterns which, on the contrary, reward inconsistency or "mixture" in the hand are rejected, such as "13 Unconnected" (later evolved into "Honors and Knitted Tiles"), "Five Suits" ("All Types"), "Fully Exposed Hand" ("Melded Hand"). Also, patterns which are too easy and worthless are discarded, such as "Single Wait", "2/5/8 Eyes".
3. Symmetry: The patterns should preserve the symmetry among the 34 types of tiles, such as the symmetry among the three suits, or between the three Dragons, or between Ones and Nines (up and down), etc. Reject the patterns which are based on the drawings on the tiles, such as "All Green" and "Reversible Tiles". Avoid specifying certain numbers as the basis for patterns (except for the Terminals in category 8), thus rejecting "All Fives", "All Even", "Upper/Middle/Lower Tiles" etc. Finally, because the Prevailing Wind will generate the Double Wind, causing asymmetry and even unfairness among the four players, it is rejected. (Many players do not know that, the Prevailing Wind was not adopted in mahjong since the beginning, but rather was a later addition in the process of 'inflation'.)
4. 10 Categories: After the above selection process, the patterns are gathered into 10 categories. The patterns in these 10 categories are considered for adoption, while those outside the 10 categories are rejected, such as "Mixed Straight", "Shifted Chows" etc. (Those patterns demonstrate weaker coherence and consistency than the patterns in the 10 categories.)
5. Logical Consistency of the List: Each category is sorted into one or more series. For the sake of logical consistency, once lower patterns in the series are adopted, the higher patterns must always be adopted (such as "Three/Four Identical Sequences"). Conversely, the lower patterns in the same series are considered, and "Big/Small Three Winds", "Small Three Similar Triplets" etc. are adopted. Two-set patterns which are too easy and would increase the compexity of the exclusion rules are rejected, such as "Two Similar Sequences", "Two Similar Triplets", "Old and Young" etc. Among this type of two-set patterns, only "Two Identical Sequences" (which demonstrate the strongest consistency) is adopted. "Original Call" would increase rules complexity, and is thus rejected.
6. Incidental Bonuses: Incidental Bonuses (category 9 patterns) add little to the skill factor of the game, but their inclusion does add color and flavor, and also some excitement. Thus, their point values are set at lower levels than other patterns with comparable frequencies of occurence. This way, the above advantages can be obtained without adding too much luck to disrupt the skill factor. "Self-draw", which has a very high rate of occurence, is of course discarded without any doubt.

back to home