2. Components
Tile Types
- Honor tiles are the winds and dragons taken together. There are four Wind Tiles — East, South, West, North — and three Dragon Tiles — White, Red and Green — with four of each (3.4.15)
- Terminal tiles are the ones and nines of a suit, together with the honor tiles (3.4.16)
- Flower tiles are used: a player who draws one may expose it and take a replacement tile from the back end of the wall, repeating until no flowers remain in hand (3.4.20)
Groupings
- Chow — three sequentially-numbered tiles of the same suit (3.4.12)
- Pung — three identical tiles, concealed or melded (3.4.13)
- Kong — an exposure of four identical tiles; also the meld itself (3.4.19)
- Pair — any two identical tiles (3.4.14)
The Hand
- A player holds thirteen tiles after the deal, including any melded chows, pungs and kongs (3.4.10)
- Those thirteen do not include kong replacement tiles or flowers (3.4.10)
- Tiles not yet melded when mahjong is declared are concealed; standing tiles are the concealed tiles a player has not discarded (3.4.10)