Editing Scoring in Mahjong (section)

{{Short description|A traditional Chinese game of four players}}
{{refimprove|talk=y|date=August 2008}}

'''Scoring in Mahjong''', a [[game]] for four players that originated in [[China]], involves the players obtaining points for their hand of tiles, then paying each other based on the differences in their score and who obtained [[mahjong]] (won the hand).  The points are given a monetary value agreed by the players. Although in many variations scoreless hands (推倒胡 ''tui dao hu'' in Mandarin, 雞糊 ''gai wu'' in Cantonese) are possible, many require that hands be of some point value in order to win the round.

While the basic gameplay is more or less the same throughout mahjong, the most significant divergence between variations lies in the scoring systems. Like the gameplay, there is a generalized system of scoring, based on the method of winning and the winning hand, from which Chinese and Japanese (among notable systems) base their roots. American mahjong generally has wildly divergent scoring rules (as well

Because of the large differences between the various scoring systems (especially for Chinese variants), groups of players will often need to agree on particular scoring rules before a game to eliminate possible disputes during the game. As with the gameplay, many attempts have been made to create an international scoring standard, but most are not widely accepted.