My New Answer to an Old Question: Why a Sparrow
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Why a Sparrow?
SYNOPSIS:
A sparrow engraved on 1-Bamboo in a mahjong set is like a sparrow
painted or sketched among bamboo trees on a canvas. In either case, it
is the result of an artist’s expression of real life observation. The
simple fact is bamboo and sparrows belong together in their natural
environment.
A PUZZLING QUESTION
Why a sparrow is engraved on 1-Bamboo? This is a perennial question in
mahjong. Most players know that the game is / was called Sparrow in
China. They also know there has not been a simple answer or a
convincing explanation to this puzzling question.
ONE SPARROW STORY
As recent as September, 2008, the latest story about the origin of
mahjong (Sparrow) was on China’s CCTV broadcast. The tiny sparrow was
the central figure and the story says flocks of sparrows were eating
the grains at a storage facility by a seaport. They had to be
destroyed. The port authority came up with a plan to get rid of the
sparrows by offering reward money for every sparrow shot. The story
went on to give the meaning of zhong-fa-bai and the other suits of
symbols, although no reference made to the game’s unique
characteristics and its rules of play. According to this story, the
origin of mahjong was all about the sparrows getting killed. It’s only
a supposition, of course.
http://v.cctv.com/html/xintansuo/2008/09/xintansuo_300_20080923_1.shtml
HISTORY & REFERENCE
In mahjong literature, Sparrow, the tile game, is said to be somehow
related to Ma Diao, which is a paper card game known to have been in
existence during and most likely before Ming (1368-1644). Origin of Ma
Diao is undetermined. No instruction books or history written before
two unofficial historians wrote manuals for it. The historians were
Pan Zhiheng (1556-1622) and Feng Menglong (1574-1646), [The Playing-
Card Volume XXIX, Number 3]. What they wrote therefore had to be
second-hand knowledge mixed with typical Chinese regional dialects.
That is why they had different Chinese names for the very same game:
Horse Drops [a Leg] or Horse Hangs [a leg].
In Ma Diao, there was a card called “1-String”. That card had a
drawing described as like a “hairpin” [The playing-Card Vulume31
Number 2]. The hairpin equals the 1-Bam of today’s mahjong. Also the
Bamboo suit is comparable to the 签 Tchant zi [in Captain George
Mauher’s 1915 presentation in Paris; reference article “Mahjong(g)
before and after Mahjong(g),: Part2”, The Paying-Card Volume 35 Number
1]. A drawing of this ‘Tchant zi’ is in a 4-suited Ma Diao deck on
page 55 of the Illustrated Book of the Mahjong Museum, 1999 Japanese
publication.
签 is Tchant (qian =pinyin). Its purpose is similar to ‘Suo3’索, an
instrument for use in divination practice [to ask, to demand, to
extract guidance or advice]. Refer to CEDICT.
SYMBOLS OBLECTS & NAMES
It is interesting. Here is an example of the working of symbols in
thinking and language. A length of something, looked like a ‘hairpin’
in a Ming 4-suited Ma Diao deck, it was called 索 (suo3) and translated
as a ‘string’’. Another length of something but shown as a slip or
thin strip of bamboo called Tchant (qian), for one whole suit from 1
to 9 in an undated 4-suited deck in the Japan MJM Book.
Correspondingly lengths of bamboo-like logs are in a mahjong TILE
sets. One game, the 4-suited Ma Diao was played in Ming (1368-1644);
the undated 4-suited Ma Diao was played probably in Qing (1636-1911).
The mahjong in its present form may be latest or earliest of the
three. The same suit was represented by different symbols in different
time periods; the question is what should be the symbol and how or why
they are related?
Here is how I see it. 签 and Bam have a common denominator which is
bamboo. One is a strip and the other is a log. 索 and 签 served a common
purpose which was as defined in CEDICT, to seek, to ask to extract
[guidance / advice] as in divination. The Tchant 签 is an oracle sign.
索 has multiple meanings, as a rope or guide physically and as well as
guiding direction metaphorically. 签 is an individual loose bamboo
slip [Photo 79, page 55 Japan MJM Book] , whereas 索 could be
interpreted as a bundle of slips tied together by thread or string.
The writing or engraving on the slips holds the oracle answers.
http://www.ynda.yn.gov.cn/uploadfile/jpg/2006-7/2006720105538156.jpg
NATURAL REALITY
What is known about sparrows? Where do sparrows appear most
frequently? They nest on bamboo trees and they feed on bamboo seeds.
It is normal and natural that sparrows are found among bamboo grove.
As I see it, engraving a sparrow image on the 1-Bam is simply adding
realism to the bamboo symbol with an artistic touch. A mahjong tile
suit complete with bamboo and sparrow is similar to many Chinese
drawings showing sparrows and bamboo together on canvas. The sparrows
are shown in their daily normal natural habitat.
This is of course based on the assumption that the symbol was
recognized by the engraver who carved the first *bamboo* tile.
CONCLUSION
So, the bamboo suit in mahjong with a sparrow engraved on 1-Bam is
like a canvas painted with a sparrow on a bamboo branch. This is my
new answer to the question why a sparrow on 1-Bam. Simply put, bamboo
is home to sparrow. See the picture in this link.
A SOBERING THOUGHT
One possible Implication is that the sparrow bird might not have had
as much influence on the name of the game as some people thought. I
myself included here. For one thing, the bird contributes nothing to
the rules of game-play. And now the standardized name in China for the
game is 麻 将 (Mahjiang, NOT 麻 雀, Sparrow. What a sobering thought! The
origin of the game, Sparrow, (mahjong) could be totally unrelated to
the bird, sparrow.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Allan Lee
January 18, 2009