Re: Origin of Mahjong : Invented or Evolved?

On Apr 12, 5:11 pm, al <a...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Apr 2, 8:31 am, al <a...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:



On Mar 1, 1:57 pm, al <a...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Jan 12, 7:54 pm, al <a...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:> On Jan 12, 4:16 am, Jon Schild <j...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

al wrote:
Mah-Jong invented or evolved?
On Dec 14 2007, 11:07 am, "Tom Sloper"
<tslo...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

"al" <a...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote

But first let me remind you my question is "Origin of Mahjong Invented or Evolved?"
[..]

T.S.
That's a classic two-choices question. The problem with two-choices
questions is that they're almost always fallacious.
al:
Not always.
[..] It was in
ancient divination [practice], "go or no-go", equivalent
to flipping a [shell] (even before coins were available).

[..[
al:
KINGS AND COMMONERS GOT [answers] FROM DIVINATION practice.
[..]
SIMPLER [the answer], THE BETTER...
[..]
al:
I can’t help but wonder what scholars and historians of mahjong are up
to these days. Discussion on the subject is dead.
Yet, I have not seen a good argument that defends the hypothesis that
MJ is from evolution.
Some people accepted the evolution idea without having actually read
the source document on Ma Diao. That is my impression from other
related discussion.
From 40 to 30 cards. That is hypothesized.
From Taiji diagrams and guo (fruits) to Cash; from trigrams to
strings; from myriad to ten-thousand; all are over-simplified..

[..]
al:
Westerners still tend to be ignorant of Chinese culture and tradition.
They failed to grasp the simple idea that symbol is everything or
everything is symbol. Mahjong game is no exception.[..]

al:
PUT IT SIMPLY, Those concentrib] ROUND CIRCLEs are SYMBOL, NOT CASH. That is, they are conceptual, not material objects.
This is why.
When a language, like the Chinese, was based on symbols and pictures,
the words are also symbols and pictures. Then Chinese thinking is also
in symbols and pictures. Take the word, 東 (east) for example, it shows
a sun 日 coming up and shining through a tree 木. Note that wood 木 is
symbol for the whole tree, 樹. Both ‘sun’ and ‘wood’ are only abstracts
of the real objects. That is emphatically clear. 日 and 木 are not the
real objects. They are symbols. Furthermore, symbols can be metaphors
which have different connotative meanings.

I can not explain why sunset in the west does not have the same
writing. The sun shines through trees on its way "down" as well.
al:
[..] A coin can mean more than
just a coin; it could symbolize wealth. Just as a tree can mean more
than just a tree; it could symbolize health, growth or prosperity.

[Therefore] MAHJONG SYMBOLS ARE NOT "MONEY-SUITED"

al:
Westerners (scholars and historians) like Glover, Himley, Culin and
Wilkinson, made the same mistake [when they took their elementary lessons from unqualified teachers. They got hold of a round symbol and
cast it as “cash”, a real object; then multiplied the mistake by
extrapolating another symbol 萬 or 万 to mean a quantity of finite
specific value. Those Westerners ignored or were ignorant of the fact
that 萬 or 万 has figuratively “ten thousand” meanings. Convinced of
their scientific deduction, they concluded that the third symbol must
be also quantitative and settled on an interpretation of one of the
multiple definitions of (suo3) [..] as a “string of cash”.

[..]
al:
THE MAHJONG CIRCLES DON'T EVEN HAVE SQUARE HOLES!!!
It would be impossible to string hole-less coins.
[..]
al:
In a geocentric universe, those concentric circles are more like
planetary orbits. At least that would link the winds/directions with
cosmological aspects of Taoism.

al:
SINCE NO OTHER GAME HAS THE UNIQUE FEATURES OF PATTERN FORMING GAME-
PLAY AND THREE-CARD SUBGROUPING, MAHJONG IS MORE THAN QUALIFIED AS AN
INVENTION.
Gin rummy is a much later game.
JUST THINK. WHAT OTHER GAME HAS A PAIR OF "EYES" IN IT?
None whatsoever.
al:
Look at the taiji diagram of yin-yang. The two round balls are like
the pupils of a pair of eyes. There is another possible link between
Mah-Jong and I-Ching.
++++++++++
Cheers....al

.

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