At the early 20th century, something like this happened in Shanghai Beach.

Legend has it that there is a land temple in Pudong that is more effective for gamblers. If a young woman goes to stay, the gods will give instructions in a dream. If she goes to gamble the next day, the bet according to this instruction will be won. The believing husband then strongly encouraged his wife to give it a try. Although the wife found the small temple built in the wilderness, she was raped by soldiers during the stay. When she fled home in a mess, the husband first did not appease the hurt wife's emotions, let alone find ways to punish the evildoer, but hurriedly asked what instructions the gods had given her. The heartbroken wife scolded angrily, "You turtle head!" The husband was overjoyed, thinking it was a hint from the gods that his wife had gotten last night, and actually ran to buy a turtle note. Gambling to such a level is indeed not easy. There is a saying: one Chinese, bored of panic; two Chinese, easy to discuss; three Chinese, can't do anything; four Chinese, a game of mahjong.

In other words, the history of mahjong is indeed not short. Mahjong cards, also known as sparrow cards, are traditional Chinese folk game toys derived from playing cards, and combine some of the characteristics of Tang Dynasty leaf cards, Song Dynasty palanquin cards, Tang plaques, Ming Dynasty horse tags, and Qing Dynasty Mohe cards. It was not until the germination of modern Chinese capitalism that they finally became the model and template of modern mahjong. The whole set of mahjong cards consists of five parts: outer box, card block, dice, chips, position cards, etc. There are 144 cards in total. According to the card surface pattern and markings, it is divided into five types of symbols, such as pattern number, orientation, season, text, and plants. It consists of 36 cylinder cards from one cylinder to nine cylinders, 36 cable cards from one to nine, 36 10,000 to 90,000 10,000 cards, 16 wind cards from the southeast and northwest, 12 white sword cards, and 32 flower cards from Meilan Bamboo and Chrysanthemum in spring, summer, autumn and winter. In the competition, a random selection method is adopted. The four participants sit in four directions, east, west, north and south, focusing on grabbing 17 basic cards, and then using the collection degree of various card types as the basis for winning and losing a single game according to the total number and size of the cards.

In folklore and unofficial history, every detail of the logo on mahjong tiles has its own origin. For example, the earliest mahjong tiles had seven characters, such as "Gong, Hou, Jiang, Xiang, Wen, Wu, and Bai" on them, which were taboo by the rulers of the feudal society. They had the meaning of conspiring to commit crimes and playing tricks on the superiors, so it was regarded as a taboo game for a long time. During Daoguang's reign, an ordinary person named Chen Yumen in Zhoushan, Zhejiang, privately changed "Gong, Hou, Jiang, Xiang" to "East, West, South, North" and "Wen, Wu, and Hundred" to "Zhongfa, Bai". This bold innovation brought the endangered mahjong back to life. The dice was originally a separate game variety. After being absorbed and added, the randomness of its throwing probability strengthened the fairness of the mahjong game. It was originally olive shaped. During the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Zhi changed it to a cube and engraved the marks from one point to six points on the six sides. The current dice have two colors of points, one and four points are red, while the rest are black. The color change is related to Tang Minghuang. Legend has it that Tang Minghuang and Concubine Yang both loved the game of dice. Once it was Tang Minghuang's turn to roll the dice, only when both dice were four points could they win against Yang Guifei. Tang Minghuang kept shouting "double four" when he turned it, and when the dice stopped, two four points appeared. Tang Ming Huang saw this situation as a good omen, so he ordered the eunuch Goliath to paint all the four dots of the dice in vermilion red, and later painted the one on the side corresponding to the four dots in red. This statement inspired folk imitation and has been passed down to this day.

In the late Qing Dynasty, some dignitaries and princes regarded playing mahjong as their top priority all day long, and indulged in this kind of "entertainment" that they considered elegant. In Beijing, "most of the sparrows of the capital gamble in the house of Shilu". In just a few years, sparrows "prevailed in the north, from the top to the noble officials to the top, and from the bottom to the rich merchants. They all went crazy and indulged. They threw a huge amount of money, and they lost their jobs when they were unemployed. The harm was indescribable." In order to prove their unique identity, the gamblers placed very bold bets, often more than 1,000 yuan per bet.

In the early 20th century, playing mahjong became a fad in Beijing, Tianjin, and many other regions. Ta Kung Pao reported that "in the new China of the 20th century, new opportunities flourished, and the south wind competed with the north. First of all, the so-called upper-class society, the Jue Wei sparrow card, every time you see someone who is addicted to it, you will be at the head of it, forget to eat and sleep... And those who are addicted are not reform students, that is, political officials." As for Tianjin and other places, among many gambling, mahjong has a great tendency to come from behind. For gamblers, "bird cards not only keep up with the times, but can also contact friends."

People of insight published articles in newspapers, calling mahjong a "slave drama of the country", and stressing the many crimes of mahjong mishandling the country and harming the people. However, it is obvious that this is not mahjong's fault.