Mahjong originated from the ancient Bo Opera in China. Bo Opera was already in existence in Xia and Shang Dynasties, and prevailed in the Spring and Autumn Period, Qin and Han Dynasties. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, it evolved into poetry and Ye Xixi. The "wooden sign" is written in rhyme, and the poem is written according to the rhyme on the sign when playing, which is called "poem sign". After that, the dice were introduced into the poem card to make a poem-fighting game, which became the Xuanhe card. Ye Opera, also known as Yege, is called Ye for short. Ye Zi, the card of the Ming Dynasty, developed into a "horse pendant", also known as "horse hanging". Hang the horse, 40 cards. There are four cards: Cross, Swastika, Suozi and Qian Wen. Four people play together, each with 8 leaves, the rest in the middle, the big one playing with the small one. In the Qing Dynasty, the horse crane evolved into a silent and touching card. It's called playing cards or mahjong.

In the third year of Tongzhi (A.D. 1846), the keeper changed the cards to bamboo cards, kept 108 pieces of "Wan", "Suo" and "Drum" in the card-touching, changed the "Red Flower" to "Green Hair", changed the "White Flower" to "Whiteboard" and changed the "Liar" to. At the same time, increase the wind power in the east, south, west and north directions, each of which is also level 4. As a result, 136 mahjong tiles were popular at that time.

Chen Yumen (18 17— 1878), born in Yin Cheng (now Yinzhou District, Ningbo City). In the 29th year of Daoguang (A.D. 1849), he was a cabinet book with three titles.

During the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Chen Yumen played a good hand, kept close contact with British Consul Xia Fuli in Nanjing, and often played mahjong for entertainment. From then on, Chen Yu's man went to Shanghai to do business and even played mahjong as a way of communication, so he passed it on to foreigners.

As Chen Yumen is a native of Ningbo, mahjong terms are closely related to Ningbo dialect and navigation. Ningbo dialect reads mahjong as mahjong, so mahjong is also a sparrow; "He" reading Hu, "Stop" reading Tong and Listening, and "Embedding" reading qi, instead of Qi, are all related to Ningbo dialect. The "rope" (also called sliver) in the card comes from the fishing net of the ship's cable; The "bobbin" comes from the wooden barrel with fresh water and grain on board; "Wanzi" comes from the boatman's desire for wealth. Chen Yumen added the "Southeast and Northwest" four winds, which is not only inspired by the navigation industry, but also stems from the sensitivity of boatmen to the wind; In the game, "touch" means that two ships collided, and "stop (listen)" means that the ship has docked. If people on the boat can see sparrows, they will know that they are approaching land and will land. This is why mahjong tiles are also called sparrow tiles.

Mahjong after Chen Yumen's integration and transformation is the inheritance and development of the previous generation of Bo Opera, and the style of play has also changed from complex to simple. Once it came out, it became popular all over the country. Du Yaquan's "Bo Shi" thinks: After the five-port trade, ships gathered in Ningbo Port, businessmen from all provinces gathered here, and more and more people learned to play mahjong. Mahjong spread to Tianjin and Shanghai, and spread to the whole country through them.

Another way of saying it is:

Mahjong, also known as "sparrow" or "sparrow card", has a history of 1000 years and is an authentic national quintessence. Playing mahjong is the most popular entertainment in China's national quintessence. The origin of mahjong can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty. According to legend, in the Tang Dynasty, there was a man named Zhang Sui in Changle, Weizhou (now Changle County, Henan Province). He was brilliant since he was a child, and later became a monk, taking Dharma as a monk. There are a group of famous scientists in China who have made outstanding contributions in astronomy and mathematics. Around 722 AD, a group of monks had compiled a set of cards for entertainment. The specifications of "playing cards" are: width 3.5cm, length 15cm, and patterns of ten thousand, rope and barrel are printed on them. Later, seven cards like East, South, West, North, Middle, Serve and White were added.