Mahjong's "Heavenly Hand" name origin?

[Xeon]

Hi all,

Wanna ask something that's been intriguing to me since years ago.

In Chinese Mahjong, there's this technique called Heavenly Hand (天糊).

Shouldn't it be 天手, since 手 = hand?

From what i know, 糊 = plaster / glue / paste / muddle?

Anyone know the origin behind this name?

Tks!

Xeon

[andysun731]

It's not 糊, but 和. It should be 天和.

和 is a polyphone character, when it is read hú, it means you win in Mahjong.

Normal winning is often called 和了. 天和 means you win just after grabbing all the mahjong tiles.

[skylee]

It's not 糊, but 和.

Take a look -> http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/266443764.html

Also take a look at this wiki -

食糊

和牌（大陸）/胡牌（台灣、大陸）/食糊（粵港澳）

當麻雀玩家將牌湊成了一定的組合，獲得勝利，就稱為「和牌」。「和」字可追溯至「默和牌」及「碰和牌」，但由於天九也有所謂「遊和」及「碰和」的玩法，而天九牌張又可追溯至宋代的「宣和牌」，因此「和牌」這個術語，也許從清代以前已經沿用。

「和牌」於清代又稱為「湖牌」。李汝珍《鏡花緣》 (1818) 第七十四回^[35]裏面打花湖（一種天九牌戲）與十湖（一種類似麻雀的紙牌戲）的情節，就有「湖」了某些牌以及出現「詐湖」的情節。「虎、和、湖」三個近音字，其實從清初開始，就一直在中國牌戲或牌具的名稱中獨立或交替使用，例如看虎、鬭虎、打四虎、六虎、花湖、十湖、遊湖、十五湖、花和、默和、碰和、遊和等等。「和牌」之所以稱為「湖牌」，也許也是音變的緣故。今人說「胡牌」、「食糊」或「詐糊/胡」，有可能是「湖」這個術語的本字失傳的結果。

[andysun731]

When it comes to 天hú, I often saw 天和, sometimes 天胡, never 天糊. Maybe I should check some old HongKong movies of gambling.

[Xeon]

LOL ok. Understood now! Tks guys!