Mahjong 'Cash' in red, green and blue, but why?

NAQ # 6
My Never-Asked-Question: why mahjong Cash in colors (red, green and
blue)?

Who first chose the exact English term ¡°CASH¡± for the mahjong circle
symbol which had been called by the Chinese, as ping (pancake),
container Ïä, Pipe Ͳ, tube ¹Ü and tong [chien] Í­ [Ç®], (copper coin)?

The reason I ask is because I would like to know where he found CASH
in colors, red, green and blue, if he had ever seen them.

That begs the next question. Were and are the circles actually
mistaken in name? This is not a ¡°redundant¡± or trivial question,
because the symbolic representation should correlate with the design
structure and theme of the mahjong game.

What do you think??
http://www.taopage.org/iching/iching_symbols.html
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Cheers¡­.al

On Dec 22, 10:55 pm, al <a... DeleteThis @ntl.sympatico.ca> wrote:
> NAQ # 6
> My Never-Asked-Question: why mahjong Cash in colors (red, green and
> blue)?
>
> Who first chose the exact English term ¡°CASH¡± for the mahjong circle
> symbol which had been called by the Chinese, as ping (pancake),
> container Ïä, Pipe Ͳ, tube ¹Ü and tong [chien] Í­ [Ç®], (copper coin)?
>
I found an answer to the question. Wilkinson was one of them.
Excerpt from Wilkinson¡¯s Chinese Origin of Playing cards (1895) page
61 - 78:

¡°The suit of ping, "cakes," was originally and properly that of ch'ien
"sapecks" or "cash;" the "strings" are strips of one thousand cash,
the "myriads" are myriads of cash.¡±

> The reason I ask is because I would like to know where he found CASH
> in colors, red, green and blue, if he had ever seen them.
>
Wilkinson did not mention (in the pages I read) the colors of the
symbols. His hasty interpretation contributed to confusion and
mistaken notion of the money-base in Chinese mahjong symbols. As an
example in the quoted text above, ¡°ping¡± is not¡°cakes¡±. Ping was meant
Ÿýïž which is a thin flat round sheet of crusty but pliable dough, like
that served as wraps for Peking-Duck in Chinese restaurants; it is not
a baked cake. A baked cake is more like ¸â. A sponge cake for example,
is ó Ü›µ°¸â.

Obviously ping (Ÿýïž) is NOT chien or ¡°cash¡± other than the fact its
shape is round. A Ÿýïž does not have a square hole in the middle. Cash
has a square hole.

Going from NOT-cash to ¡°string of cash¡± is an extrapolation and
jumping from "String" to ¡°myriad of cash¡± is a huge stretch of
imagination.

What is more? Some people say a string is 100 cash and Wilkinson
reported it as a 1000 cash. It seemed the true value or denomination
had been variable.
Regardless whether a string is 1000 or 100 coins, chien (Cake) was
meant for use as loose change to make up fractions of a cent. The
notion of String and Myriad can only come from foreigners who lack
depth in appreciation for Chinese language and culture. Simple words
like (Ê®) , (°Ù), (ǧ), for ten, hundred, and thousand, without the (Èf),
ten thousand, could have done a better job of indicating quantities if
chien was to denote cash amounts. Nothing was gained by including a
¡°String¡± which carried with it only ambiguity and confusion. Chinese
people called it just suo (Ë÷), with no implication of monetary value.
The money (cash) notion came from a foreigner¡¯s conjecture when the
Chinese people did not know any better to give a correct description
themselves.
> [..]?
Take a look at the symbols in he web-page below.
If the round shape represent divination coins, then the suo (Ë÷) can be
a roll of bamboo strips tied together by threads as a written oracle.
Pages of ancient books were made like that. Divination can apply to a
large number of things (like ten-thousand things in taiji and I-
Ching).

In Chinese symbolism, White or Blue is for Heaven, Green is for
Earth, and Red is for Man. The ideal state of life and the universe
is Heaven-Earth-Man in Harmony. Now mahjong game as a whole begins to
make sense.

+++++++++++
> http://www.taopage.org/iching/iching_symbols.html
> +++++++++
Cheers......al
>