"Tom Sloper" <tsloper@DONTsloperamaSPAMME.com> wrote in message
news:o9ydnQvqmYPsmBrYnZ2dnUVZ_rGinZ2d@giganews.com...
> Most recent updates to the FAQS (since the 12/11/06 posting):
> Last posted: Dec. 11, 2006
>
> 3. FAQ 11 - Edited the "cctheory" page. FAQ 11f and 11g - some edits.


Good to see the changes! A quick comments and some clarifications...

With respect to Tom's "emphasized comments" in section "THE DEBATE - A
CONDENSED SYNOPSIS" (http://www.sloperama.com/cctheory/oldtheory.html)
about my participation in the discussion/debate, I wish to say that
such attitude is totally unnecessary. My participation in the mahjong
newsgroup has been solely for exchange of ideas and information, I
never have any intention of *initiating* any bad feeling upon or any
attack against others, or conducting the exchange in any hostile or
offensive manner. I have no benefit, reason or cause for doing so.
Therefore, use of words like "retorted" in Tom's article is totally
unnecessary!

So the above are my sincere comments about Tom's new page. For those
who are interested in reading the archives of the newsgroup's postings
on their own and in their original form, please start at
http://www.imahjong.com/maiarchives205.html

The following are clarifications of certain points, as different from
those of Tom's web pages
(http://www.sloperama.com/cctheory/oldtheory.html recorded on Dec 23,
2006):

A. I never claimed or hypothesized that "CC evolved from HKOS." Saying
this is simply a false statement. (Should I really have said so, please
kindly show me where it is found - It must have been a mistake or
misunderstanding and I'd gladly withdraw it ^_^) So Tom should be rest
assured this argument should not have had existed in the first place -
In the newsgroup and on his web pages ^_^

B. Cofa's claims have always been as follows (as summarised in April
2002 http://www.imahjong.com/maiarchives205.html):
(1) Chinese Classical is not the origin of MAHJONG, or at least,
Chinese Classical is not the only origin of MAHJONG.
(2) Many variants, including Cantonese Mahjong or Hong Kong Old Style
("HKOS"), are simply not the descendants of Chinese Classical ("CC").
Many variants, including HKOS and CC, could have co-existed altogether
for the long, undocumented history of the evolution and development of
the game MAHJONG.

C. Supporting references for item B(2) are as follows:
(1) An article in Chapter 31 of the book "Guanchang Xianxing Ji" in
1903 (by Li Boyuan): It describes a "ma que" game with features that
are "decisively different" than "CC"; but with features more like the
mix of "CC" and "HKOS". (Topic "Analysis of rules - A game of the year
1903" at the mahjong newsgroup rec.games.mahjong - Dec 8, 2006.)
(2) Quoting Thierry Depaulis (Topic "Analysis of rules - A game of the
year 1903" at the mahjong newsgroup rec.games.mahjong - Dec 10, 2006.):
Mauger (George E. Mauger, "Quelques consid\xE9rations sur les jeux en
Chine et leur d\xE9veloppement synchronique avec celui de l'empire
chinois", in Bulletins et M\xE9moires de la soci\xE9t\xE9 d'Anthropologie de
Paris, 1915) described a game play with decisively different features
than "CC" (i.e., NO settlement of scores between non-winning players
and "East" DOES NOT pay and receive double); but with features more
like the mix of "CC" and "HKOS".
(3) Reference from Babcock's "Little Red Book" (1924) - Quoting
presentation on Tom's web page
(http://www.sloperama.com/cctheory/babcock.html):
"MAH-JONGG is a game developed by the author from the old Chinese game
of [image for the Chinese "ma que"]. This Chinese game itself was a
gradual development of centuries of play in China.
The Chinese learn [image for the Chinese "ma que"] as children and
consequently feel no need for a book of instructions or rules. The
result has been that in the different sections of China innovations and
deviations have been introduced to such an extent that today there is
no recognized standard Chinese method of play throughout China. Nor is
it possible to obtain in Chinese any codified laws and rules for the
game, such as would be necessary for foreign Play."
(A game with features more like the mix of "CC" and "HKOS".)

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

---
Cofa Tsui
www.iMahjong.com