A legend of the origins of Mahjong implies that Confucius, a highly regarded Chinese philosopher, had created the game around 500 BC. The appearance of the game in various Chinese provinces coincides with Confucius' many voyages at a time when he teaching his new doctrines. 

Terms used in the play of the game Pong, Chee and Kong also give evidence to this theory. Confucius was of the Kong family, his full name being Kong-oiu. After finding the girl of his dreams and later marrying her, he used her name Che and adopted the term Chee, meaning 'to connect', which Westerners mistranslated into Chow.

Other theories have evolved, one implies the game was developed from existing Chinese card and domino games in the 1850s. Other historians believe it was based on an ancient Chinese card game called Máděao. 

In the early Ming dynasty this amazing game was played with 40 paper cards which resembled in appearance the cards used in the game Ya Pei. These forty cards were numbered 1 to 9 in four different suits along with four extra flower cards, are quite alike to the numbering of Mahjong tiles today.

Of course others theorize that to pass time Chinese army officers whom served during the Tai Ping Rebellion invented the game to make the boring night shift go by faster. 

While we may never know the true origins of this fascinating game, it is always interesting to learn about different theories of its evolution.