Khanhoo
| The Chinese Game of Khanhoo | |
The Joker
|
|
| Origin | China |
|---|---|
| Type | Matching |
| Family | Rummy |
| Players | 2-8 |
| Skills required | Tactics and strategy |
| Cards | 2-4 decks of 30 cards with or without a joker |
| Play | Clockwise |
| Playing time | 20 min. |
| Random chance | Medium |
| Related games | |
| Tổ tôm | |
Khanhoo or Kanhu is a non-partnership Chinese card game of the draw-and-discard structure. It was first recorded during the late Ming dynasty as a multi-trick taking game, a type of game that may be as old as T'ienkiu ("Heaven and Nines"), revised in its rules and published in an authorized edition by Emperor Kao Tsung in 1130 AD for the information of his subjects. Meaning "watch the pot", it is very possibly the ancestor of all rummy games.
Adapted to the western taste by Sir William Henry Wilkinson, British sinologist and Consul-General in China and Korea in the mid-1890s, it belongs to the same family as Mahjong and the mid-nineteenth century Mexican card game Conquian, whose name probably derives from the Chinese card game Kon Khin. Another related game is Kuwaho or Cuajo from the Philippines. Its closest relative is the Vietnamese game of Tổ tôm.
During the Ming dynasty, the game was called 看虎 (Pinyin:"Kanhǔ") meaning "Watching the Tiger" or "Dǒuhǔ" (斗虎), "Competing with the Tiger". It was a multi-trick game where players try to take tricks with one or three cards with the latter composed of different types of melds.
By the late Qing dynasty, the rules as recorded by Wilkinson and Stewart Culin had changed considerably. The game was now called "Kanhú", "Watching the Lake" (看湖) or "Watching the Pot" (看壺). It was no longer a trick-taking game but a draw-and-discard game. However, there were vestigial remnants in the composition of the melds.
The changes may have occurred during the 18th and 19th centuries when trick-taking fell in favour of shedding type games like Mòhú () and Pènghú () which are regarded as the ancestors to Mahjong. The various homonyms of hu, whether they mean harmony, pots, or points is equivalent to "meld".
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