# 中, 發 and the soap

[Canonical page](https://jongg.app/tiles/dragons)

What 中, 發 and 白 mean, and why American players call them the red dragon, the green dragon and the soap.

## What it means

中 is zhōng, the centre; read zhòng, it is a hit on the mark. It is painted red, and American players call the tile the red dragon.

發 is fā, from 發財, to prosper or to come into money. It is painted green: the green dragon.

白 is bái, white. On most sets the tile carries no character at all, only an engraved frame around a blank face, or nothing but the face itself. American players call it the soap, because a blank, framed tile looks like a bar of soap. On the card it is also the zero where a hand needs one.

The color-blind mode adds the words RED, GREEN and WHITE to these three tiles and to nothing else, since their shapes already tell them apart.

## Where the history is uncertain

The word dragon is not a translation of anything on the tiles. The usual story is that it came in with the export sets of the 1920s, when the three honours needed an English name; no one is sure who first used it.

## The tiles, one by one

Screen 4 of 9 in What's on the tile.

A historian's review of the history on these screens is pending.

- [Previous: Dots, bams and craks](https://jongg.app/tiles/suits)
- [Next: The winds](https://jongg.app/tiles/winds)

## Keep exploring

- [What's on the tile](https://jongg.app/tiles)
- [Print what's on the tile](https://jongg.app/print/whats-on-the-tile)
- [Explore the tile sets](https://jongg.app/sets)