Many Mahjong Flower tiles are not just flowers. Oftentimes, carvers would depict traditional jobs  and activities of the scholar. The top row shows traditional jobs: the scholar, the farmer working the land, the wood cutter (here he does not even have any twigs or branches, but this is how the wood-cutter is depicted, sitting down with a shoe in his hand), and the fisherman.

The scholar's activities are on the bottom row: painting, calligraphy, chess (or the game of go) and the lute or Qin.

Many times the scholar's activities are shown in a very abstract way; that post will come another day.

These Flower tiles can be read 1234 and 4321, but on other tiles it makes a difference because scenes can continue from one tile to the next.