Game traditions and ritual wine drinking in the culture of East Asia peoples

This study is a comparative analysis of the specific features of traditional culture in China, Korea, and Japan, which were based on literary games and included ritual wine drinking. The games and rituals of the «wine order» existed for over 2000 years in East Asia as a form of entertainment for the elite. The games developed by the intellectual community in these spheres used to be an important part of the cultural person’s communication in the Far East. We describe some most ancient rituals of «wine orders» in traditional cultures of East Asia countries. The adaptation of Chinese games in Korea and Japan is shown by the example of some rituals with the use of dices, cards, and other attributes. The analysis of the national features of this ritual helps to clarify the process of intercultural interaction. Over many centuries, the moral potential of these actions has been determined by a number of their most significant social-cultural functions related to the ceremonial activity, religious magical practices, and mundane entertainments, which allows us to speak about the stability of these ethnic cultures against negative consequences of current globalization and westernization processes. Over the period of almost 2000 years, the rituals and ceremonies of «wine orders» entrenched themselves in the ethnic culture of East Asia and became its fully legitimate part, having penetrated into arts and everyday life. These rituals are regularly mentioned in both hystorical-phylosophical manuscripts and belles-lettres, and their plots and images are still often used in applied arts and modern design. In a comparative analysis of historical artifacts of the wine culture the great culture-forming significance of the above described game practices that still have the ritual character seem to be very important. A significant development of the game wine order, and in general, an important stage of the development of intellectual entertainment culture in China itself, and later in Korean and Japanese cultures was made by the appearance of a special kind of amusement in the form of versification competitions during seasonal ceremonies of admiring the blooming or dying plants with the necessary declamation of poems and wine drinking. Unlike noisy and fairly entertaining amusements with the use of dices, cards, labels, and other attributes, these ceremonies had a culture-forming character, were distinguished by a high social and educational status of the participants, and initially were of religious cultic significance. An analysis of the features of this process allows us to reach a new level of perceiving the relationship between traditions and innovations in the contemporary world.