Origin of Drinking Games
4 min readDrinking game is one of the essences in Chinese wine culture.Meanwhile，as a particular Chinese cultural phenomenon，drinking game generally contains contents of civilization and entertainment，which could create active atmosphere，tune up people’s feelings and enhance interpersonal communication during a feast.Some drinking games reflect people’s wit and joy of life，which are quite interesting.
Origin of Drinking Games
Chinese drinking games have a long history.
As early as the Eastern Zhou dynasty there were drinking games in ancient China.
The idiom story”Draw a snake and add feet to it”in Zhan Guo Ce（Stratagems of the Warring States）compiled by Liu Xiang from the Western Han dynasty is an ancient vivid story about drinking game.The story is about a group of people who were drinking.Everyone had drunk up his wine except for one man who still had some in his pot.So they agreed to determine who would drink the rest of the wine by drawinga snake on the ground and the one who finished first could have the wine.Very soon，one man finished drawing his snake.Seeing others unfinished yet，the man felt sure to win and began to add four feet to his snake.Snakes have no feet at all，how could he draw a snake with feet？Another person finished drawing before him and consequently had the wine which was supposed to be his.
During Spring and Autumn-Warring States period，there were many drinking customs and manners，and the dart game which originated from shooting rite was also a kind of drinking games.People threw an arrow rod with the pointed head removed into ajar with big opening at a certain distance.He，who could throw the arrow rod into the jar won the game，otherwise would be made to drink a penalty cup.
In the Qin and Han dynasty，people still followed the custom to joint sentences during a feast，which gradually became more and more complex and toast came into being as a game.In the Western Han dynasty，a stricter rewards and punishment system had been established in order to guarantee drinking games.
A drinking custom named”Qu Shui Liu Shang”prevailed in the Three Kingdoms period and the Western and Eastern Jin dynasties.On March，3rd of lunar calendar each year，people would gather together beside a small stream.They would put cups filled with some wine in it onto the water and people would drink the wine when a floating cup came near.Generally speaking，this drinking type could also be considered as a drinking game，which was handed down until after the Jin and Tang dynasties.
The Tang and Song dynasties were a blooming period of cultural and economic development in ancient China，drinking games experienced a great development.Tools used for proposing toasts as dice，chip，colorful pad，etc.also appeared during this period.The Analects Jade Candle of the Tang dynasty，which was unearthed in 1982，has a silver body，a gilded silver tortoise as its base.With delicate crafand vivid shape，it looks very impressive.The chip pot is candle-shaped，part of which is gilded.On its front side are engraved words”The Analects Jade Candle”which were surrounded with such patterns as dragon，phoenix，curled grass，flowing cloud.Ancient people metaphorize virtue as jade and propitiousness as jade candle which could bring well-being at all seasons.The Analects Jade Candle contains thissort of exaltation.Meanwhile，it is also referred to those chips which are based on contents of The Analects.There are 50 leek leave shaped silver-gilt or gilt chipand toast banners.On each chip is inscribed a sentence from The Analects.The man who is supposed to drink in accordance with the sentence is inscribed in the middle of the chip.At the bottom is inscribed the reason that the man has to drink a penalty cup.The Analects Jade Candle，which is beautiful and unique，precisely and delicately made, could be ranked as a unique masterpiece among Chinese wine ware.
The types of drinking game became more rich and varied during the Min and Qing dynasties. With omnifarious variety and more kinds of wine ware, drinking games had reached another high level in its development.
With the progress of society, people’s living habits in today’s society have changed a lot so that a great number of ancient toasts have lost its foundation and has become historical records. Some of these drinking games, once as strict as military orders, had evolved into modern drinking games which are mainly consisted of toast proposal and drinking request.
