Boris Lvovich Riftin is highly revered and celebrated on the occasion of his jubilee by his fellow Orientalists and friends in Siberia and the Far East. This event prompts us to look back more than half a century ago, when his Alma Mater, the Eastern Faculty of Leningrad University, experienced an unprecedented rise: in the first year of the PRC's formation, the classrooms were filled with more than two hundred first-year students, historians and philologists, ready to start studying the language, literature, history and culture of the great neighbor of the USSR in the eastern borders - the Middle State. The enthusiastic enthusiasm of these young people could not be dampened even by the stern warning of the Patriarch of Russian Sinology, Academician V. M. Alekseev. On the first day of school, he intimidated the "green recruits" with the difficulties of mastering the hieroglyphics and the subtleties of the spoken language of the Middle Kingdom, claiming that out of two hundred people sitting in the assembly hall, perhaps two or three will one day be able to correctly pronounce the simplest word-the name of the city of Tianjin. If this were the case, then one of the two or three chosen would undoubtedly be B. L. A riftin with a unique linguistic talent, hard work and perseverance. He began by traveling to the south of Central Asia every year during the vacation months, where he insistently learned the lively spoken language of the Chinese. This was the first step towards actively mastering the innumerable "celestial wisdom".

In this article, we would like to focus on the significance of B. L. Riftin's work for Russian and international Oriental studies. B. L. Riftin's contribution to the study of classical literature in China, Korea, Mongolia, and Vietnam has already been described by his colleagues in literature studies (Sorokin, 1992; Serebryakov, 2007). In accordance with the profile of our magazine, we will pay special attention to the works of B. L. Riftin devoted to the study of mythology and folklore, as well as to his ethnographic research. However, there were never any hard boundaries between these components of his work. The works of B. L. Riftin convincingly show (mainly based on Chinese materials) that folklore is not only the basis of professional literature, but also continues to interact with it, absorbing literary plots and characters, adapting them to the needs of traditional culture.

In one of his articles, B. L. Riftin compares the study of ancient myths with the work of archaeologists and restorers, who first identify fragments of reality, and then reconstruct the culture of society that existed many centuries ago [1987, p.379]. This comparison is not only figurative for the researcher, but also of undoubted methodological significance, since in his research he uses the entire set of written and archival sources, as well as new folklore materials.-

data collected during field expeditions*. While still a student, B. L. Riftin began writing down the tales and traditions of the Dungans (descendants of Chinese Hui Muslims who migrated to Central Asia). Later, these recordings formed the basis for the collection "Dungan folk Tales", released in the series "Fairy Tales and Myths of the peoples of the East". In it, the original texts are accompanied by a deep analysis of the plots with a wide use of comparative materials [Dungan folk tales..., 1977]. A Chinese edition of this book is currently being prepared; few scholars in China do such comparative research. During his internship in Beijing (1965 - 1966), Boris Lvovich studied the texts of Shoshuda storytellers who performed versions of the historical epic "The Three Kingdoms" (many of them significantly differed from the published text), and even compiled a dictionary of their professional terminology. He managed not only to trace the genetic connections between oral and written literature, but also to show the stable interaction of these two types of artistic creativity throughout antiquity, the Middle Ages and modern times. B. L. Riftin was the first in the world science to describe the structure of the Chinese prose tale and developed a method for comparing the tale with the novel.

A comprehensive study of the book and oral versions allowed B. L. Riftin to outline a solution to the so-called epic problem in China. It is true that Chinese folklore does not have a single cycle built around the exploits of a single hero, such as Odysseus or Geser; however, numerous epic motifs in folklore, written literature, and drama collectively served the same functions as the developed epic of Europe and Central Asia. It was B. L. Riftin who raised the question of the development of the epic in Chinese folklore and proved (in the framework of his doctoral dissertation, published in the form of a monograph) that epic tales in China went from historical legends to developed forms of fairy tales, " interacting at all stages of development with book, especially historical literature, which in turn experienced the development of constant influence of the oral tradition" [1970, p. 8].

In the 1970s, B. L. Riftin and his colleagues wrote down "book tales" (bensen uliger) from informants from Inner Mongolia, which had its own rich epic tradition, in which folk storytellers used the plots of classical Chinese novels directly and in various transcriptions (Neklyudov and Riftin, 1976).

During a business trip to Vietnam in 1987 (where, by the way, his book on the "Three Kingdoms" was translated and published), B. L. Riftin, with the help of Vietnamese colleagues, managed to identify archaic variants of the myth of Ny Oa (Nyu-va) and connect them with rites of increasing field fertility practiced in rural areas to the present day [Riftin, 1988a]. Such a comprehensive use of various types of sources (narrative, folklore, ethnographic) contributes to a more complete disclosure of the content of traditional spiritual culture and its impact on modern society.

In the 1990s, B. L. Riftin worked at universities in Taiwan. He combined intense teaching activities with extensive research work. Having started translating the Dictionary of Dialects of the Northern Tsou, compiled in the late 1920s by the outstanding Russian orientalist N. A. Nevsky, into Chinese, Boris Lvovich examined the modern living conditions of this people and noted the loss of many ethnographically significant terms (Riftin, 1992). For several years, B. L. Riftin led a large research project "Collection and comparative study of Aboriginal folklore in Taiwan". One of the most prestigious Chinese (Taiwanese) universities invited him to teach and study Chinese mythology. During the expedition research, many new legends and myths were recorded, including their very archaic layer, without subsequent layers. B. L. Riftin published the collected texts, and also published the monograph "Myths and Stories about Evil Spirits" written on their basis.: Comparative study of the myths and fairy tales of the aborigines of Taiwan " is the most extensive work on this topic for almost a century and a half of research. It is no coincidence that it was published in two editions (in Taichung and Beijing), thus bringing together scientists from both sides of the Taiwan Strait (for more information, see [Kucera, 2000; Azarenko and Komissarov, 2005]). In one of the forewords written by Prof. E. Shuxian, the author notes the importance of the book for further study of the folklore of the population of not only Taiwan, but also many peoples of Southern China who are of Austronesian origin. Taiwanese Prof. Hu Wanchuan, the author of another introduction to the book, emphasizes the significant contribution of B. L. Riftin to the development of a methodology for studying Aboriginal folklore, in the creative application of a comprehensive comparative-historical approach to the analysis of hundreds of stories. Methodological framework

* Expeditions to Central Asia also prompted Boris Lvovich to create a major historical and ethnographic study. In a monographic article, B. L. Riftin convincingly proved that the formation of classical music culture in China took place under significant Central Asian influence, including direct borrowing of musical instruments, melodies, and dances [1960].

The significance of B. L. Riftin's work is especially noticeable against the background of possibly effective, but heuristically ineffective arguments about the differences between "literary anthropology" and "anthropology of literature", which are supported by some Chinese authors. He uses in practice the possibilities of the structural-typological method, which is most fully implemented in the study of folklore in Russian historiography. In many works published in Chinese, B. L. Riftin expounds in detail the views of his teachers - V. Y. Propp, V. M. Zhirmunsky, E. M. Meletinsky, as well as the most famous foreign methodologists, such as A. Levi-Bruhl and K. Levi-Strauss. He is forced to do this by the following circumstance: although the works of all the researchers listed above have long been classics of world folklore studies and have been translated into many languages, Chinese researchers are still little familiar with them. Hence the discrepancy and confusion in terminology. Giving different formulations of such basic concepts as "myth" by different authors, B. L. Riftin writes with uncharacteristic sharpness that folklore studies are the same science with a worldwide status as any other natural science or humanitarian discipline, so within one country there can be no special interpretation of the concepts of "myth" or "legend", just as there is no specially created definition for China. [Li Fuqing, 2001, p. 32]. One of the important tasks of his publications, in our opinion, is to overcome the methodological self-sufficiency of Chinese colleagues.

Many of B. L. Riftin's works published in China acquaint the scientific community of the "Greater China" countries with the achievements of Russian scientists in the field of folklore and literary studies (in the broad sense of the term). We are particularly pleased to note that one of the articles presented in detail the series "Folklore Monuments of the Peoples of Siberia and the Far East" (Li Fuqing, 1992). The publication of a bibliography of literature in foreign languages on the mythology of all the peoples inhabiting China, as well as those who have close ethnogenetic or cultural-historical ties with them, can be considered a kind of apotheosis of such cultural activity of B. L. Riftin (Li Fuqing, 2007). It helps Chinese researchers find the necessary comparative materials when studying folklore traditions, such as those of the Turkic, Mongolian, or Tungusic-speaking peoples. However, this publication is no less useful for scientists from other countries. The Japanese and Russian sections are particularly distinguished by their size and representation, and the latter contains the works of many former and current employees of the Institute of Electrotechnical Research of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences: A. P. Okladnikov, E. I. Derevyanko, A. I. Mazin, A.M. Sagalaev, Yu. S. Khudyakov, V. D. Kubareva, D. V. Cheremisina, T. P. Kashina, V. V. Evsyukova, S. A. Komissarova, A.V. Varenova and others. We hope that this publication will help our foreign (including Chinese) colleagues get acquainted with important publications in Russian.

The success of kulturtrager's work is promoted by the refined Chinese language, in which B. L. Riftin has preferred to write many of his works for the last 20 years, as well as the absolutely Chinese-sounding and spelling name Li Fuqing, under which he publishes. Many Chinese scholars simply cannot believe that such a profound insight into the minutest details of China's spiritual culture could have been written by a foreigner, and they sincerely consider Li Fuqing to be a compatriot. His work is becoming a natural part of Chinese science. However, it is not for nothing that it is said that disadvantages are often a continuation of advantages. The works of B. L. Riftin in recent years are not easily accessible to Russian scientists, since most of them are published mainly in Chinese. For example, only a small part of the extensive collection of materials on the mythology of Taiwanese aborigines has been published in Russian (for an abridged translation of one of the chapters of his monograph, see [Riftin, 1998]). It seems that students and followers of B. L. Riftin are now facing an important scientific task-to translate the teacher's works into Russian, thereby "repatriating" them to the national sinology.

Despite the breadth of B. L. Riftin's scientific interests, the basis of his activity is precisely the study of Chinese myths. We see this as a conscious choice of a scholar who appreciated the uniqueness of the Chinese situation in this area of spiritual culture and its significance for the development of a comparative study of mythology as a whole. He was well aware that because of Confucian rationalism, ancient Chinese mythology was less well preserved than Egyptian, Indian, or Greek mythology, so its main subjects needed to be reconstructed, in particular with the use of archaeological data (for example, finds from the Han graves of Mawandui, etc.) [Riftin, 1988a, b, pp. 14-16]. But this feature favored researchers: thanks to the developed written tradition of China, numerous mythological details have survived to this day, which most peoples have lost or significantly deformed in the course of historical development. Conscientious Chinese historiographers sought to record phenomena in all their diversity, even if the true meaning of what was described remained incomprehensible to them.

The abundance of written sources provided a completeness of data unprecedented for most other ethnic groups. The veneration of traditions has preserved mythological subjects in folklore, rituals, and works of art that have survived to this day and are still partially reproduced at the present stage, which allows us to reconstruct the lost meaning of the original mythologies.

B. L. Riftin studied in detail the mechanisms of the influence of mythology on public consciousness using the example of ways of depicting characters in classical Chinese literature. He showed that "at the origin of the literary image is an image that was formed during the period of active myth-making" [1979, p. 306]. In the folk literature of the XII-XIV centuries, which dates back to oral epic creativity, portraits of heroes are created on the same principle as the oldest mythological images of the first ancestor associated with totemic beliefs. The features of the "animal image" pass into the novels-epics of the Middle Ages, although they are already perceived as metaphors; this tradition is preserved even in the transition to modern literature.

In a generalizing article written for the encyclopedia "Myths of the Peoples of the World", B. L. Riftin not only presented numerous characters and plots of ancient Chinese mythology, but also showed how they participated in the formation of a kind of religious (Buddhist and Taoist) and late folk mythology, influenced artistic culture [1980]. This large-scale work was repeatedly reprinted both as part of the encyclopedia and separately in various languages, including Chinese; B. L. Riftin (as part of the team of authors) became a laureate of the USSR State Prize. Boris Lvovich constantly turns to methods of comparative analysis, paying special attention to common themes in the mythology of the Chinese and neighboring peoples [2007].

In parallel with the scientific study of folklore, B. L. Riftin was engaged in translating and publishing fairy tales for the general reader. The book "Chinese Folk Tales", first published 50 years ago, has been repeatedly supplemented and reprinted (for the latest edition, see [Tales of China, 2007]). Exploring this form of folklore, B. L. Riftin emphasizes its connection with ancient mythology. The reader may not always be able to decipher the myth hidden in a fairy tale, but he feels its powerful emotional impact. The most difficult combination of the two planes that modern prose seeks to create (within the framework of the so-called magical realism, etc.), was originally laid down in the fairy tale. It embodies many ethnic features. Not only names and geographical names are specific, but also numerous details of everyday life and culture in general. By reading and telling fairy tales, people get to know each other better. One of the most important characteristics of China as a state is its multiethnic nature, so B. L. Riftin constantly includes in his collections fairy tales not only of the Han, but also of Tibetans, Thais, Koreans, Uzbeks, Hui, Li, Miao and Yao. Together, they help to better represent the country's ethno-cultural development in all its richness and diversity.

B. L. Riftin's achievements in the field of studying Chinese mythology and folklore allow us to distinguish his works in a special historiographical stage, the essence of which is to combine the entirety of written sources (including classical literature) with field folklore and ethnographic materials and in their comprehensive study based on the methodology developed within the framework of the Russian school of structural and semantic analysis. B. L. Riftin has received many awards for his outstanding achievements, including the Gold medal "For the Study of Chinese Language and Culture", specially established by the Government of the People's Republic of China to award famous foreign sinologists (only ten scientists were awarded this honor), as well as the honorary diploma of the Chinese Writers 'Union" For Outstanding Achievements in Translating, Studying and Disseminating Chinese Literature". literature".

List of literature

Azarenko Yu. A., Komissarov S. A. Mythology of the Taiwanese Aborigines: On the pages of the monograph of chl. - cor. RAS B. L. Riftina / / Vestn. NSU Ser.: History, Philology. - 2005. - T. 4, issue. 3: Vostokovedenie [Oriental Studies], pp. 227-235.

Dungan folk tales and legends / zap. texts and transl. by B. Riftin, M. Khasanov and I. Yusupov; ed. by B. Riftin. - M.: Chief editor. east lit. Nauka Publishing House, 1977. -572 p. - (Fairy tales and myths of the peoples of the East).

S. Kucera [Review] // East (Oriens). - 2000. - N 1. - p. 195-201. - Rec. on the book: Li Fuqing (V. Riftin). Cong shenhua dui guihua. Taiwan yuanzhumin shenhua gushi bijiao yanjiu {From Myths to Ghost Stories. Comparative Studies on Taiwan Aboriginal Tales}. - Taichungshi: Chenxing chubanyguo, 1998. - 362 p. - (Taiwan yuanzhuminshi; N 26).

Li Fuqing (Riftin B. L.). Cibolia ji Ego Yuandong diqiu zhi mingzu mingjian wenxue punshu [On the series "Monuments of Folklore of the peoples of Siberia and the Far East"] / / Dalu zazhi. - 1992. - Vol. 85, N 6. - pp. 1-8 (in Chinese).

Li Fuqing (Riftin B. L.). Shenhua yu guihua-Taiwan yuanzhumin shenhua gushi bijiao yanju: Tseng ding ben [Myths and stories about evil spirits-a comparative study of the myths and fairy tales of the aborigines of Taiwan: Ed. add. and expanded.].- Beijing: Shehui kexue wenxian chubanygo, 2001. - 6, 7, 3, 3, 3, 4, 23, 410 with. (in Chinese).

Li Fuqing (Riftin B. L.). Zhongguo ge minzu shenhua yanju waiwen lunzhu mulu [Bibliography of works in foreign languages on the study of myths of various cultures].

peoples of China]: (1839-1990). Beijing: Beijing tushuguan chubanyin Publ., 2007, 29, 3, 223 p. (in Chinese).

Neklyudov S. Yu., Riftin B. L. Novye materialy po mongol'skom fol'kloru [New materials on Mongolian folklore]. -1976. - N2. - pp. 135-147.

Riftin, B. L., From the history of cultural relations between Central Asia and China (II century BC-VIII century AD), Problemy vostokovedeniya. 1960, No. 5, pp. 119-132.

Riftin B. L. Istoricheskaya epopeya i fol'klornaya traditsiya v Kitae: (Ustnye i knizhnye versii "Troetsarstviya") [Historical Epic and Folklore Tradition in China: Oral and Book versions of the "Three Kingdoms"]. east lit. Nauka Publishing House, 1970, 482 p. (Studies on folklore and mythology of the East).

Riftin B. L. From the Myth to the Novel: The evolution of the image of a character in Chinese literature. east lit. Nauka Publishing House, 1979, 360 p., ill. (Studies on folklore and mythology of the East).

Riftin B. L. Kitayskaya mifologiya [Chinese Mythology] / / Mifi narodov mira: Entsiklopediya: V 2 t. - Moscow: Sov. entsiklopediya, 1980. - Vol. 1. - pp. 652-662.

Riftin B. L. On Chinese mythology in connection with the book of Professor Yuan Ke / / Yuan Ke: Myths of Ancient China. - 2nd ed., ispr. and dop. - Moscow: Gl. ed. east. lit. Nauka Publishing House, 1987, pp. 378-477.

Riftin B. L. Kitayskaya mifologiya v Yugo-Vostochnoy Azii [Chinese Mythology in Southeast Asia]. - M.: Chief editor. east lit. Nauka Publishing House, 1988a, pp. 14-47.

Riftin B. L. Ancient Chinese mythology and medieval narrative tradition // Theoretical problems of studying the literature of the Far East: (Alekseyevsky readings). Moscow: Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 19886, part 2, pp. 230-239.

Riftin B. L. The people of the Central Educational Institution: 64 years after N. A. Nevsky//East. - 1992. - N 5. - pp. 107-116.

Riftin B. L. Legends about evil spirits in the folklore of Taiwan aborigines // Vostochnaya demonologiya: Ot narodnykh verovaniy k literature [Eastern Demonology: From folk Beliefs to literature]. Moscow: Nasledieye, 1998, pp. 44-60.

Riftin B. L. Kitayskaya mifologiya [Chinese Mythology]: Encyclopedia: In 5 volumes-Moscow: East Lit., 2007. - Vol. 2: Mythology. Religion, pp. 16-77.

Serebryakov E. A. Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Boris Lvovich Riftin: (To the 75th anniversary of his birth). Izv. RAN. Ser. Literature and language. - 2007. - T. 66, N 6. - pp. 61-65.

Skazki Kitay [Fairy Tales of China], comp., transl. from kit, intro, art., comment by B. Riftin. Yekaterinburg: U-Factoria Publ., 2007, 400 p. (Bibliotheca mythologica).

Sorokin V. F. Boris Lvovich Riftin: To the 60th anniversary of his birth / / Izv. RAN. Ser.: Literatury i yazyka. - 1992. - Vol. 51, N 5. - pp. 88-89.