On the Two Historical Legends of Ayuka Khan Era in the Oirats of Xinjiang Tradition: on the Problem of Folk Historicism
The article discusses the problem of historicism of folklore texts. A segment of historical and legendary folklore that is represented by the texts of 2 08 historic stories in traditional oral culture of Xinjiang Oirats is of special interest. The goal of the research is to analyze two historic legends of Auka-Khan era from the perspective of manifestation and projection of folklore historicism in them. The study points out that the characteristic feature of the two stories in question is the high degree of ‘historicism’. ‘Historicism is represented in characters, that have the prototypes of real historical people - Auka Khan, Seterjab, Tseven-Rabdan, Galdan-Tseren, and also the narrative episodes that relate to certain historical events and facts. The legend about Mergen Jonum tells about series of conﬂicts that are connected to a speciﬁc historical event - a war of Kalmyks with Crimea Khanate. The author comes to a conclusion that historicism of the folklore texts doesn’t have direct authenticity, so certain historical events compressed and reduced are comprehended through a prism of traditional folk ideas and perceptions.