A Study of Folklore Regions in the Han Dynasty

Regionality is one of the most important characteristics of the folklore. Therefore, it is important to study folklore regions for researching regional history and culture. Since Sima Qian in the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-220 A. D.), the whole nation has been divided into nine folklore regions. Later, Liu Xiang and Zhu Gang precisely divided the whole nation into 13 folklore regions and 17 sub-folklore regions. Zhou Zhen-he, a scholar of the time, by piecing together the smattering of information from Hanshu (Dili Zhi), redivided the Han Dynasty society into three large folklore areas, 16 folklore regions and 15 subfolklore regions. Nevertheless, there are some defects in all of the above divisions. There should be four folklorebelts in China: the Great Wall Folklore Belt, the Yellow River Folklore Belt, the Yangzi River Folklore Belt and the Zhujiang River Folklore Belt. The formation of a folklore region can be affected by the environments and the political conditions. Compared with South China, the political conditions have stronger influence on the folklore of North China.