3. The Features of Folklore

The characteristics of folklore can be of variety. The features of different regions, nationalities and nations can be both common and unique. The comprehensive portray of the shared traits can be understandably difficult. However, some of the similar aspects are listed in the following：

（1）Collectivism

This is one of the basic but essential features embodied in the production and circulation of folklore. The fundamental human attribute is its sociality. Consequently, the emergence of folklore is evidently a result of collective activities.

In the progress of the society, with the appearance of maternal or paternal human society to tribes and nationalities, colorful folklore has been created and improved, which is definitely a fruit of group wisdom. Once it has been formed, it turns out to be the collective behavioral habits, and mobilizes in the immense scope of time and space. The liquidity is not the mechanic repetition, but the continuous enrichment of the folklore itself. In other words, when folklore initially came into being, its pattern and content were relatively simple; however, in the chronic historical development, the folklore tends to be more complex, the outcome of collective recreation.

Collectivism manifests the integral consciousness of folklore as a whole, which determines its value orientation and that is where the vitality of folklore culture lies.

（2）Hereditability and Transmissibility

The former refers to the developing continuity in time, namely diachronic vertical continuity; meanwhile it is a transmission mode of folk culture. The letter indicates the spatial cultural spread, but also known as the horizontal diffu sion of folklore. The combination of the two makes folk cultural heritage a spacetime continuum.

Hereditability is determined by its function, demonstrating the responsibility of enlightenment, with inheritance being one form and means. In the traditional and the modern society, each person's growth is inseparable from the edification of folk culture. From childhood to adulthood, people have obtained a range of knowledge, skills and ethics, even the ancestral concept from folk culture. This is a potential ability of human beings, with all the education implemented unknowingly, enabling people to acquire knowledge and skills unconsciously during the process of cultural inheritance. Meanwhile, folklore inheritance is implemented purposefully due to its active feature since the elders in the family always bear responsibility to the younger at home and village, community and numerous nongovernmental organizations also are responsible for the inheritance to the involved members. Thus, folklore is passed on from generation to generation unceasingly.

On the other hand, transmissibility refers to the spatial expansion of folk culture. The combination of vertical and horizontal stretch induces a diversified folk culture formed through mutual impact and incorporation. Being a mental, linguistic and behavioral pattern, it is not static but dynamic. Different from top-to-bottom hereditability, transmissibility is spatial movement. When a new folklore takes shape in a region or a nation, its function and value can be fully revealed after gradual improvement. It is not only accepted regionally as the continuation of traditional culture, but also begins to penetrate to other ethnic areas.

However, such spread is selective. Judging from its own regularity, folklore with long history and extensive social functions possess more comprehensive transmissibility compared with those unripe and uncommon ones. Furthermore, the study of transmissibility used to focus on the similarities of regional folklore to seek their homology, whereas it is undeniable that the geographical, ethnic and cultural differences can't afford to be discounted in folkloristics, a proof that the transmissibility is subjected to various conditions.

Individual and collective transmission of folklore can both lead to the vari ous types of spread to other areas. But generally speaking, the mode can be of two kinds, namely normal and abnormal. The former is naturally conducted in peaceful environment, a result of mutual national communication. A complete process is usually realized in the following steps: Firstly, people make value judgment to the new folk culture, comparing it with its traditional ones. Secondly, the decision of acceptance or dropping is made after the comparison. Finally, even if the decision is positively made, transformation is also necessary to new folklore in its form, meaning and function to suit it in the original convention. The abnormal transmission is carried out under certain circumstances such as wars, famines and plagues. Because of such unexpected events, massive migration produces the shift of folk culture. Some integrate with local folklore while others are preserved and come down through the years.

The research on the hereditability and transmissibility is of great significance to the birth, advance, evolution, spread and geographical distribution of the folklore.

（3）Stability and Variability

Folklore is the cultural phenomenon created, inherited and enjoyed by common people in long-term social practice. The same as the mainstream upperclass culture, the lower-class folklore is stable as well, especially in the underdeveloped ages. However, this culture may transform, deteriorate, even go extinct in the process of social development.

Once produced, folklore will become a part of people's daily life accompanied by their fixed productive and living mode. In other words, as long as the society remains stable, the folk culture tends to be more unchanged. Folklore is formed on the basis of given politics, economy, society and culture, so, provided that the economic foundation doesn't alter, folklore still possesses consistency even if great changes have taken place in society. In addition, the inheritance of folk culture is often restricted by conventional ideas, thus it won't lose ideological basis if social transformation is not blended with ideal changes. Take China for example, being a civilization with a long history, it has experienced many sovereign and social reforms, therefore, some of the folk custom naturally died out with the progress of historical advance and social production. Yet some folklores have been preserved till now after being supplemented and improved.

The stability of the folk culture is relative, always containing variables, which is where the variability lies. Variability is characteristic of folk culture, with the spontaneous and gradual changes arising in the process of folklore inheritance and expansion. Folk heritage is dependent of language and behavior, implying that folklore is bound to change constantly to adapt to the surroundings diachronically and synchronically. Therefore, variation is actually a self-adjust-ment of folklore organism, also the root of its vitality, which is indispensable for folk culture. The majority of folk custom of the modern society are the fruits of ancient folk mutation. In this sense, variation is the inner motive of folklore preservation and development.

Folklore variation is more complex compared with stability, with cases such as part or whole; forms or contents; quantitative or qualitative; but all the changes are spontaneous and gradual. For instance, mythology, an often discussed subject in folk culture, is basically no longer generated with the maturity of human civilization, but it does not equal to its thinking and psychological extinction. In some remote nationalities, particularly the regions where agricultural technology is still primitive, myth remains to circulate with the existence of soil for its conservation and variation.

Folklore changes also constantly adapt to the need of social progress. Apart from some naturally perished custom, some also mutate in social transformation. For instance, feet binding, a custom of ancient Chinese women, approximately formed in the five dynasties period and became the essential conventions of most Han female nationalities after three dynasties of Song, Yuan, and Ming. In the early years of the Qing dynasty, the emperor issued imperial edicts banning feet-binding, but the convention still existed. The foundation of the people's republic of China saw the entire discard of this undesirable custom, indicating the abolishment of such custom is not easy. Anyway, changes are usually the positive participants of social development.

（4）Formulation

Formulation of folklore is the commonly-observed standard of its manifestation pattern, which can be a stereotyped thinking habit, or a conventional behavior, a concept different from the individuality and originality of upper-class culture. Unlike folklore, the personality of artists is determined by temporal, national and regional traits, in which character is of great value. However, folk culture is collective creation, plus constant spread and variation, making it hard to form characteristic symbolic system, which accounts for the reason why folk transmission is not unique but typological. Take folk literature for example, the authors are mostly anonymous, and the works can be revised by different people. Therefore, the original simple plot snowballed into more colorful stories through different ages. What's more, variation appears when the same work circulates in various nationalities and areas, forming different types of folk literature.

The types of folklore refer to the similar ones in form and content. Chinese famous four tales such as the Cowherd and the Weaving Maid, Legend of White Snake, Lady Meng Jiang's Bitter Weeping and The Butterfly Lovers are closely related with Chinese social development and people's aspirations. Moreover, literature types of Two Brothers, artful women, silly son-in-laws, swan virgins are no exception, that is, the general plot are alike and repetitive despite different story-tellers from different places. If we take the folk performance and story narration as a folk cultural heritage, it definitely reflects group aesthetic ideas and value orientation.

As to folk literature, especially the study of story types, it has become world knowledge. With the stories being regarded as plot narrations, experts make parallelism of“motif（plot unit）”by slight changes of similar plots, inducing certain types. Can other categories of folk custom being classified as folk stories? There is much room for exploration. For instance, resident folk custom can be architecturally sorted as tents, caves, piles etc. Certainly, regional and national diversity exists even among the same type. Despite the complexity of folklore classification, it is feasible to make structural attempts needing careful analysis on the basis of field work.

In sum, formulation study not only reveals inner folklore structure, but also helps people learn the interrelation and influence of regional and national folk culture, gaining further knowledge about its inheriting and spreading laws.

（5）Normalization and Serviceability

In essence, folklore is the lingual and behavioral pattern people create in chronic productive and social practice, or the code that common people invent and observe, the mode and rule adapt immensely to natural and social surroundings. Being characteristic of reflecting collective mental and survival needs, folk culture possess considerable stability. It is not unusual to see the unwritten laws executed in folk society since they pose great constraints on folks, forcing them to conduct by certain specification to obtain the psychological and environmental balance.

The formation of folk standardization is a historical process. Human beings primitive natural worship, totem worship, witchery and divination, etc. are mostly everybody's concern in the clans and tribes. Totem norm, namely the concept and behavior regulation, is very rigid. In a sense, totem is the social structure of the clan society through which people's behavior is restrained. For instance, totem is sacrosanct forbidden from any blasphemy. In case the totem is accidentally offended, a series of ceremony must be performed to make redemption. Marriage is absolutely prohibited among clan members. All the taboos become conscious behavior of each member.

People entering class society, folk norm changes significantly due to the emergence of private ownership and it gradually complicates after the appearance of countries. Politics starts to impose intervention on the standardization, primarily absorbing the self-beneficial part and promoting it to official etiquette for implementation among upper ruling classes. Such practice of upgrading folk habits into laws is not rare. In a word, all aspects of social life are not free from normalization. Activities such as marriages and funerals must undergo certain procedures and specifications; so do dietary structure and eating manners. It is apparent that to coordinate the life, people are always adjusting their own ideas and behavior with standardized folk principles.

Folklore contains rich cultural connotation and reflects the collective wisdom and creation. Being inexhaustible cultural treasure, traditional folk culture is an enormous knowledge system comprising beliefs, religion, morality, law, literature and art. Folks create abundant folk culture with uniform will and behavior, and this is where the serviceability lies.

First, the existence of the folklore is to serve the society, since folk norms are inevitably social norms, which is determined by its collectivism. For example, the custom of respecting the old and care for the child is not only applied within families, but also among the society. And the hospitality culture embodies the similar concept of respect for the seniors. Living a life abiding by such norms is a typical case of their service for the society.

Second, the accumulation of generations of folk culture has formed its own knowledge system, which in turn serves their production and life. For instance, the combination of astronomical observation and agricultural production results in the agricultural production custom. The division of Chinese annual 24 solar terms is mainly in the service of farming activities; and the integration of beliefs, farming and folk arts generates festival culture. It is the perfect reflection of serviceability as people enjoy immensely the joy brought by the holidays.

Third, folk culture coordinates public psychology to meet their aesthetic need. Human beings both live in the physical and mental environment, with the folklore being the product. In mental life, national belief matters significantly whereas the materialization of beliefs is various in forms. Sometimes it is rituals while sometimes it is artistic production. The former, such as the widespread custom of God or Buddha worshipping, being somewhat superstitious, belongs to public faith. In the view of atheists, all religious practice is absurd; but for theists, gods not only exist in fantasy but also dominate world fortune. Thus, they pray piously for spiritual blessing. Rituals are performed to meet some desire and seek psychological balance. The prevailing praying activities in agricultural society are also conducted in the hope for good weather and fine harvest. In the era of advanced technology, the beliefs are likely to shift or vanish but the folk art that they spark is still common. For example, the series of mascot provide people with aesthetic beauty, reflecting people's aesthetic consciousness and the creation of wisdom.

All in all, the above mentioned five aspects are not the entire traits of all folklore. However, they are relatively universal and representative.