【Objective】According to the classical Dokuchaev soil genesis theory, soil is formed under the comprehensive effect of five environmental factors, i.e. parent material, climate, biology, topography, and time, among which parent material is the very fundamental one, very closely related to soils. Researchers have made certain progresses in the study on relationships of soils with the factors, but, apart from some early preliminary studies in this aspect, few in-depth reports are found in the literature on relationships of soil parent material with soil factors from the angle of diversity. So this study selected Henan Province for a case study to explore soil elements and composition and soil classes or types in various soil classification system in relation to diversity of soil forming parent materials, effects of soil forming parent material on dispersiveness of spatial distribution of soil great groups, and characteristics and correlations of spatial distribution diversity of the two on a 5 km×5 km grid scale with the classical and modified Shannon entropy methods, in an attempt to enrich steadily the knowledge about the trend of evolvement of the research on soil diversity to that on land diversity. 【Method】Both the classical Shannon entropy formula and modified Shannon entropy formula were used to characterize the composition and spatial distribution diversities of soil forming parent materials and soils. First of all, data of soil forming parent materials were extracted from the data of soil parent materials on the soil genus level based on the soil parent material classification. And with the aid of the spatial data processing and analysis function of ArcGIS10.2 software, the soil farming parent materials in Henan Province were sorted into 6 groups. Then the richness index and composition diversity of the various parent materials and soil elements were calculated with the classical Shannon entropy formula. And number of soil types and bifurcation ratios relative to each group of parent materials and corresponding relationships of the two in occurrence were analyzed for further analysis of effects of parent material on the spatial distribution diversity of soil types with the modified Shannon entropy formula on a 5 km×5 km grid scale. In the end, spatial distribution diversities of parent materials and soils (soil group level) in Henan Province were worked out with the modified Shannon entropy formula and correlation of the two discussed.【Result】Results show that （1） although the parent materials in Henan are very limited in type, they are higher in composition diversity than the soils, which is related to bifurcation ratio of the two in classification. （2）Among the 6 types of parent materials, the type of eluvium and deluvium is the largest in area and the most complex in soil development. The richness index of soil types increases with soil classification going from group, subgroup to family in level. The 15 soil types are related to 6 types of parent materials in one to many, one to one and many to one patterns. （3）Soil types developed from different parent materials vary in dispersiveness of spatial distribution. Carbonati-Orthic Primosols is the dominant type of soil developed on eluvium and deluvium type of parent material, while Hapli aquic cambosol and Shajiang aquic vertosol are on river alluvium and lacustrine sediments, respectively. Yellow ustic argosol and Hapli ustic argosol are the two types of soils well developed on proluvium, loess and laterite types of parent materials. And sandy orthic primosol is the only one developed on the aeolian deposit type of parent material. （4）Hapli aquic cambosol and river alluvium type of parent material is the type of soil and the type of parent material the largest in area and the highest in spatial distribution diversity, respectively, in Henan Province. And soil forming parent materials and soil types are related in spatial distribution diversity to a varying extent. The relationships of the river alluvium type of parent material with Hapli aquic cambosol soil and of the aeolian deposit type of parent material with sandy orthic primosol are the highest, while the relationship of the loess and laterite type of parent material with Shajiang aquic vertosol is near nil, which is reflected in the fact that the area of soil patches common to the two is very limited nearly nothing.【Conclusion】 To sum up, viewing from the angle of diversity, the 6 types of soil forming parent materials and the 15 soil groups in Henan Province vary in composition diversity and spatial distribution dispersiveness. Moreover, the two are related in spatial distribution diversity to a varying extent.