Xiangliu
| Xiangliu | |||||||||||
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An image of Xiangliu from Japan's Edo period | |||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||
| Chinese | 相柳 (相栁) | ||||||||||
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| Xiangyao | |||||||||||
| Chinese | 相繇 | ||||||||||
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| Vietnamese name | |||||||||||
| Vietnamese alphabet | Tương Liễu, Tương Lưu? | ||||||||||
| Hán-Nôm | 相柳 | ||||||||||
| Korean name | |||||||||||
| Hangul | 상류 | ||||||||||
| Hanja | 相柳 | ||||||||||
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| Japanese name | |||||||||||
| Kanji | 相柳 | ||||||||||
| Hiragana | そうりゅう | ||||||||||
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Xiangliu (/ʃæŋ.ljuː/), known in the Classic of Mountains and Seas as Xiangyao (/ʃæŋ.jaʊ/), is a venomous nine-headed snake monster that brings floods and destruction in Chinese mythology.
Xiangliu may be depicted with his body coiled on itself. The nine heads are arranged differently in different representations. Modern depictions resemble the hydra, with each head on a separate neck. Older wood-cuts show the heads clustered on a single neck, either side-by-side or in a stack three high, facing three directions.