Xiangliu

Xiangliu
An image of Xiangliu from Japan's Edo period
Chinese name
Chinese	相柳 (相栁)
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Xiāngliǔ Wade–Giles Hsiang1-liu3 IPA [ɕjáŋ.ljòʊ]
Xiangyao
Chinese	相繇
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Xiāngyáo Wade–Giles Hsiang1-yao2 IPA [ɕjáŋ.jǎʊ]
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabet	Tương Liễu, Tương Lưu?
Hán-Nôm	相柳
Korean name
Hangul	상류
Hanja	相柳
Transcriptions Revised Romanization Sangryu
Japanese name
Kanji	相柳
Hiragana	そうりゅう
Transcriptions Romanization Sōryū

Xiangliu (/ʃæŋ.ljuː/), known in the Classic of Mountains and Seas as Xiangyao (/ʃæŋ.jaʊ/),^[1] 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.^[2] Older wood-cuts show the heads clustered on a single neck, either side-by-side or in a stack three high, facing three directions.