Xiangliu

The Classic of Mountains and Seas: Overseas Northern Classic records: 'Xiangliu-shi, a minister of Gonggong (Water God of Chaos and Flood), had nine heads and fed upon nine mountains. Wherever Xiangliu touched the earth, marshes and streams would instantly form.' Yu the Great slew Xiangliu, but its blood was so toxic that no five grains could be sown upon the tainted soil. When Yu excavated the site, the ground collapsed three times after each attempt to fill it—hence he transformed the area into a series of ponds and constructed the Terrace of the Many Sovereigns to subdue it. As Gonggong’s most fearsome minister, Xiangliu manifested as a nine-headed serpent embodying insatiable greed and devastation; wherever it passed, fertile land turned into poisonous swamps and treacherous waterways—the archetypal embodiment of primordial flood calamity. After protracted battle during his flood-control campaign, Yu the Great ultimately vanquished Xiangliu; yet its noxious blood seeped deep into the earth, resisting containment. Yu therefore reshaped the cursed terrain into controlled wetlands and erected the Terrace of the Many Sovereigns atop it—a monumental act symbolising the triumph of righteous order over elemental chaos.