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.

[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.

According to the Classic of Mountains and Seas (Shanhaijing), Xiangliu (Xiangyao) was a minister of the snake-like water deity Gonggong.

Everywhere he rested or breathed upon (or that his tongue touched, depending on the telling) became boggy with poisonously bitter water, devoid of human and animal life.

The Shanhaijing says his blood stank to the point it was impossible to grow grain in the land it soaked and the area flooded, making it uninhabitable.