Xiang River
The Xiang River (湘江 Pinyin: Xiāng Jiāng or 湘水 Xiāng Shǔi), in older transliterations as the Siang River or Hsiang River, is a river in southern China. The river gave Hunan its Chinese abbreviation, Xiang.
Originating from Haiyang Mountain (海陽山) in Lingui County of Guangxi, the Xiang River is the longest river in Hunan and one of the longest branches of Yangtze River. The Xiang is 856-km long and 670-km of it is in Hunan.
The river passes places such as Xing'an, Quanzhou (Guangxi), and Dongan, Yongzhou, Qiyang, Hengyang, Zhuzhou, Xiangtan, Changsha, Wangcheng, Xiangyin, and empties into Lake Dongting, where it connects to the Yangtze. The Xiang has 2,157 branches and covers 9,460,000 km², and 8,530,000 km² are in Hunan (40% of the province).
Tributaries:
The river is said to be protected by two goddesses, the Xiang Consorts (湘妃 Xiangfei): Ehuang (娥皇) and Nüying (女英).
They were the wives of the mystical ruler, Shun. Unable to bear the pain of their husband's death, they committed suicide in this river. The spots on the dotted Xiang River bamboos (湘江竹 or 湘竹), also known as Xiang Consorts Bamboo (湘妃竹), are said to be the teardrops of the consorts. These bamboos are also known as Marked Bamboos (斑竹) or Tear Bamboos (淚竹).
The Chu people of the Warring States Period worshipped these Xiang Water Goddesses (湘水神). The poet Qu Yuan wrote a poem called Ladies Xiang (湘夫人) documented the songs of the rituals.Geography
Deities
