Xiang River
The Xiang River (also as Xiangjiang River, Chinese:湘江 or "湘水", pinyin: Xiāng Jiāng, Xiāng Shǔi; Wade-Giles: "hsiāng chiāng" or "hsiāng shuǐ"), 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 of
Guangxi, the Xiang is the largest river in
Hunan and one of the largest
tributaries of
Yangtze River. It is 856-
km long and 670-km of it is in Hunan. People say the Xiang and the
Lijiang River share the same origination because of connecting the two rivers of the
Lingqu Canal that it is located in
Xing'an county, and 70 per centage of water in Lingqu flows in the Xiang and 30 percent flows in the Lijiang.
The river passes places such as
Xing'an,
Quanzhou, 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
Xiao River (瀟水) flows into the Xiang near Changsha
* The
Zheng River (蒸水) converges with the Xiang in Chengbei District (城北區), Hengyang
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.
*
Hengyang*
Zhuzhou*
Xiangtan*
Changsha*
Geography of China*
Dongting Lake*
List of rivers of Asia**
Yangtze River***
Lishui River***
Yuan River***
Zi River
