- Xiang River
The Xiang River (also as Xiangjiang, Xiangjiang River, or simply as Xiang, Chinese: 湘江, 湘水 or 湘,
pinyin : Xiāng Jiāng, Xiāng Shǔi;Wade-Giles : "hsiāng chiāng" or "hsiāng shuǐ"), in older transliterations as the Siang River or Hsiang River, is ariver in southernChina . The river gaveHunan its Chinese abbreviation, the same as "Xiang" (湘).Geography
Originating from
Haiyang Mountain (海陽山) in Lingui ofGuangxi , the Xiang is the largest river inHunan and one of the largest tributaries ofYangtze River . It is 856-km long and 670-km of it is in Hunan. People say the Xiang and theLijiang River share the same origination because of connecting the two rivers of theLingqu Canal that it is located inXing'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 intoLake 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:
* TheXiao River (瀟水) flows into the Xiang near Changsha
* TheZheng River (蒸水) converges with the Xiang in Chengbei District (城北區), HengyangDeities
The river is said to be protected by two
goddess es, 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 Riverbamboo s (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 poetQu Yuan wrote a poem called "Ladies Xiang" (湘夫人) documented the songs of theritual s.On June 14, 1919, young
Mao Zedong found "The Shian Kian Weekly Review "(original translating, Chinese 《湘江评论》) to publicize Marxism theorem inChangsha .The character
Shi Xiangyun from the Chinese novel "Dream of the Red Chamber " takes the first character of her given name from this river.Major cities along the river
*
Hengyang
*Zhuzhou
*Xiangtan
*Changsha See also
*
Geography of China
*Dongting Lake
*List of rivers of Asia
**Yangtze River
***Lishui River
***Yuan River
***Zi River
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