Heluoyu, the One-Headed, Ten-Bodied Fish of the Shan Hai Jing

What the Shan Hai Jing says

Mount Qiaoming is in the first book of the Northern Mountains. The Qiao River rises there and flows west into the He, the Yellow River. In the river are many Heluo fish, each with one head and ten bodies. Their cry sounds like a barking dog, and eating one cures boils. The text calls it the Heluo fish; Heluoyu is the same name with yu, fish, added on.

The same mountain has a beast called the menghuai, a bristly animal with red hair whose cry sounds like liu-liu; it can ward off evil. A fish that barks and a beast that keeps harm away make Mount Qiaoming a typical stop in the northern books, where many creatures come with a cure or a charm attached. The rivers of the northern books hold many strange fish, some with wings and some with several heads.

One head, ten bodies

The Heluoyu has one of the strangest body plans in the book. Many creatures in the Shan Hai Jing have extra heads, eyes, legs or wings, but very few multiply the body behind a single head. It is easy to picture as a shoal of fish moving as one, though the text gives no explanation and we should not read too much into it. Its barking voice adds to the strangeness: a creature of the water that sounds like an animal of the farmyard.

Cures from the river

Boils and swellings were a serious danger before modern medicine, since an infected sore could kill. Many fish in the Shan Hai Jing are listed as cures, like the Chiru of the Ying River, whose meat prevents scabies. Lists like these suggest that part of the book worked as a practical record of what each river held and what each catch was good for. Other fish bring trouble instead, like the Luoyu, whose appearance means floods.

Heluoyu in Beasts of Shanhai

In Beasts of Shanhai, our browser game built on these creatures, the Heluoyu's many bodies become a rule. It is a cheap Water beast with Guard, so foes must strike it first, and when it falls it leaves Fish Shades behind in its place to keep blocking. At three stars it splits into three stronger shades. It is a small fish that is very hard to get rid of, which fits a creature with ten bodies to lose.

Tenfold Fish in Beasts of Shanhai

In our free browser game Beasts of Shanhai, Tenfold Fish is a Water beast that costs 1 Gold. Its skill is Shade Split. Last Breath: summon 2 Fish Shades (1/1) in its place. It has Guard. At two stars the shades are 2/2, and at three stars it summons 3 shades at 3/3.

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