Huashe, the Winged Flood Snake of Mount Yang

What the Shan Hai Jing says

The Huashe appears in the second book of the Central Mountains, a short chain of nine mountains whose rivers drain into the Yi and the Luo. At Mount Yang the text follows the Yang River north into the Yi and says that many Huashe live in its waters. The name means something like "changing snake", and the description explains why: it has a human face on a jackal's body, it has the wings of a bird, yet it moves along the ground like a snake.

Its voice is compared to a person shouting or scolding. The last line is the one that matters most to the people who compiled the book: when a Huashe is seen, its town will suffer a great flood. Unlike many entries, there is no remedy here, no meat that cures anything. It is purely a warning. Its home in the river matters too: it is a water creature, and the disaster it announces is water breaking out of its banks.

A flood omen beside a drought omen

The Huashe has a mirror image in the same book. Just before Mount Yang, the text describes Mount Xian, whose river also runs north into the Yi. Its waters are full of Mingshe, "singing snakes" with four wings and a voice like a stone chime, and when they appear the town suffers a great drought. Two neighbouring rivers, two winged serpents, one bringing too little water and one bringing too much. Omens like these are everywhere in the Shan Hai Jing. A strange creature showing itself was read as news about the coming harvest, the weather or the safety of the state, and floods were among the disasters ancient Chinese writers feared most.

Neighbours on the same rivers

The second book of the Central Mountains ends at Mount Manqu, where the Yi River itself begins. That mountain is home to the Mafu, a man-eating beast with a human face and a tiger's body. Elsewhere in the book, the Luoyu of the Western Mountains is another winged water creature whose appearance means flood, which suggests how often early writers linked strange water beasts with rising rivers.

The Huashe in our game

In Beasts of Shanhai we built the Huashe straight from the text, keeping its human face, jackal body, wings and snake-like movement. Its snake-like way of moving became a slippery fighter that dodges blows, and its hunger became a lifesteal attack that lets it heal from every hit it lands. It is a water beast costing 2 Gold, an early pick that keeps itself alive while the rest of the team does the heavy work.

Flood Serpent in Beasts of Shanhai

In our free browser game Beasts of Shanhai, Flood Serpent is a Water beast that costs 2 Gold. Its skill is Slither. Lifesteal: it heals half the damage it deals, and it has +10% Dodge. Dodge rises to +20% at two stars and +30% at three stars.

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