Tianwu, the Eight-Headed God of the Waters

What the Shan Hai Jing says

Tianwu appears in Beyond the Seas: East, the book that describes the lands along the eastern edge of the world. It lives in Zhaoyang Valley, the Valley Facing the Sun, and the text gives it a title: Shuibo, the Lord of the Waters. Between the two parts we quote, the book places the valley between two rivers. Then it describes the god's body: eight heads, each with a human face, eight legs, eight tails, and a back colored blue and yellow. The entry names no omen and no danger. Tianwu is a god of a place, not a monster to be avoided.

Neighbors on the eastern edge

Beyond the Seas: East is full of famous names. It describes Tanggu, the Hot Water Valley, where the Fusang tree stands and the ten suns bathe. It lists the Land of Gentlemen, where people wear swords and yield to one another, and the land of Qingqiu, whose foxes have four legs and nine tails, a second home for the nine-tailed fox. Tianwu belongs in this world of sunrise and sea, where the water god watches over the coast where the sun comes up.

A second Tianwu with a tiger's body

Tianwu appears again in Great Wilderness: East, and the details change. There it is a divine being with eight heads and human faces, but with the body of a tiger and ten tails instead of eight. Differences like this are common in the Shan Hai Jing, which was assembled from several older sources. Both versions agree on the eight human heads, which is the feature artists keep. Tianwu should not be confused with Hebo, the god of the Yellow River, who is a separate figure in early Chinese myth.

Tianwu in later art

Tianwu stayed in the Chinese imagination as a figure of the sea. In the Tang dynasty poem Northern Journey, Du Fu describes his poor family at home and the old embroidered sea pictures cut up to patch his children's clothes, so that Tianwu and a purple phoenix end up upside down on rough cloth. In Beasts of Shanhai Tianwu is a Water beast, and its eight heads became a skill that makes it hard to bring down with a single blow.

Tianwu, the Eight-Headed in Beasts of Shanhai

In our free browser game Beasts of Shanhai, Tianwu, the Eight-Headed is a Water beast that costs 2 Gold. Its skill is Damage Cap. It takes at most 40% of its max HP from any single hit, though Earth attacks ignore this cap. At two stars the cap drops to 30% and it is immune to Burn, and at three stars the cap is 15%.

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