Jianghu

Jiānghú (江湖; Cantonese: gong woo) is the milieu, environment, or sub-community, often fictional, in which many Chinese classical wuxia stories are set. The term can be translated literally as "rivers and lakes". Jianghu is an alternative universe coexisting with the actual historical one in which the context of the wuxia genre was set. Each wuxia novel has its own Jianghu setting although in the trilogy like Jin Yong's Condor series it will be one with continuity; whereas Gu Long's Jianghu would be distinct in every novel. The concept of Jianghu can be traced to the 14th century novel Water Margin , in which a band of noble outlaws retreated to their hideout who mounted regular sorties in an attempt to right the wrongs of the corrupt officials. These bandits were called the Chivalrous men of the Green Forests or 綠林好漢, the green forest was the antecedent to Jianghu. One of the earliest coinage of Jianghu was by a dejected poet Fan Zhongyan 范仲淹 (989—1052 CE) in the Song Dynasty in... full article at wikipedia