Jianghu江湖
jiānghú
Literally "rivers and lakes": the parallel society of martial artists, wanderers, and outlaws that wuxia stories inhabit.
Jianghu names the world alongside ordinary society where sect rivalries, sworn brotherhoods, and blood feuds play out under their own code (the xia ethos) rather than imperial law. Inns, escort agencies, and remote mountain sects are its geography; reputation, face, and obligation are its currency. To "retire from the jianghu" is the genre's version of hanging up the sword, and the saying "wherever there are people, there is jianghu" extends the idea to office politics and everyday life.
Modern donghua use the word both straight, in period wuxia like Qin's Moon, and playfully, as when urban-fantasy series describe the hidden world of ability users as "the jianghu" of their setting.