What is Jiang Hu?

[SkineePanda]

I remember in one scene of Swordsman 3, the Spanish envoy asked a Ming officer a question "Just what is this Jianghu?" and the Chinese officer obviously knows the answer but can't really explain it in words so he simply said "Just wherever us wulin people go in and out, that is JiangHu!"

So just what is Jianghu? How do you define it? Is it a specific place or simply a state of being and mind? Is it so abstract a concept that makes it so hard to explain and define?

[immakiku]

It's an idea. It's used to refer to the world. That's the general definition I get from watching/reading wuxia. Emperors use "JiangHu" to refer to their empire. More often, though, lawless people (people who don't care much about the law) use "JiangHu" to refer to the place where they can live; it's an underground society of sorts. My interpretation of novels is that the second definition of Jianghu existed in society: its existence makes it so that people can freely kill others without any consequences from the government.

[SolidSnake]

The way I see it, Jianghu is a community.

[”~‹á�á]

Originally posted by immakiku
It's an idea. It's used to refer to the world. That's the general definition I get from watching/reading wuxia. Emperors use "JiangHu" to refer to their empire. More often, though, lawless people (people who don't care much about the law) use "JiangHu" to refer to the place where they can live; it's an underground society of sorts. My interpretation of novels is that the second definition of Jianghu existed in society: its existence makes it so that people can freely kill others without any consequences from the government.

errmm sorry to say this... but, it is totally wrong...

Emperors never use JiangHu to refer to their empire..
JiangHu has its very own rules/laws(to uphold justice), not for lawless people(however there're ruthless people)
it is definitely not an underground society...

My english is bad, so cant make a good description of JiangHu...
JiangHu is a world(it doesnt really exist anywhere,but it's in the mind of people learning martial arts) with all people knowing martial arts.

JiangHu is a place where there're people who learn martial arts and if only they consider themselves JianHu ren(people). There is JiangHu anywhere if there're people who consider themselves JiangHu ren.

[superboy]

This link might help.

http://www.heroic-cinema.com/eric/xia.html

[hermit]

Actually Jiang Hu is a word from (Jiang)xi and Hu(bei) provinces--home of some of the finest martial artists in China.

[Thai guy]

Originally posted by hermit
Actually Jiang Hu is a word from (Jiang)xi and Hu(bei) provinces--home of some of the finest martial artists in China.

What is the different between "wulin" and "jianghu". I think the difference between these two words is quite confusing. For example, "Xiao Ao Jiang Hu", it is the story about wulin, isn't it?

[immakiku]

Originally posted by ”~‹á�á
Emperors never use JiangHu to refer to their empire..
JiangHu has its very own rules/laws(to uphold justice), not for lawless people(however there're ruthless people)
it is definitely not an underground society...

Oh ooops. It was late when I posted . I meant JiangShan for Emperors. JiangHu doesn't necessarily have its own laws. Its citizens can decide the law and take matters into their own hands (for purposes of justice/revenge). Perhaps "underground" was a not the right word; it was the closest word I can think of though. Lawless was also the closest word I can think of. If you read my explanation of what I meant, you'll see that it closely resembles what you just said.

[sixdays]

wulin and jianghu are very similar in some ways, but they are different terms. i'll attempt to describe them now.

jianghu - this refers specifically to the people active in the martial arts community --- a good example of seeing the jianghu world would be at the heroes' feast, or at Master Liu's Golden Basin Washing Ceremony in SoD. basically, you can CHOOSE to be a member of the jianghu community --- but in doing so, you are subject to all the martial arts challenges and revenge attempts that come with living such a life.

wulin - wulin is different in that it describes martial arts, period --- it's not a community of ACTIVE fighters, but a category that includes all topics relating to martial arts.

here's a practical example, if it helps:

when YG came on the scene with XLN as a teenager, he was entering jianghu --- forging relationships in the martial arts community and making his name known. he would mostly wander around and look for opportunities to spread his name, etc. as jianghu members will do.

however, when he left with XLN, he withdrew from jianghu. he no longer cared about the disputes of martial arts members, or would seek to intervene with them. even if another GWM were to emerge, he would do nothing because he wouldn't be aware of it anymore --- he is not a man of the martial arts community.

HOWEVER --- no matter if he leaves jianghu or not, he still is a part of the wulin world, because he is already known. he would be included in lists of the best fighters of all time, etc because he is part of that world. however, he is no longer a "jianghu ren" because he is no longer active in the martial arts community.

in short, jianghu refers to the active members of the martial arts community, while wulin would refer to things RELATED to martial arts.

----

another example:

wulin would be the game of basketball, while jianghu would be the NBA.

wulin refers to the lore, skills, art, history, etc of basketball...while jianghu focuses on the current game of basketball, its players, the championships, etc.

michael jordan belongs in the world of wulin, while shaq is active in jianghu.

---

now substitute the world basketball for "martial arts", and i think you'll get the idea.

[tape]

A question that I've wondering about is how many people are exactly part of JiangHu or Wulin? Beggar's Sect had hundreds of thousands, each of the major sects had thousands, and the smaller sects close to the hundreds. Add in people that do not belong to sects and are free roamers, and people that do not know martial arts at all but through hearsay know about the famous heroes, how many are exactly part of this network? A million? Less? And how large a area does it encompass?

[kamii]

Hahaha! This is a question i've been ponderin for a while as well. I once watched a series, called road for the heroes. In this series there are these 2 people, it's a really long story but i'll cut it short. The 2 people lived with their adoptive father together out in the country where no1 else lives. And these 2 people wanna go to Gong Wu. So they eventually just walk to a city and then they ask is this Gong Wu? All these things happen after they get to Gong Wu and there is a guy who keeps a record of everything that happens in Gong Wu, like martial arts, strong fighters etc. Everywhere he goes he has the pen and book that he writes in. And at the end of the serial they dispatched the Gong Wu so there would be less troubles in the world. They burnt all the records and from then on, no1 knew where Gong Wu was......