cashew | The many meanings of 江湖

OK, so I realized previously things probably got confusing because the phrase 江湖 is used in many different genres of works and depending on the genre, it's talking about different concepts.

In geography, 江湖 just means waterways.

In colloquial speech, 江湖 refers to something that's "unregulated", see 江湖医生.

In governance, 江湖 refers to pirates.

In historical period dramas, 江湖 refers to "the land", because who owns the land is...confusing in Chinese history due to the many, many governments that have established, split, and united the land. So 江湖 is serves as a generic name to refer to the chunk of land and the people on it that will play a role in the story.

In politicking dramas, 江湖 refers to "the outlaws".

And finally, in Wuxia, 江湖 refers to the anarchic society that's outside of the government's control, which runs on a might-makes-right philosophy.

There are some adjacent concepts that sort of overlap but aren't really equivalent. For example, 武林 just refers to the collective of martial arts schools. Some individuals of 武林 might be in 江湖, but 武林 is not part of 江湖 and is a highly regulated society. Meanwhile, 黑社会, which is basically the "outlaw society", serves as an alternative form of governance, with its own rules and regulations and leaders and territories separated from the legal government. These people might go in and out of 江湖, but they are also not 江湖.

I've noticed that a lot of Wuxia writers seem to conflate the concept of 江湖 and 黑社会...which results in this weird "mini government in an anarchic society" situation.