Jianghu (jee-ahng-hoo)

Jianghu is a Dayang term that generally is used by artists to refer to a romanticized version of the empire's history used by writers and poets. In that vein, it has been used almost synonymously with the Daiin term of Ukiyo. Where the Ukiyo is used to describe the entertainments of the "Floating World," the the transient sights, sounds, and pleasures of the urban, red-light districts, Jianghu is used to describe something which is largely illusory. A romanticized version of the empire's past. A world of feuding martial arts clans, masterless warriors who wander the countryside performing good deeds, noble bandits fighting oppressive regimes, and bureaucrats only evil due to some form of possession. Where the hero always wins and the villains are punished.
In everyday parlance, however, this term is most often used as a flip-side to the Ukiyo. If the Ukiyo is the drinking, laughing, and debauchery of the pleasure houses, drinking establishments, gambling dens, and food stalls, then the Jianghu is its dark underbelly. It is the world of thugs, criminal gangs, confidence artists, humanoid trafficking, illicit brotherhoods, and secret societies which operate in many of the same places.