Join us and you can be just like people in the 黑社会 which translates to "Triad Society" in English, but literally means "Black Society".
Triads themselves like to be called 江湖 "Jiang Hu" which literally translates as "Rivers and Lakes".
The famous novel from the time of the Ming Dynasty The Water Margin spells out what a Jiang Hu is, he can be a martial artist/ potential criminal, but most importantly lives by a code of conduct of honor and loyalty.
The Jiang Hu (as seen in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) get early mention in Szima Chien's ancient Han Dynasty history "Annals of the Grand Historian" a history left unfinished by his father. In it he describes how they have a tendency to drink hard, make friends quickly, fight at the drop of a hat, and recognize one another by reputation and fame. And that "sometimes in life you may find yourself in need of such men." What he doesn't mention in his History was an incident from his real life. As a high minister, Szima Chien could advise the Emperor and once intervened on behalf of a loyal General who was seen as a traitor as he defected to the side of the Dynasty's enemies. He argued that knowing the General to be of honor, he was probably working as a mole to infiltrate and destroy their enemy from within. The Emperor furious at being contradicted, ordered Chien to come up with a huge sum of cash, or be castrated. Not knowing any Jiang Hu who could extend him so much cash in such short notice no questions asked, he was castrated. Later he turned out to be correct, as the General destroyed the enemy from within. Once he was released from imprisonment, typically a scholar-gentlemen would commit suicide out of shame, but specifically did not in order to fulfill his father's dying wish to finish the History. So, he stayed on as a palace eunuch and finished his history (which while doubted by most Western Historians, his details have, in fact, been VERIFIED by archaeological finds)! However, his great achievements and ultimately being right was little consolation, and so he takes the time to bemoan in his history that it may come to pass that a person may indeed find himself in need of such men!
From Szuma Chien's Records of the Historian translated by Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang (1974), Chapter 124 (Shiji 124) from Han II:
"Too upright to pander to the age, they were laughed at in their day. They lived all their lives in bare rooms with matting doors, content with coarse garments and the simplest fare. Now more than four hundred years have passed since their death, yet their disciples still commemorate them.
As for the gallant citizens, although they do not always do what is right, their word can be trusted. They keep all their promises, honour all their pledges, and hasten to rescue those in distress regardless of their own safety. They risk their lives without boasting, not stooping to speak of their good deeds. So there is much to be said for them, especially as anyone may find himself in trouble sooner or later!...
'The man who steals a knife is killed but the man who steals a kingdom is ennobled, and virtue and justice are on the side of the nobles....'
But when common citizens pledge themselves to a just cause and will travel a thousand miles to die for it, not caring what the world thinks, this has its merits too. Such men have not lived for nothing. That is why people who are hard pressed entrust their fate to them, for these are worthy and outstanding men... The main thing is that they do all they promise, proving as good as their word. How can the world belittle such men?...
As for the gangs and powerful families who band together and use their wealth to enslave the poor and bully the weak and helpless, with no thought of anything but their own pleasure, such men are also despised by the gallant citizens. I consider it a pity that no distinction is generally made between the two, and that men class Chu Chia and Kuo Hsieh with those local bullies and sneer at both groups."
They live by their own law or code called Xia. And the subset of Jiang Hu who know martial arts is called Wulin (often the world inhabited by characters in the Wuxia novels/ movies).
Interestingly one more ancient (though often unacknowledged) mention of Jiang Hu ("Rivers and Lakes") is actually in the ancient Taoist philosophy's most interesting writer Chuang Tzu. It is contained within a passage about longevity, immortality, and survival!
Another possible interpretation of the term Jiang Hu as being rivers and lakes is that rivers and lakes form at the lowest point where all the water collects and that civilization, indeed human life, cannot survive without it! So the Jiang Hu collect at society's lowest points yet is fundamental for its survival!
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