Jianghu
''
Jianghu'' () is a
Chinese term that generally refers to the
social environment in which many Chinese ''
wuxia'', ''
xianxia'', and ''
gong'an'' stories are set. The term is used flexibly, and can be used to describe a fictionalized version of rural
historical China (usually using loose influences from across the ~1000 BC–280 AD period); a setting of feuding
martial arts clans and the people of that community; a
secret and possibly
criminal underworld; a general sense of the "mythic world" where fantastical stories happen; or some combination thereof. A closely related term, ''wulin'' (武林; wǔlín; 'martial forest'), refers exclusively to the community of martial artists that inhabit a ''jianghu'' setting. The term ''wulin'' has been borrowed into
Korean as ''murim'' (무림) to refer to fiction set in Chinese-inspired martial arts worlds.
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