Jianghu means 'rivers and lakes'. In martial-arts fiction it is the society of fighters, sects, clans, outlaws and wanderers, a fictionalised China that exists beside the official world of courts and officials. It has its own codes of loyalty, honour and revenge. Wuxia takes place there, and a story is said to be 'in the jianghu' even when the town is a village. Word of Honor is a road story through it.
Dramas
Where it comes up
The Road to Splendor: When the Household Drama Becomes a Road Story
A guide to the Tencent Video costume drama The Road to Splendor: a noblewoman condemned by her own family flees with a salt smuggler, Ding Yuxi and Deng Enxi lead, and a household story turns into a salt-corruption case.
Word of Honor: A Wuxia Road Story About a Man Who Left His Organization With Three Years to Live
A guide to the 2021 Youku wuxia series Word of Honor: a secret-organization chief who leaves at a deadly price, the Ghost Valley lord he meets on the road, and how a Priest novel's jianghu became the first two-male-lead drama of 2021.