What is Giang Hu lifestyle in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon?

Answer 1

This loosely-knit brotherhood of martial artists, thieves, Opera performers, monks, security guards, prostitutes, professional soldiers, and beggars comprised a secret society, a shadow or dark mirror image of conventional society. Jiang Hu members recognized each other via a complex system of secret signs and signals - a newcomer visiting an inn, for example, could arrange chopsticks and teacup in a certain pattern on his tabletop if he wished to contact the local affiliates. "Jiang Hu" (or "Giang Hu") literally means "rivers and lakes", and refers to the itinerant status of many Jiang Hu members. Stories of the Jiang Hu emphasize the complex web of obligations and feuds that proliferated in the shadow world and were refered to as "the love/hate relationships of the martial world".

According to an essay on the world of the Jiang Hu written by Ng Ho and translated in A Study of the Hong Kong Swordplay Film (1945-1980), there were three classes of members. The highest rank was composed of scholar-officials, who were given titles within the society (e.g. commissioners, prefects, and magistrates) that corresponded to distribution of power in the outside world. These officials could also hold positions of power in general society.

The middle rank included such diverse but respectable occupations as doctors, fortune-tellers, musicians, itinerant Chess-players, calligraphers and painters, monks, and Taoist priests. Not all monks, musicians, etc., were members of the Jiang Hu, but if they were, they joined at this level.

The lowest rank of Jiang Hu included criminals such as burglars and robbers, brothel owners, and drug traffickers; as well as actors, conjurers, jugglers, and, remarkably enough, barbers. Each profession can be further broken down in sub ranks. For example, burglars who specialized in climbing over walls were called fan gao tou, those who pried open doors were called pai sai, and those who preferred to enter via the roof were called Kai tian chuang.

Although the Jiang Hu society operated outside of the law and not only tolerated but also plotted with and protected lawbreakers, a segment of the membership took it upon themselves to offer protection from evildoers, perhaps operating on the maxim that "it takes one to know one". The profession of biao shi, or security escort, is perhaps the prototypical Jiang Hu occupation. (See Yu Shu Lien in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.) Ho quotes a story illustrating the intertwining bonds of obligation that could arise: