King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “triads”

江湖
jiāng hú
rivers and lakes; all corners of the country; remote areas to which hermits retreat; section of society operating independently of mainstream society, out of reach of the law; the milieu in which wuxia tales play out (cf. 武侠 (wǔ xiá)); (in late imperial times) world of traveling merchants, itinerant doctors, fortune tellers etc; demimonde

The closest CC-CEDICT match for triads is 江湖 (jiāng hú), defined as: rivers and lakes; all corners of the country; remote areas to which hermits retreat; section of society operating independently of mainstream society, out of reach of the law; the milieu in which wuxia tales play out (cf. 武侠 (wǔ xiá)); (in late imperial times) world of traveling merchants, itinerant doctors, fortune tellers etc; demimonde; (in modern times) triads; secret gangster societies; underworld.

Before using these characters for a tattoo, check them with a native speaker. Dictionary words often have several meanings, and the right choice depends on context.

Characters and stroke order

江 jiāng
large river; the Yangtze; surname
radical 85 ⽔ · 6 strokes
湖 hú
lake; Hubei, Hunan; bluish-green
radical 85 ⽔ · 12 strokes

Related words

Other words that share a character with 江湖.

WordPinyinMeaning
江山jiāng shānrivers and mountains; landscape
江河jiāng hériver
沿江yán jiāngalong the river; the region around the river
江水jiāng shuǐriver water
江边 (江邊)jiāng biānriver bank
湖泊hú pōlake
湖边 (湖邊)hú biānlakeside
湖畔hú pànlakeside

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3); Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License (graphics.txt); LGPL-3.0-or-later (dictionary.txt)); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.

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