Over the centuries, "jianghu" gained greater acceptance among the common people and gradually became a term for a sub-society parallel to, and sometimes orthogonal to, mainstream society. This sub-society initially included merchants, craftsmen, beggars and vagabonds, but over time it assimilated bandits, outlaws and gangs who lived "outside the existing law". During the Song and Yuan dynasties, bards and novelists began using the term "jianghu" in the process of creating literature covering a fictional society of adventurers and rebels who lived not by existing societal laws, but by their own moral principles. The core of these moral principles encompassed "xia" (), "yi" (), "li" (), "zhong" () and "chou" (). Stories in this genre bloomed and enriched various interpretations of "jianghu". At the same time, the term "jianghu" also developed intricate interconnections with gang culture because of outlaws' mutually shared distaste towards governments.