In the Water Margin
Hou Jian comes from Hongdu and is the finest tailor around, his needle flying through the cloth. He also loves spear and staff and once took Xue Yong as his teacher. Dark, thin and quick, he is called Long-Armed Ape. When the band that saved Song Jiang at Jiangzhou wants revenge on Huang Wenbing, the retired official who had exposed Song Jiang's rebel poem, Hou Jian happens to be working in Huang's house in Wuwei, sewing clothes for the family.
Xue Yong brings him back to Song Jiang, and Hou Jian tells them everything: how Huang boasted of advising the prefect to behead Song Jiang first and report afterwards, how Huang's house and his brother's stand on one lane with only a vegetable garden between them, and how many people live there. On the night of the raid he leads Xue Yong and Bai Sheng into the town, opens the garden gate so the reeds and firewood can be carried in, and knocks on Huang's door with the story that a neighbour's house is on fire. On Liangshan he is put in charge of making all the banners and robes, and takes seat seventy-one beneath the Disui star.
