Hou Jian is a fictional character in Water Margin, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, nicknamed "Long Armed Ape".
Skinny and dexterous, Hou Jian is nicknamed "Long Armed Ape" both for his appearance and his slick skill in needlework.
Hou Jian is hired to work as a tailor in the house of Huang Wenbing, a petty government official in the garrison town of Wuwei near to Jiangzhou.
Huang one day stumbles upon a seditious poem that Song Jiang, who is living as an exiled prisoner in Jiangzhou, has written on a wall in a restaurant when drunk.
In a flank attack by a waterway led by Ruan Xiaoqi during the campaign against Fang La, Hou Jian, a non-swimmer, drowns when his boat overturns after being swept into the open sea by a storm.