In the Water Margin
Yan Shun comes from Laizhou in Shandong. He began as a dealer in sheep and horses, lost his capital and fell into banditry, and is known as Elegant Tiger. With Wang Ying and Zheng Tianshou he holds Qingfeng Mountain. One night his men bring in a captured traveller to be killed for a sobering broth.
As the knife is raised the prisoner sighs that Song Jiang must die here. Hearing the name, Yan Shun cuts him loose and kneels: he has long revered the man. Song Jiang stays on the mountain, and when the fighting around Qingfeng Fort makes the place untenable, Yan Shun leads his band to Liangshan. He takes seat fifty beneath the Diqiang star.
