Original Text
In Guangdong province, there was a hunter who went into the mountains with his bow and arrows. By chance, he lay down to rest and fell into a deep sleep, only to be seized by an elephant's trunk and carried away; he thought he would surely be killed by the beast. Before long, the elephant set him down beneath a tree, then lowered its head and let out a cry, whereupon a herd of elephants gathered around him, all seeming to entreat him for something. The elephant that had carried him there knelt under the tree, lifting its head to gaze up at the branches and then lowering it to look at the hunter, as if urging him to climb. The hunter understood the elephant's intent, so he stepped onto its back and scrambled up into the tree. Once at the top, he still did not know what the elephant wanted. Soon, a lion-like beast called a suanni arrived, and all the elephants prostrated themselves on the ground. The suanni selected a plump elephant and prepared to devour it. The herd trembled in terror, none daring to flee, but they all looked up at the tree together, as if begging the hunter for mercy and rescue. The hunter grasped their meaning, drew his bow, and shot the suanni, which fell dead instantly. The elephants gazed toward the sky, as if bowing in thanks and dancing with joy. The hunter then descended from the tree. The elephant knelt again and tugged at his clothing with its trunk, as if inviting him to mount. So the hunter straddled its back, and the elephant set off. When they reached a certain place, the elephant scraped open a hole in the ground with its hoof, revealing many ivory tusks. The hunter dismounted, bound the tusks together, and loaded them onto the elephant's back. The elephant carried the hunter and the ivory out of the mountains, and then returned on its own.
Commentary
This is a fable about a hunter who receives a good reward for helping elephants eliminate the threat of lions, yet it lacks authenticity. In the animal kingdom, although lions are carnivorous and aggressive, a single lion would not attack a herd of elephants, and even if it did, it would not prevail. Only when lions band together to attack a single elephant might they succeed. In nature, the phenomenon of a herd of elephants fearing lions does not occur.
The reason the story is written in such a manner stems partly from the fact that literary truth does not equal natural truth, and partly from Pu Songling never having seen a lion or an elephant, relying only on hearsay.