Original Text
A merchant from Zhou Village traveled to Wuhu to conduct business and earned a substantial profit. He hired a boat to return home, and upon seeing a butcher on the riverbank tying up a dog, he paid more than double the price to purchase the animal and kept it on the vessel. The boatman, a habitual bandit, secretly observed the merchant's heavy luggage and steered the boat into a reed thicket, raising a knife to kill him. The merchant begged to be left with an intact corpse, so the robber wrapped him in a felt blanket and cast him into the river. The dog, witnessing this, wailed and leaped into the water, gripping the felt blanket with its teeth, drifting together with the merchant downstream. They floated for who knows how many miles until they ran aground and came to a stop.
After the dog emerged from the water, it ran to a place where people were gathered, wailing mournfully. Someone, finding this strange, followed it and saw a felt bundle floating in the river. They pulled it out and cut the ropes binding it. The merchant was still alive and recounted the robbery to everyone. He then begged a boatman to take him back to Wuhu, where he could wait for the pirates' vessel to return. Once aboard the boat, the merchant noticed the dog was gone, and his heart ached with grief. Arriving in Wuhu, he searched for three or four days, but though merchant ships were as numerous as a forest, the pirate ship was nowhere to be seen.
It happened that a fellow villager who was a merchant was preparing to take the trader back home, when the dog suddenly returned on its own; seeing the trader, it barked loudly, and when the trader called to it, it ran away. The trader disembarked and followed it, and saw the dog leap onto a boat, seize a man by the calf with its teeth, and refuse to let go despite being beaten. The trader stepped forward to shout at it, and upon looking, saw that the dog had bitten the very robber. This robber had changed both his clothes and his boat, making him difficult to recognize. The trader bound him and searched him, and found that the silver taken on that day was still there.
Alas! Even a dog can thus repay its benefactor. Those in this world who are ungrateful and heartless, upon seeing this dog's conduct, should surely feel ashamed!
Commentary
"Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio" depicts animal repayment of kindness in two major categories. One category primarily involves foxes, who transform into humans, mostly female, and either help their benefactors avoid disaster through human actions or form families with them to continue their lineage. The other category features common animals such as dogs, wolves, and tigers, who repay human kindness through their own natural behaviors. In this tale, after the loyal dog is rescued by Jia, it uses its canine specialty—swimming—to save Jia when he encounters danger, and relies on its sense of smell to track down enemies, thus completing its repayment of gratitude to Jia.