動物報恩故事向因其重情重義的敘事內容，予人敦品勵德、仁洽萬物之閱聽感受，唐代大象報恩故事亦然。但若檢視其題材淵源與創變，實可發現文本縫隙裡耐人尋味的文化倒影與時代脈動。本文以五篇唐代文本為考察對象，追溯其與漢典、佛經之承衍關係，並就援助情節所述「拔刺」、「除獸」及「吞象怪獸」原型，考其由來與嬗變。其事或本諸佛經慈悲護生理念，然在結局處卻直承漢典事例作風，強化豐厚報償與人事描寫。其所羽蛻新出之餽贈內容—象牙—實胚根於唐代物質習尚，此類故事亦因此成了唐人酷嗜象牙的欲望鏡像。此外，《廣異記》所收兩則故事更於文章後半特書象牙「貿易」與「貢獻」，並透過角色位階之設定，隱含中心對邊陲的政治論述；故事時間所指涉之盛世記憶，乃立身中唐的作者假託文學表述而重建家國自信的嘗試。要言之，唐代大象報恩故事誠已在既有道德意涵外，展現唐帝國更深層的精神面貌。
All the time, the animal repayment stories made an impression of kindness and harmony by their affectionate plot. And so is the “elephant repayment” stories in Tang Dynasty. However, when we inquired into the origin and innovation about the type of story, we would find some thought-provoking thing in the text’s cracks, cultural reflection, pulse of the times, for instance. This essay took five Tang Dynasty texts as the investigated object, to retrace their relationship with the Chinese books and the Buddhist Scriptures, and to look at their inheritance and transformation for the plot which described helping elephants, pulling out the thorn, killing the monster included. In addition, the archetype of monster that swallowed elephants is also inspected. The kind of story may be based on the Buddhist philosophy of compassion and animal protection, however, they followed the style of Chinese books in the ending, intensified their generous rewards and human affairs description. The new plot they transformed that described elephants gifted ivories is rooted in the fashion of the Tang Dynasty, therefore, the kind of story has become the mirror image of the Tang people’s ivory addiction. Besides, the two stories in “Guangyiji” are especially worth mentioning, in the latter part of the works, the “trade” and “Tribute” of ivories are particularly described, and through the character class setting, they expressed the center’s political discourse on the border. The memory of flourishing age referred by story time is the author’s attempt to rebuild the self-confidence of country in Mid-Tang. Briefly, in addition to the original moral meaning, the “elephant repayment” stories in Tang Dynasty showed the deeper spiritual outlook of the Tang Empire.
