Li Ji puts a basket of sweet-smelling rice cakes to draw the serpent out of its hideout, and while it is distracted by the food, unleashes the dog on the animal.
[23] Some scholars interpret the tale as a contrast of Li Ji's bravery against the ineffectualness of the male village officers, who preferred to obey the serpent instead of trying to fight it.
[25] It has also been suggested that the snake foe (a python with supernatural powers, in some accounts) may represent an old local deity with serpentine form, and the sacrifice of virginal maidens merits comparison to fertility rites.
[26] As a new belief system was being diffused through the country, the old animal-shaped divinities were subject to a process of religious reformation that demoted them to adversarial roles of the newcomer human-like deities.
[27][28] In the same vein, the tale could be related to a phenomenon researcher Wu Chunming named "suppression of the snake", brought about by "Sinnitic immigrants to the region".