The source "Shan Hai Jing Hai Nei Nan Jing": "Bashu eats elephants and bones at the age of three."
Qu Yuan's Tian Wen, written by Chu in the Warring States Period, said, "What a big deal if a snake swallows an elephant?"
Luo Hongxian's poem: "The human heart is insufficient, the snake swallows the elephant, and the world will eventually catch the cicada." (Hao's popular compilation of birds and fish)
Synonym: greed.
An insatiable person is like a snake trying to swallow an elephant.
Relevant historical allusions
"The snake swallows the elephant without heart" comes from the "Ba snake swallows the elephant" in Shan Hai Jing Hai Nei Nan Jing. The original meaning of "Ba Snake Swallows Elephant" is that a big snake wants to swallow elephant. Metaphor means that some people are insatiable and have more than one can chew. Bashu is a big snake. "A hungry snake swallowed an elephant" means that when people are greedy, they will be killed by their own arrogant selfish desires.
After "Ba Snake Swallows Elephant", there really happened a true story of "Ba Snake Swallows Elephant" in ancient China, but it was not a snake swallowing elephant, but a snake swallowing people. This story is exactly the same as the meaning of "snake swallowing elephant", so there is a saying that "snake swallowing elephant has no heart"
The word "elephant" in the sentence "the human heart is not enough to swallow an elephant" refers to people. The word "elephant" is used because the snake swallowed a person from an official to a prime minister, not an elephant. "Xiang" and "Xiang" have the same pronunciation and tone, so people will be more impressed when they understand the word "Xiang", which has more cultural connotation than "Ba snake swallowing elephant".
Baidu Encyclopedia-Snake Swallows Elephants Lack People's Heart