Chang 'e was once regarded as a toad in ancient times. Why was it later regarded as a goddess?

The ancients celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival, and everyone with a family went home. Those who have no home and cannot go home look at the moon. Looking at the moon will naturally be associated with Chang 'e, the earliest female astronaut in China.

In fact, in ancient times, such a beautiful woman as Chang 'e was not only regarded as a space hero, but even as a thief who abandoned her husband. Zhang Heng in the Eastern Han Dynasty wrote in Lingxian that Chang 'e was the wife of Hou Yi, who stole the elixir of the Queen Mother and went to the moon with Huang (an ancient wizard) to prepare (a fortune-telling way), which was called "good luck". Who knows that on the moon, she became a toad (that is, a toad)! Some people think, why did the ancients think toad was ugly? I think, from an evolutionary point of view, although frogs were sacred and worshipped by ancestors in ancient times, ancestors would not regard toads with rugged bodies, small heads, small eyes and big bellies as a reference for beauty. Moreover, the ancient people's respect for tigers, snakes and other wild animals is a kind of "respect" for them and a helpless strategy for fearing their harm and poison. Therefore, it is untenable for the ancients to regard toads as beautiful because of different aesthetic standards.

So why did the ancients turn beautiful women into toads? It must contain the meaning of condemnation. According to folklore, Hou Yi, who was sent to earth by the Jade Emperor, was originally a god, but after completing the task, heaven refused to let him return because of one thing that offended the Jade Emperor. In this case, Hou Yi retired to the second best, asked the Queen Mother for the medicine of immortality, and decided to be an immortal mortal couple with his wife Chang 'e.

But Chang 'e refused to do it, so she acted alone. Cunning Zhang Heng also added a passage in Lingxian ... I want to go back to my sister, I will go west alone, and I will be prosperous in the future. The word "return" reveals that Chang 'e is also a fairy, and running to the moon is just "going home". Zhang Heng's "Return to Tibet" is the earliest record from the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon's textual research to the early years of the Warring States Period: "Yesterday, Chang 'e took the fairy medicine of the Western Queen Mother, so the moon was the essence. "Should also be the old saying,' husband and wife are birds in the same forest, and if they are in trouble, they will fly separately'. "So, even the fairy who abandoned her husband to fly solo in times of crisis will be condemned. Therefore, before the Six Dynasties, Chang 'e's image always belonged to "a thief who abandoned his wife", so it is not surprising that people regarded her as a toad.

However, Chang 'e on the moon soon became lonely and gradually aroused the sympathy of ordinary literati. Li Bai, a great poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote the first poem "Let Wine Go Month by Month": "The white rabbit is used as medicine to revive in autumn, and Chang 'e lives alone in the neighborhood. "Du Fu sighed:" Considering the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon, it is cold in nine autumn. " Li Shangyin took the lead: "Su E, a young woman, was frozen in the cold, and there was a frost battle in the middle of the month ..." After the literati in the Tang Dynasty opened the prelude to the reversal of Chang 'e's case, people's attitude towards Chang 'e gradually changed.

In particular, Su Dongpo, a great writer in the Song Dynasty, wrote "When is the bright moon?" I take my glass from a distance. I don't know the palace in the sky, and I don't know the month and time. I'm willing to ride the wind to the sky, I'm afraid I can't stand the cold for nine days in a pavilion of fine jade. Dance to find out what shadows look like on the earth. The moon turned into a scarlet pavilion, hanging low on the carved window, shining on the sleepy self. The moon should not have any resentment against people. Why is it round when people are gone? People are sad and happy, and they are separated and reunited. The moon will darken or shine, and it will become round or round. Nothing is perfect, even in the past. I hope that people will last for a long time, and Chang 'e will completely change from a toad to a goddess envied by everyone.

However, it will be interesting to examine the process of Chang 'e from "black" to "white" and from toad to goddess. Because it seems that people who are willing to exonerate Chang 'e and reverse his conviction through the ages know the law and are very good at "presumption of guilt": Chang 'e will not elope with the elixir for no reason, but there is only one possibility, and there will be a serious crisis in the relationship between husband and wife. So the original sin was set on Hou Yi. In ancient books and many folklores, such as Jing Xun in Huainan, Youyang Handyman and The Story of a Ranger in the Ming Dynasty, the lavatory of keeping a mistress, struggling hard and ignoring the family has been put on Hou Yi's head one after another, and modern film and television dramas have been basically created according to this routine. In this way, who else will condemn Chang 'e?

In fact, Chang 'e's transformation from a toad to a goddess has nothing to do with Chang 'e itself, but it is entirely determined by the attitude of future generations, but it also shows that "sympathy for the weak" and "exploring the moon" have been the morality and dream of the Chinese nation since ancient times.