Why was Chang 'e once regarded as a toad in ancient times?

Because in ancient times, people regarded Chang 'e as a thief from the beginning. In a book written by the Eastern Han Dynasty, Chang 'e was originally the wife of Hou Yi. I stole the elixir of the Queen Mother and once ran to the moon to tell the fortune teller's fortune. Originally divination was auspicious, but I didn't expect to become a toad on the moon after running to the moon.

Some people have put forward the view that toad is an extremely ugly animal in the eyes of modern people. But in the eyes of the ancients, frogs were symbols of God. But this statement is untenable, because the ancients were afraid and awed by such behemoths as tigers and wolves, and toads really had nothing to fear.

There is also a saying that calling Chang 'e a toad is actually a condemnation of him. In folklore, Hou Yi was originally a god, because one thing offended the jade emperor, and heaven refused to let him return. Hou Yi settled for second best and asked the heavenly queen for the elixir. I want to be an ordinary couple with Chang 'e, who would have thought that Chang 'e went in and swallowed Dan medicine privately? The word devil is used in the literature to record Chang 'e's behavior, which shows that she is also a fairy. Even the gods who abandoned their husbands in times of crisis will be condemned. Before the Six Dynasties, people always regarded Chang 'e as a thief, so it was no exaggeration to regard Chang 'e as a toad.

However, the image of Chang 'e appeared in the poems of later poets. At first, some people defended Chang 'e, and later this incident gradually evolved into Chang 'e accidentally taking Dan medicine and regretting it every day in Guanghan Palace.