1, Oracle Bone Inscriptions.
2. Bronze inscription, seal script and official script.
3. Regular script, running script, cursive script and standard song style.
We can see at a glance from the contemporary print and computer bodies that the word "de" has a horizontal "heart", which seems to be indisputable. The word "de" we see in copybooks or when we look at calligraphy works is basically horizontal.
The reason why the word "De" is written is not simple, but it reflects the evolution of this word in the history of China. Except Oracle Bone Inscriptions, it is hard to find. The earliest writing method of the word "De" can be found in the bronze ware "Mai Yi" in the Zhou Dynasty. "Double-sided" has the word "four" written on only one side, with no "ten" on it, no "one" on the bottom and no "heart".
In the late Western Zhou Dynasty, Mao's writing was similar to that of later generations, but there was no horizontal character "De". From the pre-Qin Dynasty to the Han, Wei, Six Dynasties and then to the Sui and Early Tang Dynasties, the writing styles of Da Zhuan, Xiao Zhuan, bamboo slips and silk scripts, as well as Han Li and Weibei's "De" remained unchanged.
Tang Gaozu Tang Gaozu once wrote an article "Praying for Men's Illness and Relief", in which the word "virtue" in "family size" is horizontal. The rubbings of inscriptions have been recorded in the history of calligraphy in China. From the inscriptions and postscripts of classical calligraphy in past dynasties, it is found that there are occasional horizontal paintings in regular script (such as Yan Zhenqing), but there are almost no horizontal paintings in running script.
It can be seen that the middle of the word "de" is written with horizontal lines, which was only in the middle of the Tang Dynasty. Li was a great calligrapher in Tang Dynasty, who studied the variations of Xiao Zhuan in Qin Dynasty. In his seal script Qian, the word "De" of "Delhi" is added in the middle.
This is the beginning of the horizontal word "de". Li's "little action" can be regarded as the "initiator", and soon calligraphers wrote it on the tablet of Jianfu Temple.
The word "de" is also underlined. So in the middle Tang Dynasty, the word "de" with horizontal lines appeared in seal script, but new variant characters appeared in calligraphy, which is not common in standard documents. For example, the inscription "Guo Fujun's epitaph" in the Tang Dynasty is a regular script, and the word "de" has no horizontal line, which can be considered as an example of common writing in the Tang Dynasty.