After Yang Quanren, the founder of Quanjude, opened the Quanjude Roast Duck Shop, he asked a scholar named Qian Zilong to inscribe a plaque. This plaque has gone through many ups and downs and spanned several dynasties. It has been hanging for more than 130 years. But I wonder if you have noticed that the word "virtue" on the Quanjude plaque is missing a horizontal line. why is that? Please take a guess. Some people guess: Boss Yang invited Qian Zilong over at that time, and the two drank happily. Yang Quanren learned that Qian Zilong's calligraphy was very good, so he immediately took out paper, ink, pen and inkstone and asked Qian Xiucai to write an inscription. Because Qian Xiucai drank two more drinks, he was in a daze and accidentally forgot to write the word "virtue" across the line. Others said: At that time, when Yang Quanren started his business, he hired 13 clerks per day, plus 14 people per day himself. In order to allow everyone to work with peace of mind and work together as one, Qian Xiucai was asked to write one less horizontal line to express that everyone should not have a knife in their hearts. After hearing this, you may ask: Wouldn't adding a horizontal line mean that you are single-minded? These are of course speculations and legends. What's the real reason? It turns out that as early as more than a thousand years ago, "virtue" was like a polyphonic character. It was written with multiple characters and could be written in two ways, with or without a horizontal line. This can be confirmed by the ink marks of famous calligraphers of the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. For example, the word "De" in the "University Stele" written by Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty, which is now erected in the Confucian Temple of the Imperial College in Beijing, does not have a single horizontal line; another example is the word "De" written by Zheng Banqiao, a Qing Dynasty painter who lived at the same time as Quanjude was founded. Some have a horizontal line, and some do not. This shows that in the past, both ways of writing the word "德" were correct. In order to maintain the original historical appearance of the Quanjude plaque, the word "德" on the plaque has always been missing one horizontal line. The above analysis can lead to this conclusion: In the past, there were two ways of writing the word "德", with or without a horizontal line. Both ways of writing were correct. In order to maintain the original historical appearance of its plaques, Quanjude has always lost one horizontal line of the word "德" on its plaques. "Virtue" comes from "彳", which means "action". It can only be experienced and obtained by practice. The right side starts with "Ten Eyes and One Heart". We can understand that "virtue" means that we should follow the path wholeheartedly and follow the path of life without hesitation. It also reminds us that all thoughts and words are in the warning of "what the ten eyes look at and what the ten hands point to". We should be warned at all times to carefully follow the right path in order to move towards a high-quality realm of life. Regarding the reason why the word "德" is written less in the heart - this way of writing is a sign of humility. All the official artifacts in the Xuande and Zhengde years have the inscriptions on them. Regular scripts and seal scripts with the word "德" in them do not have the word "德" in the heart. horizontal. This way of writing is a sign of humility! The ancients were very particular about the writing, usage and meaning of characters. The number of strokes in the word "德" means worship and respect, and the opposite means blasphemy and insult. Others write a few more strokes of the word "virtue", with words such as "high virtue", "great virtue" and "praise of virtue". Others write less, which means being immoral, immoral, disrespectful and other blasphemous and insulting meanings. Use it by yourself or represent yourself, and write less to be modest and unassuming. This is especially true for people who believe in Buddhism. For example, they will never talk about how profound they are or how perfect their practice is. They will always leave a certain amount of space and leeway for themselves. Even if you have good moral character and high moral prestige, it must be said by others, but it is always better to be humble and humble yourself. Therefore, the word "virtue" represents oneself and less writing means modesty and humility. It has such meaning.