Dish with overglaze enamelled decoration of Laozi mounted on a buffalo

Also produced in Jingdezhen for the Japanese market in the late Ming dynasty, the dish features the buffalo-riding Laozi, dressed in green, with a ruyi-scepter in his hand. The scene was taken from the allegory in Shiji (or Records of the Grand Historian), in which Laozi was said to have written the Tao Te Ching at his departure from the declining Zhou kingdom when the border official Yin Xi dissuaded him from leaving. The mount buffalo was a detail added in later versions of the story and the beast has eventually become an icon associated with the philosopher. In some pictorial representations, Laozi departs on a luxurious bullock carriage attended by servants. In Late Ming paintings and prints, nevertheless, it was more common for Laozi to be on the buffalo on his own, showing his sense of ease and freedom. The motif gained the connotation of longevity in the Song dynasty and has been used to express birthday blessings.