This vessel’s shape identifies it as a rare example of a lacquer rice measure. Adorning each of its sides is a Daoist figure in a landscape. The man riding a black ox is Laozi (ca. sixth century B.C.), the reputed author of the Daode jing (The Classic of the Way and Its Virtue) and one of the seminal deities in the Daoist religion. The other three figures, as yet unidentified, are attended by animals: a dragon, a dog, and a goat.