The use of lacquer can be traced to some of China's earliest civilizations. Lacquer is the resin of the lac tree (Rhus verniciflua), which is native to central and southern China and may be indigenous to Japan. Objects coated with lacquer are fairly strong and largely impervious to water and pests. Two basic techniques are used to produce lacquerware; each uses a substructure of wood, bamboo, cloth, or metal beneath the lacquer coating. In one method, several thin coats of lacquer are applied to the substructure as decoration or protection, revealing the form beneath. In the other technique, multiple coats of lacquer are built up on the substructure, creating an object that consists primarily of these lacquer coatings. The lacquer is then carved to various depths in order to create a decorative motif or pictorial image. Lacquers made in the second fashion are generally termed 'carved lacquers.'

This elegantly decorated lobed dish provides an example of carved lacquer. This technique seems to have originated during the Southern Song period (1126-1279) and to have flourished during the late 13th and early 15th centuries. A six-character inscription (like a reign mark on a porcelain) incised on the base of this dish dates it to the reign of the Yongle emperor (1403-1424), and the style of the decoration and the high quality of carving are in keeping with this date. The decoration was carved in two layers: three different geometric patterns are used to indicate the sky, water, and paved courtyard, against which a scene of two gentlemen conversing is in relief. The front and back of each of the lobes of the rims are further decorated with carved flowers.

The two men conversing on the terrace belong to a category of Chinese motifs known as 'searching for the truth' (wen dao). Daoist in origin, these scenes usually depict one person asking another for knowledge. Here, the gentleman holding the scepter and seated under a pine tree in the center of the plate represents one of the manifestations of Laozi, the founder of Daoism. The figure seated before him, whose hands are completely covered by his long sleeves in order to show respect, is the supplicant who has come to request instruction. The close similarities between the composition on this dish and that of a painting of the subject by Shirui in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, suggest that the seeker may be Xuanyuan, a name given to both Confucius and the mythical Yellow Emperor of early Chinese history.