3rd-century lacquer plate reveals noble lifestyle of ancient China

What was life like for Chinese nobility over 1,700 years ago? You can find answers in this lacquer plate from the Kingdom of Wu (222-280) during the Three Kingdoms (220-280) period.

Inside the plate, 12 figures are seen engaged in different activities: banqueting, grooming, playing chess, falconry, and (highly probably) an outing.

As one of the few surviving pictorial records from the Three Kingdoms period, this lacquer plate, unearthed in 1984 from the Zhu Ran tomb in Anhui’s Ma'anshan, offers invaluable evidence for understanding the life, culture, and art of that era. It is currently housed in the Zhu Ran Family Tomb Museum of the Three Kingdoms in Ma'anshan.