This marble funerary stele, originally covered with polychrome pigments, depicts a crowned Laojun seated cross-legged with the hands joint in the front and hidden by his vest's long sleeves. Part of his long tunic drapes neatly in folds onto the plinth underneath, where the names of the deceased have been inscribed in vertical lines.

Laojun, or Lord Lao (or Old Lord), is the anthropomorphic representation of the Dao and the “deified” form of Laozi, mostly encountered in temple veneration. As synonymous with the Dao, he is formless. As the high god of Daoism, paralleling the Jade Emperor in certain contemporary Daoist circles, Lord Lao is usually depicted as an elderly Chinese man residing among the clouds, often with a celestial entourage.
As a deity with the power to appear in different places at different times, Lord Lao gradually became identified with various historical personages. These figures represent the “manifestations” or “transformations” (hua ) of Lord Lao, with perhaps the most famous being a series of eighty-one incarnations. Lord Lao is sometimes identified as Daode tianzun (Celestial Worthy of the Dao and Inner Power).